JANUARY

Three works in progress on the studio wall

'Soldier Boy Study'

Close up of 'Adrift Study'

A foggy January night

FEBRUARY

'A Matter of Fiction' - completed in the studio

Mirror Mirror

Late night sketching

MARCH

Hand work

Taking Time over 'Soldier Boy'

Our beautiful girl turns 1

APRIL

Detail of 'Check your Pockets'

Some works rattle on until they cave

Gradient added to background of 'Soldier Boy'

MAY

Louise Wallace at the MAC, Belfast

Niamh O'Malley at the Golden Thread Gallery

Ciarraí MacCormac

Stunning work by EMIC in Belfast City Centre

Two works in progress - beast and the beauty (working titles)

Trip to the river

Daniel Coleman in the RHA, Dublin

Mags Geaney at the RHA, Dublin

Avril Corroon at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin

JUNE

Two new works - a little on the personal side

Charys Wilson at the Golden Thread Gallery

Eimhéar Atkinson at the Belfast School of Art Degree Show

'Adrift Study' in Catalyst Auction show

'Small Earth (Eden)' by Katherine Sankey

JULY

Detail of 'In a Huff'

Matthew Wilson in Threshold Gallery

'Put it Away'

Wonky Studio Shot

Baby number 2 - coming 2024

Detail of 'Marina' - in progress

AUGUST

Still from 'The New Dawn Fades' by Clare Langan - Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

Imogen

Drawing of Christmas dinner - circa 1997

London bound

Part of the Catalyst Members' Show

Detail of 'Marina' background work

Sunset over Glenshane

Beginning of 'The Night Draws Near' event by Array Collective, Ulster Museum Belfast

SEPTEMBER

Chloe Austin at PS2, Belfast

Korakrit Arunanondchai at the MAC, Belfast

'Marina' completed

Banu Cennetoğlu at VOID, Derry

New works in progress

OCTOBER

'Indifferent Study' in progress

Detail of 'A Séance in London' in progress

'Red Lines' on display at the Royal Arcade Academy Exhibition

VAULT Studios, Belfast

'Defy the System' drawing

Studio Shot - Early October

'Amy Study' in early stages

Deferral / Echo by Kwok Tsui in CCA, Derry

'Messy Business' show at QSS, Belfast

Juggling too many works at one time.

Atoosa Pour Hosseini at Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin

NOVEMBER

Cameron Clarke at DAS, Belfast

Save our Sperrins exhibition at 2Royal Avenue, Belfast

'Indifferent Study' finished

'Amy Study' finished

Detail of 'A Séance in London' in Progress

DECEMBER

Additions and Omissions

Andy Warhol at the Hugh Lane, Dublin

Hands detail coming together

re-working an old canvas

Final studio shot of the year.

Usually at this time of year I do a run down of my favourite shows I’ve been to the past 12 months. It will be a short list this time around so I also want to include some exhibitions that I couldn’t get to see but wish I had.

The Shows I’ve Seen…

“The Dark” - CCA Derry/Londonderry

Darren Banks, Liz Collini, Sinead McKeever and Agnes Meyer-Brandis

CCA Derry/Londonderry

Sinead McKeever

Liz Collini

From the CCA website: The Dark presents a constellation of new and existing works by artists from Northern Ireland, England and Germany. The artists look out into space, back at Earth and consider science fiction, fact and artist projections.

This group show was my first look at Liz Collini’s work first hand, making you slow way down when reading the intricate architectural scaffolding around the text. Sinead McKeever’s globe with continents of charcoal eroding away speaks of climate change but also of other threats.

“A False Dawn” - Ulster Museum, Belfast

Ursula Burke

From the Ulster Museum website: A False Dawn is the culmination of Ursula’s recent work. Much of her art practice deals with issues of representation and identity, exploring abuses of power in both social and political sphere.

This exhibition taking up the two large rooms on the fifth floor of the Ulster Museum holds the space impressively with the aid of the ambient lighting. From a distance the busts are classical in nature but look a little closer there are signs of trauma and violence.

“Put It To The People” - Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast

Joy Gerrard

From the Golden Thread Gallery website: Gerrard’s most recent work documents the huge protests against Brexit in London between 2018 and 2019. Here, her monochrome palette comes to invoke the binary oppositions of contemporary British politics, its elemental simplicity belying a more complex meditation on the imaging of protest.

I have admired Joy Gerrard’s work for some time and to see them up close was a feast for the eyes. The small works, which I’ve seen similar before, are delicate in their application but it was the transition to the larger scale works that took my breath away. The imagery still has the immediacy of the smaller works but it was the gestural mark-making on the larger works that brought the crowds in the protests to life.

The Shows I Wished I’d Seen… (and one I still hope to)

“Penumbra” - FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge

Sinéad Aldridge, Hannah Casey-Brogan, Susan Connolly, Sarah Dwyer, Fiona Finnegan, Alison Pilkington, Yasmine Robinson and Louise Wallace

From the FE McWilliam Gallery Website: Penumbra brings together artists who are connected by their gender, their associations with the island of Ireland and their commitment to testing the limits of painting.

A painting exhibition with artists of this calibre should have been right up there on shows to get to this year. Sadly it wasn’t to be. No two artists in the show are alike and that shows the dexterity and the medium of painting still has in the right hands. Susan Connolly’s installations always push what defines a painting and I would have loved to have seen Sarah Dwyer’s paintings first hand.

“Echoes are Always Muted“ - VOID Gallery, Derry/Londonderry

Alan Phelan

From the VOID Gallery website: Alan Phelan’s exhibition echoes are always more muted is part of an expanded series of exhibitions that encompass his continuing research into the intersections of history, sexuality, material culture and politics which have evolved through sculpture, participatory events, and photography.

Alan Phelan’s multidisciplinary practice has explored the Joly photographic process for some time and this show seems to have included augmented reality that seems really engaging. This exhibition looks as though it was a colourful exploration of historical elements with the usual injection of humour and I’m sorry to have missed it.

“Obedience and Defiance” - IMMA, Dublin

Paula Rego

From the IMMA website: Obedience and Defiance is a major retrospective by one of the most influential figurative artists of our time Paula Rego. Spanning Rego’s entire career from the 1960s, comprising more than 80 works, including paintings never seen before and works on paper from the artist’s family and close friends.

Rego needs to introduction as she is probably one of the most influential artists working today so to get to see a large retrospective like this on the island of Ireland has to be a not-to-be-missed event. Thankfully it is running until May 2021 so all being well I will get down to see the works in the flesh.