Sky Arts Tv Portrait Festival; Dublin

I just got back from Dublin yesterday, I was selling my portrait work at the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Festival in the RDS. Much to my surprise I was contacted a while back by Sky Arts to sell my work at this event. The last two weeks was a bit of a mad rush to get everything printed, packaged and prepped, which was especially difficult given how glorious the weather has been. I made a lot of stock expecting a bigger crowd, but the sun was against us as most people stayed outdoors. It was still a lovely event and I got to meet some really amazing artists.

You might recognise a couple of the canvas bags from my Etsy shop or bookstall, but I really expanded my range for this festival. I did loads of new author paintings and also go the images printed onto 5x7" cards. I've started listing the cards already online, but as the week goes on I'll get around to listing everything else. I'm not really happy with the staging of the photos that I did for the cards, so I plan to re-do them this week, and make them more bookish. Also now that I have the original paintings mounted I think I will put them on sale too. Watch this space!

The main part of the event was artists competing on the day for national portrait artist of the year. As far as I could gather they have traveled around four different cities hosting these types of festivals, at each show the artists have four hours to paint a model. At the end of the day a winner is chosen, an overall winner is then chosen, with the prize being £10,000. It was amazing to see the artists work, especially under such a high pressure situation, I know I couldn't do it!

There were lots of events on throughout the day for people to take part in like life drawing classes, sculpture, face painting, and face reading. These graffiti artists were amazing to watch as the day went on.

As I said it was lovely to meet some great artists on the day. I have known Tanya online for a good while now but this was the first time I got to meet her in person, which was great. Tanya has a very successful Etsy shop and a big following on Facebook. Some friends of mine got some of her work at the weekend, and I think my nice would really like a piece for Christmas too.

I also met Shane O'Donoghue, we quite obviously have subject matters in common, but a really different take on them. I really liked the style of his work, it probably appeals to the printmaker in me. All of his designs are cut by hand first and then laser cut afterwards. I'm very tempted by these amazing bookends as a present for myself when I'm feeling a bit more flush. 

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From Ruby Robin Boutique I met the lovely Kay and her super nice helper Sarah (??), they were like a beam of friendliness! I fell in love with all of their jewellery, and wanted to buy loads of it, but poor sales stopped me from indulging myself. But through the wonders of the internet I can drool over their lovely things online until I feel the need to spoil myself in the near future.

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 I had also seen Jokamin's stuff online before, I think I stumbled across her stuff on Facebook. I love the style of her work, both the paintings and the ceramics. You can see how hard it was for me not to buy all the amazing stuff that was for sale.

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How cool is this Zooey Deschanel print??? Again more things that tempted me into spending my rent money! Basically if anyone ever wanted to buy me a present I would have been happy with anything from any of the stall holders. (on a side note I must say I love her product photography, it's a good kick up the arse to step up my game when it comes to product staging).

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Being Sick and Watching My So Called Life

My so Called Life-Rayanna by nicedaydesigns featuring a black denim skirt

I've been off the radar for a while as I got my four wisdom teeth out of Friday. I was a first for me as I was never in hospital and I had no idea what to expect. The nurses and doctors were really lovely, and helped put my nerves at ease. I was put under for the operation so I wasn't in any pain at all, thank God! I wasn't able to sleep off the anesthetic so I was pretty loopy by the time I was leaving in hospital. I was expecting to feel pretty awful for a few days, but I didn't foresee being bedridden for 5 days! The painkillers that they put me on made me really ill and incredibly weak. I just about managed to shuffle to and from the bathroom. On the Monday out of sheer disgust with myself I took a shower, but I nearly fainted from the heat and having to stand up so long. I really wasn't expecting to feel this bad at all! People warned me about the pain, which I haven't felt much of because I've been on planet la-la drugs. Today I'm feeling a lot better, and even made my own breakfast, but I haven't braved the outside world yet. I think tomorrow might involve a very slow walk to the end of the street to go to the shops; thrilling!


