Monday, September 7, 2009

Books '09 Festival

I was scheduled to be artist in residence for the Books '09 Festival at the National Gallery of Ireland.
Unfortunately, it looks as if that won't be happening.
I had been asked to do a large oil painting in the atrium of the gallery during the two days of the festival. It was a scary prospect, but I agreed to do it. Unfortunately, some of the "powers that be" at the National Gallery must have feared that I might go bonkers and start splattering oil paint all around me, so they stipulated that I was only to use dry media.
Whilst I was still happy to do what I had originally agreed to, alas I was not in the position to do a crash course in pastels, and I didn't think chalks would create the desired effect. So that residency is not going to happen this year.
It's a great shame as it would have been nice to create something in such august surroundings, and I think the pressure of working in public might have pushed me to do some good work.
I might yet do a talk of some sort with slides, and I will post details if we can arrange something.
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6 comments:

  1. Mother (Re)produces.September 7, 2009 at 10:42 AM

    I'm so sorry to hear this. I mean, snowballs chance in heck I'd have been there anyway, but I'd have loved looking at the posts afterward. Children's book fairs are a bit thin on the ground over here, and not in English, in any case.

    Hope it works out for you.
    Wouldn't want to get paint in the museum, right?
    (you can't see me, but I'm shaking my head here...)

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  2. Tom DoneganSeptember 9, 2009 at 1:14 PM

    Scandalous - would you consider doing something similar under the CBI at some point in the future? In similarly auspicious surroundings of course! Tom D

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  3. PJ LynchSeptember 11, 2009 at 1:55 AM

    Thanks Mother (Re)produces and Tom,
    The festival next year will be at the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) and I have been provisionally booked to do the gig there.
    Meantime, I would certainly consider doing it for CBI Tom.
    All the best
    PJ

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  4. eliseSeptember 13, 2009 at 4:22 PM

    Oh that's so silly. Not everyone is a messy painter! That's a big shame that they wouldn't let you do that - they really missed out. It can work really well to do what you planned. I do it a lot... I always work on a big canvas while I'm manning my market stalls. On carpet (gasp). I think you would have had fun. Hopefully next time!
    elise

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  5. Steve DooganSeptember 17, 2009 at 4:20 PM

    That is just crazy. What a chance missed. I wonder what genius made that decision?

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  6. PJ LynchSeptember 18, 2009 at 4:02 AM

    Thanks for your support guys, but in truth, I might have been tempted to add a spare dollop of paint to one of Jack Yeats' hideous later works just to see if anyone would notice.
    So maybe they were right.
    All the best
    PJ

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