May has been the start of festival season here in Dingle. The start of the month marked the beginning of Summer, with the Féile na Bealtaine (Summer Arts Festival), while towards the end, the Summer Music Festival offered a long weekend of music ranging from a German choir to a jazz band.
Open session for anyone to join in playing traditional Irish music in the Díseart gardens.
Later on through the year there’ll be festivals for literature, food, horse racing, cycling, running and more music of all types. Plus all the country events, such as horse fairs, sheep shows and tractor runs. Who knew the edge of the world could be so busy?
The Dingle New Music Choir & Orchestra performing in St Mary’s Church.
Locals and visitors enjoying The MD Project in the Chapel at An Díseart.
Anyway, for this year’s Féile (the first one) I was kindly allotted two stairway walls and a landing in An Díseart, the Irish Arts and Cultural Centre in the middle of Dingle, for an exhibition of my work. There was so much space, I was able to display the larger works – some stitched landscapes and a new collection of paintings.
I’ve spent the winter experimenting with acrylic paints (see my previous post, Stressed?), along with various types and brands of canvas and board. I wanted to break out of the realistic landscapes I’d been painting for the past 14 years (or more, if you count hobbying, which started when I was a teenager). I also wanted to get away from oils with their fumes and solvents and endless drying times. But watercolours seem too thin and loose (I loved the texture of thick oil paints). The answers seemed to be a combination of techniques – mixed media – with which I can use water-based paints, plus pastels, pencils, crayons, inks, dry pigments, calligraphy and gold leaf, if I wish. Endless possibilities.
Like most artists, I’ve tried taking the advice of a myriad other painters, but discarded almost everything, since it didn’t satisfy my creative need, and I didn’t want to paint like anyone else. Besides, there are much better realistic landscape painters than me, so why try to produce poor facsimiles? I’ve always been drawn to more abstract expression, anyway.
There are lots of people on the internet who throw paint about and call it Abstract Art, but very few who seem to have been on the same journey as myself and learned their skill through years of experience. And there was no one who painted the way I wanted to in my head.
Finally, I took on board one piece of advice that has proven invaluable: Be yourself.
That might sound obvious, but as an artist you spend a lot of time worrying that you’re not painting what people will buy, and perhaps you should be doing it another way.
However, having this exhibition to work towards, with all that space, enabled me to just go for it. There was no expectation, no possibility of “failure” – I didn’t even have to stand in front of the work and hear derogatory comments from people who preferred realism. (But as it happened, when I was there, the comments were wonderfully positive, and about 50 of my business cards were taken.) You don’t need to please everyone: you just need to find that one person who can’t live without that particular piece.
So, now I’m very excited about my sudden breakthrough (after six months), and feel able to paint the emotions evoked by the stunning landscapes around me, without having to paint “scenery”. I feel like I’m hurtling down a new path. Watch this space.
In other news, we had a month of glorious warm, sunny weather. Visitors were grumbling that they only brought winter sweaters and waterproofs. The garden has never looked so good, and we were able to get out and about for picnics and walks. Notice that I speak in the past tense – it’s all changed now, with heavy rain and gales. So, back to normal, then. Speak soon.