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Underpainting

My first stage of my portrait of Elsie Evans- artist and owner of Attic Studios.

See her work here:

http://www.elsiepaints.com/

Figurative Exhibition at Attic Studios, Bangkok 2nd Aug - 31st Aug 2013

Student work currently on show at Attic Studios.

My limited palette for figure painting/ portraiture

 

Basic mixes

1. Ivory Black (Old Holland)

2. Raw Umber (Old Holland)

3. purple mix

4. green mix

5. blue mix

6. Chinese Vermillion (Sennelier)

7. orange mix

8. Yellow Ochre Light (Old Holland)

9. "brilliant highlight" - Titanium White & Yellow Ochre Light

10. Titanium White (Old Holland)

Shadow mixes

11. warm underpainting mix - Ultramarine Blue & Transparent Red Oxide - both Beckers 

12. darkest dark shadow mix - Ivory Black & Chinese Vermillion 

13. shadow mix - Ivory Black & Chinese Vermillion & Yellow Ochre Light

Flesh mixes

14. pink flesh mix 

15. yellow flesh mix

16. cool/ grey flesh mix

17. "magic brown" - nondescript mix for transitions, using between strong colour areas & greying down flesh tones 

Upcoming workshop

See the Attic Studios website for more details.

http://www.attic-studios.com/

More press.

From today's Sunday Times.

Review of this year's RHA show on RTE's The Works - featuring yours truly's work (briefly)

Was on tv yesterday apparently.

http://www.rte.ie/player/se/show/10155168/

After the Eddie Izzard interview at 5.50. I always thought Garda Patrol was how I'd end up on telly.

Review by John Kelly and there's an interview with James Hanley (RHA) as well.

Stills:

RHA annual show opening 2013

The portrait hanging at this summer's RHA show.

Photograph by Dermot Browne, who attended yesterday's opening. See his work here:  http://dermotbrowne.tumblr.com/

Under-painting

Under-painting in transparent red oxide and ultramarine blue.

day 2

Recent head sketches

...complete with scratches across the board.

Steve Bettman in ARC Salon finalists!

Congratulations to Steve Bettman! - among the finalists in the Animal Category in the 2012/2013 Art Renewal Center International Salon Competition with his painting "Elvis Lives (Fjällvråk)".

Full list of finalists:
http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/salon_winners.php?contest=2012-2013%20Salon&page=Animal

See more of Bettman's work here:
http://www.sbettman.com/

Jorgensen Fine Art - Spring Exhibition

2 drawings of mine will be hanging in the Jorgensen Fine Art Gallery's Spring Exhibition, open from May 9th - 30th. Drop in and have a look if you're down Dawson st. way.

Link for the full exhibition....

http://www.jorgensenfineart.com/index.htm

RHA Annual show 2013

My portrait of Minni Katina Mertens, which has been selected for this year's Royal Hibernian Academy show.

http://www.rhagallery.ie/html/exhibitions/exhibit_annual.html

Show opens on 28th of May

Stephen Baumann pencil portrait

A pencil portrait of yours truly from last year drawn by Stephen Baumann, drawing and painting instructor at FAA, Sweden. Check the link below for more of his drawings.

 http://www.stephenbaumandrawings.com/2012/01/post-no16-portrait-of-nicholas-benedict.html

The very first drawing I did at FAA has been chosen for inclusion in the Open Exhibition 2013 at Mermaid County Wicklow Arts Centre. Patrick T. Murphey, Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin made the selections for the show.

http://www.mermaidartscentre.ie/exhibitions/details/open-exhibition-2013

The acrobat

My most-recent chalk & charcoal model drawing in progress - about 20 hours work here. Top tip! - never use Canson paper if you're going to work in charcoal on a drawing for this length of time.

Interesting comments in an article about the painter Mark O'Neill.

Mark O'Neill in the Irish Times

He began to scrape a living by teaching art to local schoolchildren and believes he was good, recalling that he “enjoyed teaching and sent a lot students to NCAD the National College of Art and Design ] and different art colleges around the country, where they were totally messed up by the tutors”.
His disdain, incidentally, for the critics and academics of the art establishment, who studiously ignore his work while lauding State-subsidised art, is clearly evident: “Why in painting is it a crime to be commercially successful?” he asks rhetorically; and, “Why is craftsmanship ignored?”