All I've been eating is soup, mashed potato, jelly, scrambled eggs, and Yop. In between drug induced slumber I have been hallucinating about food, everything chewy, crunchy and meaty. My first solid meal is going to be heaven!

The upside is that I've watched LOADS of tv(I was way too drugged to read). I borrowed the box set of My So Called Life and had a major nostalgia buzz. Myself and my sister were obsessed with this show, she wanted to be Angela chase, and I secretly wanted to be Rayanne the crazy alcoholic friend. We actually met Jared Leto (the heart throb of the show) on Grafton St. It's the only time I've ever been start struck, we were teens, he was from tv, and American(OMG!), it was pretty cool. Now looking back he was pretty nice to us, and stayed chatting for a few minutes. I made the above Polyvore as an Homage to Rayanne's pretty fantastic wardrobe.

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Hotty But Notty: Louis Theroux

Hotty But Notty (Part 16): Louis Theroux 

My Hotty But Notty series has returned at last! To those of you who missed it let me explain. For years I've gotten a slagging from my friends for fancying nerds, and never the typical Hollywood 'hot' guy, most of them thought I was a little nuts. Well it turns out there is a word to describe people who find intelligence sexually attractive, it's sapiosexual, I'm glad there are enough people like me to warrant a word. Last year I started a fun series called Hotty But Notty to champion the a-typical hotties in the world and I was delighted with the response I got. Some previous entries have included David Krumholtz, Mark Kermode, Christopher Eccleston, and Tim Roth. The only reason I stopped was that I started to run out of candidates. I'll continue to post these entries on a Friday, but I probably won't do one every week...unless I get some suggestions from you guys.

This weeks candidate is Louis Theroux; the thinking ladies totty. He is a documentary film maker who records the lives of the weird and wonderful in a bumbling non-judgmental English manner. He has done programmes on the porn industry, a brothel, a prison, a religious cult, and plastic surgery to name just a few topics. He tends to let his subjects show their own madness, and then quietly and gently guides them through logical questions about their bizarre lives.

I think it's this quietness mixed with his obvious intelligence that is so charming, there isn't a brash series of judgments, more a naive curiosity to learn. He is tall and gangling, and always seems to be making himself smaller in a room, maybe in a effort to make those he is interviewing more at ease.

Another thing that he does brilliantly is playing the straight man in a bizarre situation. In the video below you can watch him asking a manager about becoming a body builder, and very strangely the conversation leads to selling soiled underwear.

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Game of Thrones

I have become totally addicted to Game of Thrones, along with pretty much everyone one else I know. It's based of the series of books A Song of Ice and Fire by George.R.R.Martin. It totally makes sense to make a fantasy series into a television programme and it cuts out all the hassle of making 3 1/2 hr epic movies that will never be as good as the book. So far in the tv programme there has been very little left out, and you don't have to suffer a numb arse, as was had while watching Lord of The Rings. HBO have a pretty cool website for the series with interactive maps and family details, which is probably helpful for those who have not read(gotten totally addicted to) the books.

I read lots of fantasy books, and most of the time I love the fanastical story, but more often than not the characters are a mix of wooden, chauvinistic, and plain irritating. In contrast Martin's characters are layered, compelling, intelligent; even the 'bad' guys are likable because they are so well written. This is fantasy for grown-ups, where politics and intrigue just happen to be in a magical world, with all it's delicious complexities.

Tyrion Lannister is definitely the best character, he gets all the wittiest lines, and is a master puppeteer in the political circus. The character in the book is fantastic and Peter Dinklage is cast brilliantly in this role, you might remember him from The Station Agent and Intermission.

The texture and detail in the show is fantastic, it's amazing the budgets that tv programmes get now, it's like watching a film. I would be tempted to buy the dvd box set just to watch the extras so I could see all the work that went into it. While we are on the subject of dvd extras, it drives me mad when there aren't good ones, in an age of downloading they really have to offer you more to coax you into buying the box set. I watched The Borgias recently and they had 2 minute soundbite HBO specials about the production. It was like watching a children's show it was so dumbed down. It seems illogical to have a simplistic reality tv style documentary to accompany a show that is quite intelligent; if an audience is smart enough to get the plot I'm sure they have a longer attention span than 2 minutes. Has anyone watched the Game of Thrones extras, are they any good?

