Mark Halpin Illustrations

A good friend of mine Mark Halpin is selling his work in the Pop-Up shop in Bourkes on Catherine St. As soon as I saw the first picture here I told him I was buying it, it was hung in the shop with a red dot on it so nobody else could buy it(but still displayed so people could see how great his work is). Then when John saw the balloon piece (above) and he couldn't resist it either. I lived with Mark during and after college for 5 years and I was always surrounded by bits of his work, mostly odds and ends of sketches. So now it will be great to have two finished pieces on the wall. I'll add them to my growing collection of art that I'm gathering this year...here...and.... here.

His A4 illustrations are at a crazy reasonable €40, with smaller works starting at €25. He uses any materials at hand, like pencils, pen, paint, crayon, but his current favourite is Pantone Makers, which have a really lovely flat finish, with a wide range of painterly colours. Mark has been away in France for the past few years, and it's great to see how his work has evolved while he has been away. He has now returned to Limerick, and his work was a great success in the Pop-Up shop. I'm currently trying to convince him to set up an Etsy shop as I think his work would sell really well, and he has such an edgy and textured style.

In the meantime you can see his work on Deviant Art

Sustainable Materials Exhibition opening

Orla Redican - Ev+A Dress

Marianne Kenny Modelling Nice Day Designs Dress

The opening for the sustainable arts exhibition was on last night, and there was a fantastic turnout. I was so busy running around talking to people and making sales (woohoo!) that I nearly forgot to take pictures. I heard really great feeback from people, saying it was one of the best shows they had seen in the gallery for years. I know this sounds awful but usually in group shows half of it is filler, but in this show there really wasn't any. There is an amazing mix of artists working in every discipline, from fashion, ceramics, sculture, painting, weaving, jewellery, performance and mixed media. There were some familiar faces too,Orla Redican from Farapinalia made this fantastic dress from the old Ev+A sign that had been lying in a skip. My ex-flatmate of 5 years Mark Halpin showed his wonderful illustrations of found tiles. I got to meet the lovely Missy Bonkers while I was drooling over her beautiful clothes. There were also handwoven mats made from found rope by etsy seller Conscious Crafts.

Mark Halpin- Drawing on Found Tiles

Missy.Bonkers Beanbag and cushions

Conscious Crafts -Recycled mats

Other highlights for me was the performance art piece where I guy was doing clay sculptures on his head, very playful and facinitating. Another artist has beautiful cutlery made from found metal and wire, I wanted to take those home, if I had money I would have bought them, they were stunning. I also really loved the mixed media paintings that had loads of found toys and knick knacks in them, they were a riot of colour and you could look at them all day long.

I'm delighted to be part of such an amazing show, it will continue for 6 weeks, and there will be lots of workshops from the artists. More details of which I'll poost about as I hear them. A big thank you goes out to Diarmuid Neilan for organising this fantastic show, I'm sure it's been a lot of hard work. Also I'd really like to thank my beautiful model Marianne Kenny for being stunning, and very patient in those high heels.