POPA ELECTRIC PICNIC 2022

CURATED BY CLARE HARTIGAN

“The Place of the Picnic Art (PoPA) returns this year with another five artists invited to take residency on-site at Stradbally Estate during the festival build. The Artist spend their days painting large scale paintings for display on the POPA wall in the main stage arena over the weekend of Electric Picnic itself.

The project has once again been curated by artist Clare Hartigan, who has been at the heart of Electric Picnic’s art scene for many years. Clare has invited five artists to join her on POPA this year, following the theme of “Speak to Me” with an emphasis on positive body image and mental health. Each artists has been given the opportunity to work on a very large scale piece and the freedom to speak to the 55,000 strong audience through their art. Each artist is selected simply on their record of working within the visual arts. “There are no proposals or application processes , as this has a tendency to turn artist of a certain type from getting involved. These are the artists that we are looking for. “ Hartigan believes talent , personality, ability and a positive attitude are the main attributes needed to take on the scale and pressure of creating a painting onsite in a working festival build. “As an artist it is a brilliant and challenging experience. The comraderie that develops between the artists is just lovely to witness. There is always something new to learn and sometimes as an established artist you just need to be willing to be taken out of your comfort zone and to see where that can bring you. Having started the project in 2015 , of the experience Hartigan says “Its like the opposite of going on a quiet retreat.…. It is a fast pace environment , often stressful , challenging, but still refreshing , invigorating and extremely fulfilling when you get it right”.

The artists selected are Debbie Chapman. Based in West Dublin, Chapman creates beautifully moody figurative works that ooze emotion. Myra O’Reilly . Limerick based artist O’Reillys uses colour, form and body language to engage the viewer and build stories within her work. Des MacMahon, of Limerick printmakers and LSAD print tutor. With a focus on drawing McMahons work is full of witty conversations that often cuts very close to the bone. Abstract artist Adrienne M Finnerty, who has a background in hypno-psychotherapy, sound movement and colour therapy. Finnerty’s work screams joy ,colour and music . It will make you want to dance . Irish - Peruvian artist Michelle Pando-Kelly whose soothing landscape work is heavily influenced by the great impressionists.

There is something for everyone to enjoy and hopefully you will enjoy them all.”

EAVAN BOLAND PORTRAIT

Finally giving this painting an extra archival varnish. It’s best to leave an oil painting 6mths to a year before applying this varnish, as the paint underneath needs to be completely dry. It’s now good for another 500 hundred years or so! Nice to know that her painting will live on with her wonderful writing for generations to come. The Druid Theatre Company have special plans for this piece that was commissioned to be painted onstage during the performances of ‘Boland - Journey Of A Poet’.

DUNAMAISE ARTS CENTRE OPEN EXHIBITION 2021

My two submissions were accepted to the Dunamaise Arts Centre. Open Exhibition showing Nov 26th to Jan 4th. I delighted to be showing at this exhibition, both because this Art Centre is a little gem in the midlands but also because I have great respect for the guest selector, Sharon Murphy.

Covid regulations mean that there will be no opening night but the exhibition is still open to visits from the public. My pieces that will be included are;

COMMITTING TO MEMORY 25cm x 20cm mixed media on canvas

YOUR PLACE OR MINE 30cm X 40cm Mixed Media on Canvas


'DESTINATION NO LONGER A PLACE' - The Montenotte Hotel, Cork City

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“My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing”- Marcel Proust

I have long been struck by Marcel Proust’s quote about developing new perspectives and recent global events have brought his words into even sharper focus. 

My newest work look at our response to having our movements restricted and simultaneously, the opportunity to view the world through a new lens.

But how does this happen?

While sometimes we make time to contemplate life’s bigger questions, it’s the gradual accumulation of micro-reflections that create our view of the world. These thoughtful pauses occur throughout any average day and often go unnoticed. They lead to observations, realisations or just an appreciation of the moment itself.

Either way, we come to see the world differently and eventually, acknowledge a new reality.

This is the subject of my new paintings at The Montenotte Hotel in Cork from 1st Aug 2020 until Jan 2021 presented by The Gallery Kinsale.

HAVING YOUR PORTRAIT PAINTED IS COOL (AGAIN!)

Once considered a relic of the photography era, the art of portrait painting is making a comeback _ think of it as a selfie that takes weeks to complete!

‘Irish Girl - In Preparation For A Short Summer’ 60cm x 80cm.

‘Irish Girl - In Preparation For A Short Summer’ 60cm x 80cm.

Excerpts below taken from The New Face of Portrait Painting By Dushku Petrovich. - New York Times Style Magazine

“For centuries, of course, portrait painting was art. But by the second half of the 20th century, it had almost disappeared. By this time, critics routinely announced the death of painting with every new technological and aesthetic innovation. First there was the proliferation of photography, then the ready-made. Then there was the internet, and social media, whose rise seemed to render the medium of painting — not to mention portraiture — completely irrelevant: Why paint someone’s picture in the age of the selfie? Most painters responded by getting weirder, more abstract, more experimental; representational figurative art was anachronistic, inert, crusty — a form of vanity exclusive to the rich. And yet portraiture — in the classic, realist sense — has become increasingly essential (and visible) in the last few years.”

“We live in a time in which reality is almost daily warped in ways that were unimaginable even 18 months ago. We have swiftly entered an era where the very notion of truth, or facts, is considered fungible. As we reassess the various power structures that landed us here, it is stabilizing and reassuring to look at the work of an artist who is clearly in control of her craft, who is able to depict a reality that is material and grounded in recognition — of seeing, in the Facebook age, a painting that looks like who it is meant to.”

“If the news of the world feels every day more like a pulpy political thriller with an unhinged plotline, painters have responded by grounding their work in observable, human reality.”





KILDARE SOLICITORS BAR ASSOC. PORTRAITS

Hung in Naas Courthouse, Co. Kildare in Dec 2018. Unveiled in the presence of family, friends and colleagues. I cannot say what a privilege it was to be trusted with this commission. The legacy that these ladies have left behind is huge. I only hope that I have done them justice.

Judge Grainne O’Neill 1971-2018

Ann Nolan,Solicitor 1970 – 2014

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