Bicyclistic

A new delight in the blogging world of late is Desked… Because of the beauty of a very simple concept - show us your desk, your place where your computer sits while you weave your blogging magic.

There’s a wonderful array of messy and stylish desks up there - go have a nose around.

I’ve waited until now to spread the news of course, because now I’ve been desked

My studio is in a cobbled stableyard in an estate that runs from the edge of the River Liffey to the top of the Liffey Valley in a beautiful corner of Dublin West quiet close to County Kildare.

I’ve already shown you some shots of inside my studio, so here are some shots of the extraordinary exterior surroundings of the studio.

It’s a working stableyard, so there’s the odd horse:

I probably mentioned it can be a bit cold in winter, but have I mentioned it’s glorious when the weather is sunny and warm. That’s my space up there, with the boxes that have followed me around the globe:

All sides of the yard I like looking at, for probably too long:

Half doors are the business:

Every day I love riding my bike in here:

Being a working stable, it has a paddock. I don’t ride my bike in here:

The bike is very fond of the yard:

The yard is cobbled, and I just love walking on cobblestones. Some days I go out and walk around the yard just to, well, walk around the yard:

The centre of the yard has a working well and it’s almost finished being restored. This is the view of it from my studio:

Currently I’m the only artist in the yard, but there may well be more studios available before too long - follow me on twitter to keep appraised of possible studios.

See also the inside of my studio.

When I got home from the studio last night there was a nice surprise waiting for me - notification that I’ve won a poster of Dun Laoghaire’s east pier with “The Crevasse” by Edgar Muellar painted on it, and the poster is signed by the artist.

I don’t know that I’ve ever been so far out with answers and still won.

The painting of “The Crevasse” was part of The “Festival of World Culture” which took place in Dun Laoghaire in August 2008. Dun Laoghaire Piers rhymes with the sticky-out ears of Shane MacGowan.

Groovy stuff. Thanks to Le Craic

-Do you know the weir in Lucan?
-Is it a pub?
-No
-A restaurant?
-No
-What is it?
-It’s a…weir

I used to post a lot of Irish conversations

For Painting Giveaway #4 I asked you what was the name of the finished painting that started off looking like this first picture:

Although it might not seem like it, I knew what the finished painting would look like at this stage.

And for those who thought it looked like a map, specifically of Australia, you weren’t a million miles away. You were thousands.

This is what happened next.

And the finished painting:

Yes, that’s Genoa. So the winning answer was the 16th answer submitted, and that came from Siobhan.

Congratulations! I’ll drop you an email to make sure, but you can go ahead and choose a painting from the prizepool.

Note that the paintings in the prizepool vary greatly in size - from 20×16 inches down to 3×2 inches. I plan to add brand new paintings to it in time for the next giveaway, and ultimately to grow it up to between 50 and 100 paintings.

I really enjoyed this particular giveaway competition, so I plan to do more just like it. Keep an eye on Bicyclistic to spot the giveaways when they occur.

Yesterday my IrishKC site turned 3 years old. Somewhere in those 3 years is a picture of the finished version of this painting pictured here.

This is the very beginning of the painting, so it may look nothing at all like this in its finished form. Or it may.

The first person to leave a comment below telling me the name of the finished painting gets a painting of their choice for free from the prizepool.

I’m not sure how long I’ll leave this open for - it depends on the guesses I suppose.

ImageKind, who I sell Prints of my paintings through, are currently running a Free Shipping promotion. (applies to US ground shipping only)

Use promo code: REFRESH1 (expires March 9th 2009 midnight PST)

These are the paintings that were exhibited in the Cork International Airport Hotel at the 2009 Irish Blog Awards.

Click on the paintings for larger views and payment details.

Pegli (30×30ins, 1,150 EUR)	Elevator, Sunday (40×30ins, 950 EUR)
Ballina II SOLD (16×12ins)	Waterford SOLD (16×12ins)
Sheep, Stone Wall SOLD (10×10ins, 90 EUR)	Cliffs of Moher III SOLD (10×10ins)
Stone Cottage SOLD (24×12ins, 150 EUR)	The Claddagh SOLD (20×16ins, 150 EUR)
Genoa SOLD (24×18ins)	Stone Walls and the Grass is Green II (16×12ins, 100 EUR)
Ireland, Pink and Blue SOLD (10×8ins)	Rosmuc, An Aill Bhuí (24×8ins, AUCTIONED for charity)
Water Tower SOLD at IBA ‘09 (18×18ins)	Kenmare SOLD at IBA ‘09 (16×12ins)

I’ve left out 3 paintings previously seen before.

Some of these paintings were also subsequently shown, along with newer paintings, at the Intonations Art Exhibition in the 2009 Rathmines Festival.

If you have any questions you can leave a comment below or contact me by email to eolai [at] irishkc [dot] com, or even better, through twitter @eolai

The paintings that were exhibited at the Irish Blog Awards will be put online for sale tomorrow, Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at the same prices they were shown at in Cork, and then on Monday, March 9 I’ll end the sale and increase the prices by about 20%.

There were 17 paintings exhibited at the 2009 IBA; 2 paintings sold and one is currently being auctioned for charity (ends Mar 5 at 16:23 GMT).

It was about 2 years ago. I was painting something, a picture, when I went to the tea pot and then on to the jax. It wasn’t a very big journey in my little American house, but nonetheless I took the paintbrush I was currently using with me.

Unless you’re painting in freezing and damp conditions (like my studio in winter), acrylic paints dry very fast. A brush would be ruined in no time, especially if you lose track of minutes, turned into a lump of hard useless plastic with a long elegant handle - like Ryan Tubridy.

So when I’m painting I don’t put the brush down, not to answer the phone, not to open the door, not to go to the jax. That way I can I keep an eye on the paint on the brush and make sure I return to painting with it before it dries on there.

This one day the paintbrush was clenched in my teeth as I walked into the windowless toilet to find myself confronted with 2 plain t-shirts hanging on the shower rail to dry. They weren’t really plain but to match my life I had long turned them inside out. I touched them. Both were dry.

Forgetting the painting out on the art table that I was in the middle of doing, I put brush to fabric. By the time I had finished I had 2 painted t-shirts. One was of a goat - though to be honest you had to be told this to see it. And the other was this one, vague yellow squares with twisted red lines running through them.

It’s been washed a hundred times since, so it’s fairly weathered now, somewhat cracked and broken like anything you dare to love - but I reckon most t-shirts worn and washed that much in 2 years wouldn’t have fared much better. This is it 2 weeks ago, taken by myself whilst wearing it.

There’s a load of shirts I fancy doing, and I’m also pondering doing some for readers and fellow bloggy people. Keep an eye.