My Version of Mr Hyde

Having done a triangular image  one metre across for Pictiúr recently, I've been inspired to draw some more  big charcoal pictures.

Here's one that is on-going.

It's a slightly comic version of Mr Hyde from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.

I'd like to get on and finish it but the original is ten foot long and it's a job to unravel it and to get to work on the bloomin' thing.

Happy Christmas Everybody!

Here's a preparatory sketch from my version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

I'd like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas time!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog in 2013

Love and best wishes 

PJ 

PJ Drawn by Phelim

I love this sketch that Phelim Connolly did of me painting at the RHA life drawing session yesterday.
He really got me, and I hadn't a notion I was being drawn.

Pictiúr on the News

There's a nice little piece about Pictiúr 5.30 min into this RTE news video.

Three New Still-Life Paintings

I haven't posted any still-life paintings for a while.
Here are a few that  Germaine will be putting in her Christmas exhibition at Swan Art.

I was inspired to do the last one by the wonderful milk jug paintings of my friend Conor Walton.

The Place of Illustration within Contemporary Art: A Discussion

Tonight I will be on a panel discussing the place of illustration within contemporary art at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

I used to be much exorcized on this issue but I haven't given it much thought in recent years so I have been dusting off a few ideas.

Thursday 5th December | 6.00pm - 7.00pm,  Lecture Room, IMMA 

In association with the forthcoming exhibition, Pictiúr: Exhibition of Children’s Illustrations, a panel discussion explores the place of illustration within contemporary art with artists and  illustrators. Speakers include Felicity Clear (artist),  P.J. Lynch (illustrator) and Chairperson, Brian Fay ( artists and Lecturer, DIT). 

Tony Painted by my Students at KennedyArt

We had an exceptionally good workshop at Kennedy's on Saturday.
I really feel that everyone who attended excelled themselves.

Tony was our model.
He's a great guy and has been a favourite model of mine over several years.  But this was the first time I had asked Tony to model for a portraiture class.

I had  been concerned that some of the artists might struggle with the challenges of rendering dark skin. It wouldn't be true to say that they found it easy but they all worked very hard throughout the day and everyone achieved strikingly good results.
Below are the paintings by Ann, Irene and Miriam.

Happy Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving to-day.
I have long been fascinated by the Pilgrims and their extraordinary story.
Here’s a picture that I happen to be working on at the moment. I've just started adding the first colour washes.
It shows the moment when a landing party of Pilgrims first set foot on American soil at Cape Cod. They fell to their knees to give thanks to God for bringing them safely across a vast and furious ocean. In fact their worst trials lay ahead of them.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

What "Miss Kate" Did Next

About fifteen years ago when I was looking for an actress/model for a book I was working on, my friend Ann Kavanagh introduced me to a charming young girl named Kate Brennan.
It was no surprise that Kate was already a fine actress, her parents, Martina Stanley and Stephen Brennan, are both very well known on the Irish stage and television.
Kate was perfect for the part. She showed wonderful sensitivity and worked very hard to help me bring Jessie to life.

I have watched Kate's progress through her career as an actress ever since, and was delighted to see that she is now performing as a singer too under the name "Miss Kate", and she's doing so well that she was featured in last week's Sunday Times Culture magazine.

There she is on the cover. It's just great to see Kate doing so well.

A Portrait of Lynda

I'm looking forward to giving two portrait sketch workshops in the next few weeks at Kennedy Art.

Meanwhile here is a portrait of Lynda who recently travelled up from Enniskillen to be painted by me.
Lynda is a lovely person and has just gone back to Art College herself, so we had lots of great chats about painting and drawing techniques.
She is also a terrific model to paint. 

A Portrait Drawing in Charcoal

This shows the progress I made on my demo at my portrait drawing class last night.

The model is someone I have been drawing for many years and she is one of my favourite people to draw or paint.

You can contact Germaine on 087 2142394 for more information about the classes.

Pictiúr Opens at IMMA

These two paintings from The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey are the two of mine that are included in "Pictiúr" which opens at  IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art today! 

A Charcoal Cartoon for Pictiúr

I had a lot of fun doing this sketch for a forthcoming exhibition, Pictiúr at IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin.
It was so nice to draw something funny for a change and to work so big. The original is about a metre across.
The show is curated by my friend Niamh, Laureate na nÓg, and is organized by CBI with help from the IGI.
The sketch was drawn to be one wall of a reading pod. 
Kids will be able to sit inside with their books. How cool!

Some Early Life Drawings

Here are a few life drawings that I have just come across after many years. They are from the life class at the Art College in Brighton. I was a student there in the early eighties.

I very much enjoyed the facility of a life room being available to me one day each week at college and I was experimenting with several different styles and media including coloured pencils.

The RHA Drawing Marathon

I'm looking forward to facilitating at the RHA Drawing Marathon tomorrow.

Molly will be one of the models.
Here is a drawing I did of her last week at Brian's life session at the United Arts Club.

The Nutcracker Artwork

I was messing about with this image for an event that the IGI (Illustrators Guild of Ireland) are going to do with The Art Park in Dublin.
The illustration of the Nutcracker was originally done for an exhibition and a book for Whowhatwherewhenwhy Belfast.

The Art of Superstition Opening Night

We had a wonderful launch of The Art of Superstition at the Copper House Gallery on Friday.
Here are a great bunch of photos by Mario Sughi that capture the atmosphere very well.

Portrait Sketch of Francis: Tidied Up

I worked in some background and beefed up the tone and colour in this portrait sketch of Francis  that I did first as a demo at Kennedy Art.

Above all I wanted to emphasize that amazingly strong profile that Francis has, so I pushed the gray background colour right up close to his profile, leaving just enough of the dark underpainting to make a rough outline around his face.

I usually don't let my students use green paint at all in portrait workshops because it's very hard to manage when when used  to create shadowy skin tones. I prefer to just to use blues for those cooler notes.

In this case Francis had been wearing an Ireland jersey and all my students had painted the shirt in, so I thought I would too. It works well as a block of colour and serves as a useful counterpoint to the warmer hues in his face.

My next workshop at Kennedy's with spaces available is on the 30th November.

Contact Kennedy's if you'd like to come along. 

ph  + 353 (1) 475 1749
info@kennedyart.com 

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Here is my piece from the latest IGI (Illustrators Guild of Ireland) exhibition, "The Art of Superstition", which opens this Friday at The Copper House in Dublin.
My picture illustrates a scene from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Prints of all the exhibited pieces are available at the Copper House website
.

From "A Bag Of Moonshine"

Here are a few pictures from my very first book, "A Bag Of Moonshine" by Alan Garner.
It only sold a few thousand copies so not too many of my blog visitors will have seen it.

A New Edition of "The Snow Queen"

My friends at Andersen Press have just sent me copies of a lovely new edition of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by me.

A Charcoal Sketch of Francis

Here's a charcoal and chalk portrait I did of Francis a few years ago.
It makes for an interesting comparison with the painting below.