21st April 2010

10 minute drawing of a container.

I've started this blog as a way of overcoming a creative block that I have been experiencing. Usually I spend holidays from teaching to create new work, but over this Easter holiday I found it near impossible to start painting, no matter how much time I left for myself to do it, or how clean and welcoming I had made my desk and resources. While I was in Ireland, I got a little shock when I saw the work of an old friend, Richard Hearn. I've known Richard since he used to come into 'The Framing Place' in Malahide to get his pieces framed back in 2007. I remember Richard being offered a local job teaching in Dublin and not taking it on the basis that it was "now or never" for him to either become a serious teacher or become a serious artist. He choose the more difficult and financially unstable path of being an artist. At that time I thought that we were at about the same level, with Richard being just a little more talented and driven than me. Now after 3 years of daily painting Richards skills are amazing, the paintings I saw looked like Dutch still lives and showed a profound understanding of the oil painting media. He's also an absolutely lovely guy and deserves every success that comes to him. This blog is inspired by Richard's original blog which was a small daily paintings blog and is intended to help me to extend my skills and boost my creative energy.