Painting Workshop: July 28, 2022 | Lisa Blas | Meet me at the dawn | Bualadh liom ag breacadh an lae

July 29, 2022 in artistinresidence, teaching, summer2022, Skibbereen, artists, Ireland

At 5:00 am, July 28, 2022, I conducted a dawn painting workshop for the local community, at the edge of Lough Hyne, Ireland's first Marine Nature Reserve, 5 kilometers southwest of Skibbereen. After two hours of painting in the early morning hours, we returned to Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre for tea, to share readings on the subject of the dawn by writers and archaeologists, a writing exercise on our descriptions of painting at dawn, and discussion of our paintings. I look forward to my next Dawn studio workshop on site!

Thanks to Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre and Skibbereen Arts Festival for their support of my artist residency (June-July 2022) and this workshop.

Lisa Blas | Studio view| July 2022 | West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland

Open Studio: July 16, 2022 | Lisa Blas | Routes to Oceania_fighte fuaighte | West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland

July 15, 2022 in artistinresidence, Open Studios, painting, Skibbereen, LisaBlas, Ireland, dawnstudio

Event by Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre
Artist in Residence: Lisa Blas - Open Studio - Lisa Blas | Routes to Oceania | fighte fuaighte

Saturday, July 16, 2022 | 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm GMT

Skibbereen, County Cork, P81 VW98, Ireland
Phone: +3532822090 | Email: info@westcorkartscentre.com

As an artist-in-residence at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre during June-July 2022, I am working on a site-specific body of work that draws upon the Irish language, local color, weather, light and the history of Irish landscape painting. On July 23, I will exhibit paintings in the group exhibition, Fragments in Constellation, as part of the artist collective, Re:Group. On July 28, Dawn Studio will be on site, at a special location in West Cork where the sky meets water. I will host a painting workshop beginning at sunrise, free and accessible to the local community. Further details on Re:Group’s exhibition and registration for my public engagement workshop can be found via Skibbereen Arts Festival and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.

Since March 2020, I have concentrated my artistic interest in the concept of the oculus, a portal of light connecting interior space to the outer environment. The shape emerged for me as I undertook Dawn Studio, an ongoing daily painting practice I commence at sunrise everyday. The paintings are made on mid-sized watercolor paper and aquaboard panels using watercolor, iridescent pigment, metallic ink and gouache, that inform larger paintings on canvas with acrylic ink, watercolor pencil, interference and acrylic paint.

In these early morning hours, I begin by looking out the windows at the changing light and color over the horizon and Hudson river: a meeting of sky and water that dramatically shifts through the seasons and weather. These views create multiple afterimages – residues of the morning light that remain in my eyes. Using fluid brushwork, I create curvilinear shapes with a glowing lacuna at the center. This gap, which I identify as an oculus, is an interior space that oscillates, attempting to merge with its surroundings. Its center is unstable, like the eye of a hurricane that changes shape or direction suddenly. These forms hover between abstraction and representation, yet refer distinctly to place.

Lisa Blas | Skibbereen, Ireland
July 12, 2022

Artist-in-residence: Lisa Blas | West Cork Arts Centre | Skibbereen, Ireland | June-July 2022

June 21, 2022 in artistinresidence, painting, Skibbereen, Ireland, summer2022

Greetings to all on this day of the summer solstice!

I am currently Artist-in-residence, at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Ireland, June - July 2022. While in the region, I am working on a site-specific body of work that draws upon local color, weather, light, and the history of Irish landscape painting. Parallel to this research, I am thinking about the notion of islands that embody personal and communal origins, formal circularity and interstitial spaces on the periphery.

In July, Dawn studio will be on site, in a special location where the sky meets water. I will host a painting workshop at sunrise, free and accessible to the local community. Stay tuned for further details on my public engagements and Open Studio via Instagram and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.