I have been asked for the second year to select a piece of Art for the AE Russell award at this year's Royal Ulster Academy show in the Ulster Museum.

I have studied the Art work of George Russell and know a great deal about him as a person as well as a creative artist. So when selecting a piece I take in many different aspects from subject matter. The Artist's relationship to the land and other people. Their technical ability, such as use of colour and composition.

This year I selected Rosie McGurran RUA
for her painting called Solstice, Inishlacken.

The first photo is of the President Dan Dowling and myself.
Second photo is of Rosie's winning painting.
Third is of Michael McKernan and Brigit McGibbon from the AE Russell society, Rosie McGurran and her brother Phil McGurran who is also sponsoring the Photography prize.

Other photos include Rosie receiving her award.
A mixed media collage by Sean Hillen, who is the pictured with Michael McKernan on Opening night.
A picture of Dan Dowling's artwork, In Queen Mary's Garden.
Followed by Martin Mooney's landscape of Ballynakill Lough.
Next we have Brigit and Michael beside an original AE that is in the Ulster Museum .
Colin Davidson, a personal favourite.
The blue and red painting is called The Resonance of Oseberg by Carol Graham, who was last year's selected winner.
Lastly a picture of Carol with Rosie together.

Being Blue, being Green was our theme for this exhibition.
After a discussion about the environmental impact that is happening to Lough Neagh.

20 artists from the collective took part, creating a total of 53 pieces including, paintings, ceramics, glass work, textiles, videos and a performance on the opening night.

Other artists include Eimear Harkin, Riona Kearns, Zara Lyness, Louise Lennon, Ciara Campbell, Ciaran Maginnis, Kelly McCluskey, Joanna Breen, Carol Willey, Dwyer McKerr, Gwen Stevenson, Dermot Burns, Nuala Monaghan, Sandra Turley, Maurice Burns, Shaun Fizpatrick, Julie McGowan Paul King, Kathryn Nelson.

This is a beautiful venue with loads of natural light. displays over two floors. this room was used in a wedding service.
With beautiful gardens and cafe this makes a lovely day out in Antrim Castle Grounds.

The Exhibition ran from Thursday 12th September until Friday 18th October 2024.

Her Head is not in this World.
This year's theme was PAUSE, taking time to look after yourself and reflect. An open call was put out for submissions in March.
As my abstract paintings are based on neurodiverse minds and sensory images to calm them, I felt this was a perfect fit.
Exhibiting along side 15 talented artists, this exhibtion will be on display from Saturday 18th May until 28th June.
Displaced in the Millenium Court, Portadown. Opened by Noelle McAlinden.

What I love about group exhibitiohns are, you get to meet other artists, learn about their practices and stories. Support and encourage each other. It is a warm and supportive community.

This year Loughside Art club exhibited in the large gallery space of the Millenium Court in our local town of Portadown. The exhibition was open to the public on Saturday 20th April at 2pm, a large crowd attended with music sang by the Fox Twins.

Loughside members who exhibited are Arlene Marks, Caroline Toman, Dionne Houston, Audrey Carroll, Ursula Leighton, Stephen Patterson, Eddie O'Hara and Gavin Fox.

This was my first paint along class of 2024.
I have done many of these now for various charities, and they are so much fun.
I got to meet some amazing women from Knitted Knockers of Northern Ireland, based in Brownlow House Courtyard.
These women had the challenge of painting this scene of Lurgan park, a place which was just a few meters away.

The reference was found on a facebook site called Friends Of Lurgan Park. From there I spotted this photograph. I liked the tree and its reflection. It has a sweeping curve of the railing to led your eye into the painting while also showing perspective. I printed out a colour and a black and white version for everyone. That way they can look at colour constrast. Light and dark. Basic shapes before thinking about the colours to use.
Photographer is James Keelips a keen photographer of garden birds.

The set up is simple. Plates as palettes, paper cups to clean brushes and delute paint. Kitchen roll to share out and a few of my favouite paints bought from The Range. Brushes and canvases were provided by the club but I did have my own set with me. As I said, I have have done many of these now. The club did provide the easels, which is lovely to see them all on display at the end.

By following my step by step direction on how to draw out and what order to apply the paint we had a great base layer down by the first hour. Then stopped for a cuppa and a chat, before jumping into the detail and finishing it off. Now bad for 2 hours of painting.

