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?”