Happy Christmas everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the festivities. :-) Weather awful for this time of year - rain, rain and more rain with wind thrown in for extra measure! However I'm sure it didn't spoil your Christmas. Although with the flooding in the south and west it wasn't a very good one for those affected and I see on the news that the UK is having some of the worst flooding ever. :-( We had a slight respite this morning for an hour or so after a heavy frost last night but it's back to the norm again and more rain on the way.
I want to get back in to my art soon but was playing with textures yesterday and came up with this piece. Want to re-appraise what I have been doing over the last while and see where I am going with my art. Just a matter of getting Christmas over with and then getting back into the studio properly.
Wishing you all a very happy New Year 2-16 and thank you all for staying with me up  to now. :-)

Hi everyone!

Well now - what's been happening? :-)
I have three of my paintings in the Artists rest exhibition at Balrothery Heritage Centre this weekend. The opening on Friday night was very well attended and the venue is so lovely as it is an old church, beautiful place. It was such a stormy night that I didn't think many would turn up for the event but so many made the effort to come and it made the night.  Great art there - 107 paintings in all by 47 artists. They are also planning a Photography exhibition and a 'recyclables' art exhibition too which will be interesting. :-)
I am still exploring textures but also want to do other abstract water media work and have a few different things that I want to work on. I also got some beautiful new alcahol inks and am having fun with them. I will show you what I did so far.
With Christmas coming in fast and I have guests staying with me at the moment though, it will probably be after Christmas before I get into it fully. Although I do intend to do quite  bit over the holiday period.
I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas and great New Year and thank you for your support during the year. :-)

Working on texture effects yesterday.....
                                                                did this little piece....
see what you think...

Hi everyone! :-)
So I bought some new materials for my mixed media art and I will be trying out new expressive work using lovely natural beeswax and damar resin which I think is beautiful.
Just trying to get the time to get started as I never seem to have enough hours in the day to do all that I want to do! I have also recently collecting beach finds like sea glass, nice stones, chaney, pottery chards, driftwood too as I love to unwind by going beachcombing for these items and intend to make some little crafts, small amount of jewellery, sea pictures etc., for selling as I have always loved doing this when I was a child and am enjoying re-kindling my love for this type of collecting.
I have to be careful though because I am inclined to love so many things  (love everything!) that I can get waylaid with so many ideas (my mind never stops!) that in the end I get very little done and am inclined to be a lot of 'talk' and not enough 'action'! LoL  :-) So I have to watch that!
Bought beautiful new acrylic inks and experimented with them - great fun ! And the colours are scrumptuous! I started off by laying down the colours - autumnal hues, and then added more and then mopped up some of the intensity and it came out like below so see what you think. I will probably put a few more colours down so it may not be finished yet! At any of these three stages this painting could have been a finished painting. The middle one seems to be the most popular one . Take a look and see what you think. :-)

I call it "Autumn Glory 1".....acrylic inks on watercolour paper....

Hi all! :-)
I came across this old rolled up canvas yesterday and unrolled it to have a look. I did it when I was mad about Jackson Pollock's work at the time. It was a great freeing up exercise at the time and I love colour as you know. My friend loved it as she can see an old coach and horses in it, like in Victorian times and I see it myself - can you? :-)
I called it "Coach and four" - see what you think. It is a long one at 167.64cm x 45.72cm ( 5 and a half feet x 1 and a half feet). It is done in mixed paints...

So guys..... I did another bit to this one today....see what you think. :-)

Hi everyone,

I am working on this small collage with acrylic inks and paint at the moment.
It's a little bit different and I am enjoying it very much, and I will probably finish it shortly.  I will also put up a final photo of it when it is fully finished but this is where I am at now.

My exhibition at the Axis Arts and Community Centre in Ballymun, Dublin has ended and I will be collecting my paintings  during the week. When I am  exhibiting with the paintings gone to the venue and hanging, I have lots of space here for a while but when I get paintings back, suddenly I am choc-a-bloc with them again with the unsold ones trying to find space for them!  Ah well - that's the way it goes! :-)

Autumn is in and the leaves are turning colour - it is my favourite season for colour! I will be snap happy with my camera soon and will use some as reference for paintings, can't wait.
Have a lovely weekend everyone! 
Here is a pic of the painting I am working on:

This is one that I am working on.... I am showing you here the process of making this work. I am nearly there now but quite often after leaving it for a few days, I may change it completely! :-)

Hi everyone. :-)
Working away on textural paintings.   My textures are inspired by nature.
These are ones I was trying out lately, only in early stages - see what you think.

I enjoyed doing these textures and colours - what do you think? :-)

At this time of year, every year, just as Autumn is almost around the corner - the by-roads and laneways are full of blackberry blossom for the blackberry harvest in September/October and they are so beautiful. I love the colours of the blossoms and indeed I love the blackberries when they arrive and I have great memories of collecting blackerries as a child with my sisters and brothers. We would use all sorts of containers - buckets, milk bottles, mugs, plastic containers etc. and then my mother used to make blackberry jam with them. Of course, we ate half of them and arrived home with purple covered faces which were the tell-tale signs! :-D

This is my inspiration for doing these two works and I hope you enjoy them. ;-)

Hi everyone!