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Hand Series RTE Documentary

I bought the Hands Series for John for his Christmas present, most people who don't know him raised an eyebrow when they heard this. People thought this was an exercise in self gifting in disguise, but I swear he really wanted it, probably because he is an historian, it's just an added bonus that I was dying to see it too!

The documentary is a detailed look at the traditions of Irish crafts, recording methods that are now being lost.Hands was made in the the 70s by David and Sally Shaw-Smith and was aired on RTE, if you are interested in watching it you can buy the 37 episode box set from the couples website. Although be warned it may seem a tad pricey with the hefty tag of €150 plus P&P, but trust me it's worth every penny.

Last night we sat down to watch the first three episode on patchwork, lace making, and embroidery. I thought I knew a fair bit about these disciplines but the level of skill involved literally blew my mind. A few minutes into watching it my jaw dropped and remained open for the remainder of the three shows. The lace episode is awe inspiring, the work is so meticulous and time consuming. We take lace for granted these days because it's made by machine, but to actually see these patterns penned out, prepped and sewn was pretty amazing.

I liked the pace of the documentary too, it is not like modern tv where there is lots of condescending repetition and flashy angles. It's also lovely to have a window into old Ireland too, it made me nostalgic for my childhood with my Mum making curtains/rugs/lampshades. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Silversmith episode as some of it was shot where my Dad worked as a jeweler for his whole life, he swears there is a shot of his hand in it!

I'm sure I'll do another blog post about this after I've watched, and re-watched, all 37 episodes, but I was just too excited not to tell you all about this set. John gave the gift a high compliment when he said it was a better present than the whole box set of The Wire(which I got for him on a previous xmas), from a guy that's saying a lot.

You can also find them on twitter here.

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I'm Loving Kirstie's Handmade Britain

I'm loving Kirstie Allsopp's  new series 'Kirstie's Handmade Britain', where she travels around the UK trying out newly learned craft techniques at country shows. It's lovely to see how involved she gets in each of the competitions, there is quite a sweet moment at the end of episode 1. Allsopp had previously made the fab series Kirstie's Handmade Home where she learned lots of crafty skills to help decorate her home. There are very few things on tv that interest me, let alone something that is about art and crafts for adults. If you are in the UK or Ireland you can watch it on 4OD, which is where I watch it as I don't have tv.

Tv or not Tv

Due to our recent move we do not have our tv reception sorted out, and to be honest I don't even know if there is any cable wired in. It's nealy a month that we are in our lovely abode and it's been nice not to have the reliable fallback of tv. I found I was watching way too much of it, even when there was nothing on I still watched it, it was a horrible time and energy sucker. I find I'm going to bed at a more normal hour now and waking up without a big grumpy head on me (this is quite helpful as we have 4 skylights in our bedroom so sleeping late is very difficult).

But let me clarify I'm not a complete saint who sits and listens to the wireless and does needle point by candle light. We do have a dvd player and I have been watching lots of films over the past 4 weeks. I somehow see this as less wasteful than sitting down and watching back to back 'house doctor' and 'property ladder' though. I'm really proud of John for sticking with it, he was a complete tv addict, but now he seems quite content not to have it, fingers crossed it will last. I had no tv for 3 years when I was in college so I didn't find it that much of a shock to the system. Our joint compulsion to hoard dvds has come in useful though and I've been rewatching all those films I've been saving for a rainy evening.Here are a few highlights

Casino
Keep The Aspidistra Flying
Howards End
The Land Girls
Juno
The Holy Grail
Conan The Barbarian

Nationwide Video

At long last I am able to offer you the Nationwide piece I was featured in, on Jan 5th. Thanks a million to Eoin Madsen for all his help with getting this onto youtube.
Here is the link if you want to watch it in higher definition.