I am thrilled to be invited to exhibit at Wicklow Artist: A Gathering in aid of SVP in Greystones this year along with other great Wicklow artists. The pop up gallery is in La Touche Place around the corner from the Happy Pear. It opens this Saturday at 2pm and runs till the 17th of December. I have a number of paintings on sale including my very large to my little ones. All are welcome so come down and check it out!
I have a few paintings on the go at the moment, it helps me try not to over work the painting. Something I struggle with a lot of the time.. The ‘knowing when to stop’ is something I think most artists try to do and for me I find leaving the painting for a day or so can help see where to go or not to. Its a bit different each time and how I see something differs all the time, so it is sometimes based on my mood or thoughts at that time.
I have been doing a lot of plein air drawings lately out in the open landscape. I want express through these drawings a sense of atmosphere in the landscape I have been surrounded by. I am abstracting what I see and also what I don’t see. I am really enjoying expression in an abstract way through these drawings.
Transferring this onto canvas is a very different experience and I see the drawings more of a study or observation for painting but in a non analytical way, similar to visual note taking of what I want to express on canvas. These drawings and sketches have surprisingly helped me push abstraction in a more free and loose way. Like gestures of the memory of a place or thing or sometimes neither a place or thing.. It just feels right and I am more excited than ever to be in my studio painting and painting, probably for the first time ever..
I am painting a lot of new work and I will share these here on my website in the near future. Come back again soon if you’d like to have a look.
This was meant to be a study for a new painting but I feel it’s painted itself to a place I already.. Who knows..
In progress..
My current new series is all about pushing abstraction more than I have ever done before. Responding to my surrounding landscape and being so passionate about nature, forests and the open landscape. The colours are influenced by the bright vibrant summer light that is being experienced here in Ireland lately.
This is only a short rough video idea on the current direction I am taking and I am very excited about it indeed!
Have a look here on my Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/dervalfreem… ) if you are interested to see more of my everyday visual diary and art in progress.
