Painted from my mind’s eye in February, 2005. After college I worked in archaeological digs around the country. But not continuously; there were stretches where I wasn’t working and helping out at home because my mother suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis. This was painted during one of those times. I had lost touch with a lot of the people I worked with and went to school with. So I wanted to do a simple, symbolic picture representing my situation.
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 was my father’s tractor. He was dead over a year when I painted this in August, 1999. We had an old picnic table that we stored in the same shed as the tractor and I used it to paint this. I loved painting the rust on the hub of the wheel and the general grime and dust on the windows. Gnarly, decaying old objects are appealing to me. I had no work for the tractor to do so I gave it to a cousin of mine in 2008.
eastcorkpainter 