Done entirely from my mind’s eye, no references. Some people think the orange and yellow lights down towards the bottom show a train, but I meant it to be a housing estate. I suppose my favourite colour is blue and I think this painting shows this. Painted in October and November, 2004.
Not satisfied with my previous attempt at depicting the Nirvana musician, I painted this over a few months in 2003 and 2004. Despite using a reference photo, the colour scheme was my own idea. I remember taking my time doing his face and head in particular. This is a landmark painting, after this picture my paintings got more colourful and diverse.
I’m a big Nirvana fan since discovering them aged 18. So sooner or later I was going to do a picture of Kurt who is a popular subject in drawings and paintings. I did this the last week of December, 2002. This was the first picture I got framed. It’s ok, the head is a bit too small and I wasn’t satisfied with it. So I did another painting of him.
The laneway from our farm leads into the field depicted here, called the ‘Long Garden’. The shed is of a neighbouring farmer’s. I painted this in one sitting, positioned in the middle of the field surrounded by wheat. Painted on 5th August, 2002.
Taking up the advice of the leader of the local painter’s group, I set about copying this famous picture in the first week of September, 2001. It was enjoyable to paint, especially the stars.
This painting was started in the summer of 1999 and painted on and off into summer 2001. I was interested in how the various buildings intersect with each other. I set up inside one of the farm sheds looking out on to the farmyard. A group of local artists came to the farm to paint shortly after I finished this. I showed the leader a few of my works up to that date, and he found my style quite lacklustre, citing this picture in particular. He advised to look at the Impressionists and more colourful art. This became the inspiration for the next painting, a copy of Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night.
This is the same location as my first canvas painting, painted a year after it was done. The view is in the reverse direction to that painting; we’re looking towards the farmyard where the sheds are, whereas in the first picture the view was where the gate is looking towards the landeway. Done in one sitting on 19th June, 2000, just before my last Leaving Cert exam. Sold.
An early work. My brother learned to play the cello when he was younger. I liked the shade of brown on the surface of the instrument. Painted in November 2000.
A ‘thank you’ present for my brother for sitting so long for his portrait. I remember the reference photo in a magazine being tiny so the likeness is a bit off.
An early attempt at a portrait. It was difficult to make, I had no experience of painting others at the time. Dan sat for hours. He was 11 at the time. Painted in late October, 2000.