To keep things fun, I like to do some warm up sketching games. Nothing too serious. Then after our tea break I play another game to gather everyone back to their seat. This one is on Art History, famous Art or not? Like a last man standing game. These 2 super star pupils won for best sketch and last man standing knowledge round.

Future Paint and Sip classes will be held here at
AEON Community Arts.
46 Church Place Lurgan

The campaign for saving our lough started years ago, but it was in the summer of 2023 it hit the headlines with images of dead swams and fishmen cutting into the thick green algae like it was wet snd floating on the surface. The water was killing the wildlife and people had noticed the taste of their tap water was different and sometimes cloudy.
But winter came and the algae rests on the lake bed waiting for this summer before it rises again.
So we want to keep this awareness and reach out to more people who may want to be involved. Then this exhibition was created. Hosted in Oxford Island as close to the waters edge as possible. It was an exhibition of Art work from all over Northern Ireland. The open night had performances of musicians, speakers, drama performance pieces and old fairy folk tales of agient ireland and its relationship with the lake.

I submitted 3 paintings

Algae- A view from Oxford Island during the summer of 2023. My signature circles can be seen under the green algae like a virus growing and spreading through the dark water. While bringing a balance with the beautiful upper part of the view showing Oxford Island on a bright summers day. It almost invites you into the water with its crystal reflections but yet the messy thick algae shows off like a warning.

From the many images that was shared on facebook and other social media platforms, this picture stood out to me. As I wondered to myself would these cygnets ever make it to adulthood. Again I used my signature circles as the green algae. I called this painting Just Keep Swimming, as these beautiful birds are helpless in their environment. Best thing for them to do is to avoid it.

Sad Swan was painted from a photograph by Michael Hardy a local fishman on the lough shore. The head is bent low to give a sense of emotion that  the swan is upset that it is covered in this stuff and it is harder to find food.



The exhibition ends on Friday 8th March with the promise of more events such as this for the future.
My artwork will then be on display in Cafes such as the New Haven in Lurgan and if not sold in my Exhibition with Loughside Art Club in April 2024

I am excited to share that I will be showcasing my abstract artwork to the public in May 2023.

I was contacted by the Health Service in Antrim who wanted to purchase some of the abstract artwork as it is based on mental health and the way our minds work.

12 paintings have been purchased from a larger collection of work and so this is a rare opportunity to see all abstract paintings together in one space.

The staff of Aeon Community Arts have graciously been able to host it for me at 12 William Street, Lurgan. This building is used by Saint Vincent De Paul, but what makes this place special is that it is the birth place of Ireland's poet, artist and mystic George William Russell otherwise known by his signature AE.
I myself have been inspired by his work and feel honoured to have my work displayed here if only for a short time.

The exhibition will run over the last bank holiday in May before the pieces are sent to their new locations. I really hope you can come and see it.

I am part of a collective group of artists in Craigavon area, and our members have a group exhibition on currently in Dungannon. This show hopes to be annually and showcases some of the painting created in our weekly meet ups.

Art clubs are a great way to meet like minded people who enjoy painting as much as viewing it. In our weekly art groups we work with different mediums and subjects.
We encourage one another and every year we put together a collection of some of our favourite pieces to go on display.
We hope to encourage more people to join the club.
Meeting every Monday from 7-9pm at Craigavon Hub.
It costs £25 per month.
Of course you can try out before signing up as members.
For more information see Loughside Art Club on Facebook.

I have a new love for Pinterest.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a new account or a big following.
Instead, my account is so inspiring and creating my own pins to share with others is bringing me so much satisfaction.
So, a little back history. Starting Pinterest easily 10years ago with only a few friends following me and me them. These people were teachers, other creatives and planners.
I used my boards to collect pretty images that made me want to pick up the paint brush. It was only 3 years ago I started to use it as a way of showing off my murals as appose to getting references for painting them.
This later has led into a showcase of all the artwork I do and create.

According to my analytics I had a spike of interest January last year, which is when I started my abstract art and posting more regularly. As a user I look more in January too. To make up mood boards for New Year Goals.
 
