Rosemarie O'Leary
Fine Art
The simple act of art doodling in a sketchbook can be very therapeutic. Sometimes pictures convey emotions more than words can.
Where does the time go when life just takes over? January disappeared into the ether while I lay comatose under the duvet suffering from flu. February threw curve balls left, right and centre.
The last several months of 2018 have been challenging. My health confined me, and for a while it was comforting to rest up and recuperate. It’s difficult, well almost impossible to be inspired when I’m feeling ill and in pain. But I am beginning to feel more able now, and no longer wish to be in confinement. It is time to throw back the curtains and once again say “Hello World!”
They say gardening is great for mental health, and it definitely is. It has helped me to pick myself up, dust myself off and re-evaluate what is important in life.
Art, painting wise, has been a bit of a barren few months where I seem to have lost my way, maybe because I found myself in a situation that was unsustainable. The decision to put my brush down for a few months has actually helped me to re-evaluate not only what is important in my life, but also the direction I wish to go, and how I measure things in the future. Sometimes lessons get learnt the hard way, and from people you least expect.
My painting “I Am Woman” is in the Disability Arts Cymru Annual Touring Exhibition, and I am delighted it has been selected to tour around Wales with 25 art works by other artists. The theme this year is “On The Edge”, and I chose my subject based on the fight for equality of women, and how even though it is 100 years since we were allowed to vote, we are still on the edge in many areas of the modern political and economic world. It is a statement and a celebration of I Am Woman.
The “Invisible World” Art Exhibition is a joint collaboration between myself as painter and Susan Zeppellini as ceramicist, and is well underway.
Thank you to each and every one who came and supported our launch event. It was great! But it doesn’t stop there. The exhibition continues until 1st September 2018 at The Workers Gallery. Each Saturday from 11.30am to 2.30pm we are in residence at the gallery for open and informal chats about our work with sketchbooks and images to hand that show progression of ideas to the finished art works. Our last Saturday, will be on the last day of the art exhibition, on 1st September.
Susan Zeppellini and myself were delighted that our art exhibition “The Invisible World” was received by visitors with such positive comments.
“I’ve not seen anything like this before, beautiful!”,
“what a wonderful subject to be inspired by”,
“the ceramics and paintings really compliment one another”,
“I love the colours and shapes!”
and more, which was incredibly encouraging.
Following months of studying pond water, flora and fauna under the microscope, The Invisible World Art Exhibition is finally coming to fruition. A collection of my paintings will be on show at The Workers Gallery, Ynyshir in the South Wales Valleys with ceramic sculptures by Susan Zeppellini. My paintings represent the cellular structures of living plants and the invisible world I discovered in my garden birdbath, and local streams and ponds.
Working in collaboration with another artist stretches the mind
It’s a good day in the art studio even when I don’t pick up a single paint brush. Working in collaboration with another artist is very rewarding. Following on from my last blog post, Susan Zeppellini came to join me the other day for a session of exploration of nature through the lens of a microscope. There is so much to explore. So far together, we’ve looked at the cellular level of a flower, bracket fungi and lichen on trees, and the remnants of a colourful autumn leaf.