Nice sunny morning - so far anyway but no doubt the rain will not be far away per usual. Summer a wash-out this year and I can feel Autumn on its way already! Mind you, Autumn is my favourite month of the year with its colours, hues and textures in the drying leaves. :-)
All set for the Rush Festival at the weekend and dropped in my 3 paintings along with Glenn's 4 for the first art trail in the village. Over 40 artists are exhibiting their works at several indoor and outdoor venues. I have to do a shift too on the Sunday morning from 11 - 2 pm to help out. I hope the weather keeps up as the committee have gone to a lot of trouble this year to make it bigger than usual, fair play to them and well done. The craft stalls will be up with everything from handmade jewellery to photography, home grown vegetables, animals for the kids, face-painting, fairground rides like last year etc., etc., so should be good.
I was working on this little piece yesterday so am putting it up here for you now.  :-)

Have a lovely day everyone.

It is 25.4cm x 25.4cm,  acrylic on board. Hasn't got a title yet but poppies will be in it anyway!

So I am working on textural effects lately and really enjoying it.
 
This piece is called "Warrior's golden shield"...mixed media on canvas...50.8cm x 40.64cm.

Irish history is full of ancient celtic warriors. I consider myself a warrior - one who will get up time after time again no matter what slings and arrows life throws at me - so I guess you could call me a type of warrior too! :-)

Hi everyone. :-)

My exhibition at Axis Arts and Community Centre in Ballymun is on until the 14th August if any of you would like to pop up to see my paintings.
 
I have also been invited to show some work at the upcoming Rush Harbour Festival on the August bank holiday weekend and I am putting three pieces into that in a group showing from local artists. There will be various venues, indoors and outdoors at the festival - an art trail, for people to see local art.

In the meantime, I am working on new textures as I love textures in nature which is always where I get my inspiration.  I also love flowers and their colours and shapes and try to get that across in my loose abstract and semi-abstract watermedia works on paper.

My art takes me to places within myself that help me to switch off from daily worries as I lose myself in my studio and work, I just find it so wonderful to be there. :-)

Just to remind you all that I can be found also on the following:

http://facebook.com/eileenkeelanart
www.eileencoleman.wix.com/eileenkeelan
www.newirishart.com/eileenkeelan

I also have a photography page:

http://facebook.com/eileenkeelanphotography

I've been trying out new textures and enjoying it and learning quite a lot.

This is one, done on box canvas, using texture paste with glue down first and a few layers of different coloured acrylic paint and then the top layer pulled away in places to reveal brighter textures. See what you think. :-)

This is a large triptych that I did for my dear friend Pauline who was 70 years old recently. I delivered it to her yesterday and she loved it. :-) She had wanted a large painting for her sitting room for over her sofa for a long time and I did this for that spot. She was so surprised - I didn't give her any indication coming up to her birthday that I was doing it and she was shocked and delighted when I brought it up to her. I was so happy that she liked it. :-)

137.16cm x 50.8cm

Hi everyone.

Weather has taken up at last and it's really lovely.  At least we can go out without a jacket and wear Summer clothes at last. :-)
Plenty of inspiration for art all around (is there ever not!) ! My Spider Lily is in full bloom - and I bought it in "Bloom" too!! :-D The "Bloom" Garden festival was on in the Phoenix park on the June bank holiday weekend at the beginning of the month and I bought 3 of these to see what they were like as they looked lovely from the photo with them, planted them a few days later and viola - they are up! They are so different and so lovely and aptly named "Spider lily" I am putting a photo up for you to see. I just love the beautiful swirls of the petals and the trumpet-like middle and it catches the sun so easily and shines through them as they are very delicate - they are beautiful! So pleased I bought them! :-) 
Other that that, I have been trying out new textures and inks and having fun with those. Take a look. :-)

Now isn't that a gorgeous flower?! :-

"Summer in blue" ...acrylic inks on paper.......50.8cm x 38.1cm

Hi everyone!
Busy working on a large triptych at the moment as a gift for a friend for a special birthday. Hoping she will like it!
In the meantime, may 44 paintings are all hanging in the Axis Arts and Community centre in Ballymun. On until the 15th August.
This is a painting I found the other day hidden behind a few others.
I call it "French Summer"....mixed media on canvas.... :-)

I am exhibiting at the Axis Arts and Community Centre, Ballymun from the 15th June to the 15th August.
Admission free and all welcome to come along to see my work.  

Arts Centre & Community Resource Centre - axis, Ballymun

"Floral dance"....acrylic on paper....55.9cm x 37.1cm

Adding another painting that was inspired by my visit to Spain. :-)

Poinettias grow out in the open in Spain unlike in this country where we usually get them for indoors only at Christmas time every year. Such a beautiful flower - love their red colour.
It is drying as I speak here, I have rock salt crystals in the wetter parts to give a nice textural effect and when it is totally dry, I will just brush them off leaving their mark. :-)

Three new pieces for you to take a look at - inspired by my recent trip to southern Spain where there is so much colour everywhere. :-) 

Hi everyone!
Well I was away on my annual holiday with my sister for a week on the Costa del Sol in Southern Spain and had a lovely time. I'm refreshed and ready to begin new works. the colours of Spain are very inspiring, I just love them. :-)
Just putting up a few photos for you to see what I mean about colour there! ;-)

The exhibition in Skerries Mills finishes today.
I will also be exhibiting at the Axis centre in Ballymun from the 15th June to mid August if any of you would like to come along to see my work. :-)
As you all know, I just love colour and especially texture. With that in mind,  I am so looking forward to going to the annual "Bloom" flower and garden festival coming up in the Phoenix park on the bank holiday weekend in June to see the most wonderful displays of flowers and gardens, it always gives me such great inspiration for my art.
Leaving you with these paintings that I have been working on .
Have a lovely Sunday everyone. ;-)