What I wanted to share was my new system. The key was to keep it simple. Goodness knows I didn’t want another task to try top keep up with. So, on my mobile when I do a post on Instagram, I do the post on Pinterest too. Good news is I don’t need a caption, just a description and a link to my website and shop. To date I have 4856 pins saved, but 480 pins are ones I have created. It sounds like a lot but my Instagram has near 600 posts and that’s just my paintings not the murals I have done over the past 8years.

Pinterest is a search engine like google and so it is brilliant for building your SEOs. What’s that you say? Search engine optimization: the process of making your site better for search engines. This is a way for your customers to find you and your work.
Basically, a customer can scroll, find an image click on it to link to your website, Instagram, YouTube, etc. They can also save it on there boards and other people may find it through their collection, but the link will follow the original pin.
To see any real results takes ages in fact that is why I am posting. It has been almost a year and I am finally starting to see some growth. Not a lot. Just a new follower every 2 days on average. This is just the motivation I needed to keep posting.

My most popular pin to date is a short video showcasing my painting collection of abstract circles. A close second is of my painting process. Even though these videos were posted early last year they are still being seen today. The algorithm values good quality pins that are of interest and provide knowledge or skills or entertainment regardless of when they where posted. Social media platforms have a short time when people can see it, yes, it’s always there but their algorithm will not push that content out to others. Pinterest wants to serve and will share things of interest to the user.
 
Downside to Pinterest
It can be a bit overwhelming all the images that you are sent and so an image really has to pop to grab your attention. Pinterest tends to send images that are similar in style so I see other artists who paint similar to my style in circles. This does not help my imposter syndrome. I regularly see work of super talented artist Rachelle Kearns and her stunning circle paintings of chandeliers and flowers. She also does some abstract paintings that Pinterest recognizes similar to my work. As she has been painting since 2006 her following on all platforms is massive. She has said her artwork is inspired by light and water. She mentions her faith and how flowers bring her joy.
Although I can see her inspiration in her paintings, I know that my inspiration source is very different. I love buildings, satellite photos from space, colourful colour combinations that I see on my son’s video games or on gift cards.
Yet I would dread to think that people would think I was coping her. This led to my development in adding more texture to my pieces and elements such as gold leaf and iridescent paint. So far, I can now see there is no other artist that is producing work like me and that brings me great pleasure for I feel like I have found my voice and my style. So what started as a negative I used it to push my work and develop it further. Resulting in a better outcome.
 

Many other artists would advise to have boards of topics not on art related to your work, so it does not get influenced by others. I would agree to this, we never really know what our brain steels and stores away for later.
Boards I like to keep are of photography. Digital images made up on the computer. Colour palettes and interior design. My boards are a real insight into my interests outside of my painting practice. My home, my goals, or things of great beauty that light me up.

I hope next year to give a further update on this platform and more importantly if any good leads ever come of it.
Even if they don’t I believe sharing will inspire others and beautiful things need to be seen in as many ways as possible.
My link will be below to view for yourself

What a wonderful opportunity to exhibit my work. I honestly didn't think it would be possible this year. You have no idea how many places never answer phone calls or respond to emails. So when I recieved my contract to exhibit in The Hill of The O'Neill and Ranfurly House, to say I was excited would be an understatement. I was gigdy.

These two were the first paintings chosen. Enniskillen in Blue and Lough.
Enniskillen is my home town where I grew up and this lake is behind my Mum's house where I learnt to swim.

I also knew that my paintings of buildings would be perfect for the corridor. I love architecture. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by beautiful buildings. In this exhibition I have included paintings of Hillsborough, Brownlow House and Belfast City Hall.

These smaller paintings are dotted throughout my house. Painted years ago when I was still developing my style I decided to include them as they don't often get shown.

Then of course there is my abstract paintings of circles overlapping. These large colourful paintings are such a constract to the other paintings. Instead of having a fixed outcome to trigger off a memory, these paintings invite you to stare and let your mind wonder around the composition. For these paintings its about creating a mood.

The set up was another learning curve. It had been 2007 since my last solo exhibition and in group shows I usually just had to drop off my artwork and someone else did the hanging.
I pulled in the help of my sister and with level ruler, screws hooks, step ladder and the hanging system that was provided  we had it all up and displayed in one day with the second day for labelling.

My launch was to be a morning coffee and tea grathering with everyone on my mailing list invited and then some good friends.

Now I just want as many people to come and visit while it's still on.