Bicyclistic

Some notes to go with my end of year sale of paintings that starts here later today (link will be posted when the sale starts).

1. Paintings are sold on a first come first served basis so if you know me through twitter or facebook it may be quickest to tell me there you wish to purchase a painting.

2. If you want a painting before Christmas - scream at me. The current weather of snow and ice has impacted on movement and has me out of my studio where my packing materials remain but I’ll do what I can to get paintings to the post office on time or, if you’re in Dublin, directly into your hands.

3. The sale will run until the end of December. So between Christmas and New Year I will process any purchases if there are any, and I may well add some new paintings into the sale for painting is what I do.

4. New paintings will be added into the sale up to as late as the final day. We’ll start with between 30 and 40 and end up with somewhere between 50 and 80.

5. All paintings in the sale are works that have not been offered for sale before. When the sale ends they will be marked up to their regular price and won’t be part of any future sales.

6. All works are sold unframed. While I believe framing is very much a personal choice, to be honest I also can’t afford the cash flow of keeping a hundred paintings framed.

7. PayPal links are provided with every painting so work away at them if it suits you best. My preferred method of payment is cash or bank transfer, and I also take cheques in euros, US dollars, and sterling.

8. As the paintings are offered in the sale at up to 50% off, the prices in the sale aren’t negotiable. At least not downwards; I am however happy to accept more than the asking price for a painting.

9. You can save paying shipping costs by collecting from the studio or meeting me for handover - probably in Dublin city centre. With the current weather and forecast this will be more challenging than usual.

10. I would greatly appreciate if you spread the word about the sale - by blog post, tweet, status update, email, etc. or word of mouth. Even if my paintings aren’t your cup of tea if you would pass on word to anybody you think might like them I would be very grateful.

Like everybody else I have photos of Ireland’s big 2010 snow right now, though probably none as popular as Dog-Dog in a field of snow.

While I work on putting the final touches on dozens of paintings for my end-of-year online sale (starting Monday Dec 6th - come back) here’s a photo of why I didn’t eat dinner outdoors last night.

click to enlarge

More Photos of Dublin and Snow
   • Snowy Roofs
   • Snow View for Dog-Dog
   • Snowy Sunset, Wires, Dublin
   • Dublin Snow Photos - January 2010

The big birds in the wind I love watching do their fighting and dancing. Rooks, magpies, jackdaws and gulls. Always surprises me how they don’t crash. Even people on foot walk into things.

Out with dog head down in the wind, look up see 3 birds arc in a chase. Flick on camera, featers out, aim, shoot. They never did it again. And by never I mean in the next 60 minutes that the dog and I traipsed around in the damp grass.

click to enlarge

More Photos
   • Dublin, A Horse
   • S is for Swans
   • No Parking
   • Loads of Photos

A photo I took a couple of days ago on a rather hazy day in Dublin. It’s of women. Walking. Which reminds me I’m about to start a series of paintings of women walking. Or in conversation,

click to enlarge

Yes that’s the east pier in Dun Laoghaire. And there’s more where that came from.

More Photos of Dublin and Elsewhere
   • Snowy Roofs
   • S is for Swan
   • No Parking
   • Loads of Photos

Some new paintings on sale this October. I’m launching them at introductory prices €50 less than normal and increasing their prices by €5 every business day until they reach the normal price - or are sold.

I’m starting with 5 paintings and adding more through the week. PLEASE NOTE paintings are sold on first come basis and aren’t sold until I confirm with you that the painting is sold.

Well. Essex Qys
€225 SOLD

Fr Mathew Br
€115 SOLD

Ormond Qy Upr
€175 SOLD

Golden Leaves
€165 SOLD

Sev. Rd Roses
€225

Birds, Wires 10
€115 SOLD

Birds, Wires 11
€120 SOLD

A new book of true Irish stories, featuring a painting of mine on the cover, is currently being launched with all royalties going to Concern’s Haiti fund.

Garret Pearse was inspired to compile A Pint and a Haircut: True Irish Stories while reading Paul Auster’s True Tales of American Lives when the story of the Haiti earthquake broke and producing an Irish equivalent occurred to him as a way to help.

Stories
There are about 70 stories in the book including stories by bloggers’ Merc’s World, Jane Travers, Women Rule Writer, Barbara Scully, Write Now Mom - and one by myself - A Kansas City Phone Call To An Irish Mother.

Buy
The book can be purchased online from the publishers Londubh Books or from your local book shop (if they don’t have it tell them to stock it: It’s being distributed by Eason Wholesaler and Argosy, ISBN 978-1-907535-16-1 )

Info
More information about the project can be read on the book’s blog, and from Garret on the book’s twitter account. There’s also a great interview with Garret by Jane Travers on TweetTreats.

Concern
Haiti’s most powerful earthquake in 200 years struck in January. All royalties from sales of A Pint and a Haircut are in aid of Concern’s Haiti Fund. Read more about Concern’s work in Haiti.

How Can You Help?
Apart obviously from buying the book, you can help by telling others about the book - post about it on your facebook account, twitter account, your blog if you have one, or good old-fashioned word of mouth. Also if you don’t see it in a bookshop tell them to stock it.

I’ll be exhibiting some new paintings on Stephen’s Green, on September 24-26, 2010, in the last of the 3 People’s Art exhibitions that are held every summer in Dublin.

The People’s Art exhibition is held on the railings of 3 sides of Stephen’s Green (where the Luas is, the west side, is not used).

This time I’ve been allocated Position 50 on the east side which is around the corner from the Shelbourne Hotel - I’d guess about half way up towards Leeson St/Earlsfort Terrace.

