This is a little (A4) oil painting I did a few years ago, in a frame I made myself. I havn’t ever shown it. Shortly afteerwards I started painting in watercolour and worked exclusively in that medium for many years. I might bring it to the Mountshannon Arts Festival on the June Bank Holiday weekend 2025. I will be exhibiting some of my paintings (watercolours and acrylic) in the Berry Tree Cafe, at least thats the plan so far. Yes, I hope to sail there myself and I’ll be there for the weekend to enjoy the festivities and chat about my work. I love Lough Derg.
I mentioned in a recent post that I was experimenting with acrylics, especially for bigger paintings. Here is one just finished (the stove is not lighting, its just so that you can get an idea of the size). It is Tramore of course, but has no title just yet. I want to thank Brendan StJohns Photography for posting up some lovely photos and for his permission to use some as references. I have lots of photos (and paintings) of Tramore, but dawn always presents a challenge (as in its usualy early in the day!).
As the year draws to a close, I want to thank everyone who supported my endevours by buying my paintings. I had exhibitions in Tramore, Portumna and Thomastown, and here in Stoneyford. It was my best year yet. Lots of plans for next year – watch out for my exhibition in the Watergate in Kilkenny in Feb/March, which will be all watercolours, and come and see me in Thomastown during Arts Week. I will be including acrylics, for the first time, in my exhibition during Arts week.
For now, I have tidied up my studio, and put everything away, until the new year. I am hoping for a quiet and a happy Christmas, with my family and I wish you all the same.
Herb Robert is a rather pretty little weed. It is useful in that it covers the ground quickly and suppresses other weeds. Itself, it is easy to remove and yields without any resistance. Herb Simon was an American academic and management writer in the 1950’s and 60’s. No relation.
My own business education was very focussed on finance, and I only became aware of the various management writers well after I qualified, when I started my own career as an academic. Coming late to these ideas, I was in a better position to understand their value (or otherwise). For me the experience came first, the theory afterwards. My art is a bit like that also.
Herb Simon developed a 2×2 matrix to use in prioritising tasks. I love it. It is based on two dimensions – importance and urgency, and the model has four boxes. So, the tasks that are not important and not urgent -well, don’t bother with these, for example – well you decide! Those that are urgent but not important – the main question here is who is driving these? Other people most likely.
As an artist I have many important tasks, the key is to deal with these before they become urgent (important but not urgent). I have an exhibition in May. It is important that I have a selection of paintings to show, all related to the theme of the exhibition. I am working on those now. It is important that they are framed, have appropriate labels, I need a biopic, some flyers and so on. I am working on those now, also. If I don’t attend to these matters, they will become urgent. Any task in the important and urgent box is just stressful. The week before the exhibition is not the time to think about framing paintings. So, I focus on tasks that are important but not yet urgent!
I suppose it is the learning from my previous work life, that has me disciplined. I plan exhibitions well in advance, and I set myself weekly work targets. It’s not necessarily rigid, but it means I get to do what I need to do, without too much stress. Who needs stress?
Ok, I need to be honest, I’m not all that organised really. I have great difficulty dealing with social media for instance, Instagram is especially challenging! I suppose I can’t really decide how important it is. It currently resides in the not important and not urgent box. Also in there is experimenting, working with galleries, on-line sales, and much more. They shouldn’t be, because they should be important (I think). Anyway I prefer to be painting. For all my business background, I tend to neglect the business end on my art.
What’s urgent? Maybe nothing is. What’s important to you? and what’s important to me? Therein lies the question.