As I haven’t finished painting the pictures that will be exhibited, I can’t tell you yet what they’ll be of, but they will be at studio prices - which is the cheapest my paintings are ever priced at. UPDATE: Looking like the paintings will be of Dublin city centre, some rural scenes, and 2 new “Birds, Wires” paintings. I think.

Stop by for a goo. I’ll be sitting there with my bicycle (like last time), so say hello and see what happens. If you’re on twitter tell me who you are.

The People’s Art is on for the 3 full days of the weekend - Friday-Sunday - so I should be there from before 11am until after 6pm all 3 days, assuming the weather co-operates of course.

Of all the places I liked spotting the spotters it was Crewe.

When in Birmingham, my relationship with the station increased. Already used to it as I was to Chester from the overnights from Holyhead to Liverpool, it now figured in trips from Birmingham to Liverpool and from Birmingham to Holyhead, plus my various other weekend forays from the Midlands. And the first hours of my 21st birthday were at Crewe.

When I stopped living in Liverpool and moved to Birmingham, I retained my season ticket at Goodison and so at least every 2nd week - and of course for every midweek game including the never to be missed Simod Cup clashes - I headed north and often found myself in Crewe rather than on the direct train.

When the IRA bombed London I walked Crewe’s platforms in vain searching for a bin before realising the new policy of the bins being withdrawn.

It was in Crewe station that I sat unspeaking among English national team supporters as we all headed for Dublin and a spiteful international fixture. Seated either side of me were 2 large giggling skinheads from Millwall who were doing their own spotting - that of notorious thugs among the English fans. As I silently drank my tea between them I noticed the backs of the hands of both of the skinheads as they drank theirs. Tattooed on the hand of one was “TRACY” and of the other was “MICHELLE”.

The next time I saw the owners of those tattoos was in Dublin as part of a marauding English gang that waded into the Irish crowd with boots and fists. I held screaming women for their protection, by inches missing receiving a kicking from skinheads in brown suede jackets. By the time we all ended up back in Crewe their faces were cut and bruised, and my Irish scarf was never more hidden.

One night in Crewe, no different than all the other, I went to the counter and asked for my 6th large cup of tea. The server paused, incredulous, with a look of a barman serving a drunk and I thought she was about to refuse me when her supervisor behind her, reached down below the counter and grabbed a couple of hundred teabags. Then referring to the foot traffic expected from the ferry at Holyhead within the hour she dumped them narkily in front of me on the counter and said “The Irish will be here soon”.

And all the time the spotters were there, usually down the south end of one of the platforms. Always respected by the staff and ignored by the travellers, they would get excited periodically. I used to watch them fascinated. They spoke to each other in a way that had me questioning my prejudices, yet I had done my own phase of spotting - ‘plane spotting - much more glamorous and in a warmer environment, though the tea was always worse.

Once when a train to somewhere was cancelled I was put on a replacement bus and had a seat beside a spotter. He was no more than four years younger than myself but I felt protective of him as if he was my own child. His name was David and in his nervous giddy speech he told me that these hours at Crewe station were his first time ever to be away from his parents. He wasn’t quite sure of his way home and I felt an awful vulnerability for him as I got off the bus hoping he found his way home and alive. He was 20 years old.

It was in the late ’80s that I made my favourite realization about Crewe. I was far down the end of a platform out from under the main central covered building, and I looked up at the Crewe Arms Hotel as I always did. But this day I looked closer.

There they were - in the hotel, looking down on Crewe station and all its tracks and platforms. At several of the windows I could see the spotters and it was obvious that this was the ultimate destination for them. This was their Disney World, their French Riviera, their Carribean cruise, and their dirty weekend.

Ever since then I’ve wanted to spend a night in that hotel and do what they do. Just like I’ve always wanted to go to Mecca and see the Kaaba.

Other Memories:
    You Travel by Train in Ireland, Don’t You?
    The Other Semi-Final
    A Night In London

For the bicycle that can carry everything, my Xtracycle enhanced bike whizzed around Dublin the other day with these 102cm x 76cm (40×30in) canvases on board helping it cut through the what Ireland was pretending was summer.

It can carry more, and carry bigger. Oh, and that’s a scanner on there too:

More of Cycling and my XtraCycle:
  • Art Show by Bicycle
  • Transporting an Office on a Bicycle
  • XtraCycle in Ireland
  • Mobile Studio
  • Buying a Christmas Tree Without a Car
  • A Superior Cycle
  • My XtraCycle Arrives in Ireland

Liffey, 6 Landmarks
16″ x 12″
canvas, unframed
€165 + S&H €11
SOLD

Being from Dublin West, my route into and out of the city has never been a northside or southside artery but instead follows the river, along both banks of the Liffey’s quays and valley. So that’s why you’ve seen a few Dublin Liffey paintings of late, and that’s why you’ll be seeing more.

click to enlarge

This painting is the view east along the river from Frank Sherwin Bridge towards Rory O’More Bridge, James Joyce Bridge, St Paul’s Church, the Four Courts, the Central Bank, and on out to the Poolbeg chimneys.

This painting is now SOLD.

You can pay via the PayPal link above (incl with credit card) or if you’re known to me give me a shout (via twitter or email: eolai@irishkc.com) to arrange payment by cash/bank transfer/personal cheque.

You can also save paying shipping by collecting the painting from my studio in Lucan or meeting me in Dublin for handover.

This painting continues around the sides which are 0.75 inch wide.

See more of my Paintings for sale

See Also:
   • Sheep
   • Cottage From Sheep Field
   • Dun Laoghaire Pier & Howth Head
   • Abstract Paintings