Culture Night

Last night the junior girls from Beresford House visited Airfield House, Farm and Gardens as part of  'Culture Night'.  The programme of events at Airfield included viewing the farm and gardens, a printing demonstration as well as an opportunity to learn some stitching techniques and live music from the Hot Club of Dublin.

Our pupils arrived at Airfield just in time to take part in the tour of the Farm. Animals on the farm included chickens, geese, sheep, cows, pigs, horses, and goats.

After the tour there was time to visit the printing studios where pupils undertook to complete a mono print. This was all the more meaningful as a number of Form I pupils are currently involved in a print project in our own art room.




Pupils choose an image to print.

The image is etched
onto a plastic plate.

Ink is applied to the plate.





The plates are lined up ready to print



Pupils assist by preparing paper for printing

The prints are put through the press.

The finished prints are examined.

Finally the pupils enjoyed a relaxing moment in Airfield house listening to some music performed by the Hot Club of Dublin.

Culture Night

Among a few items worth pointing out is this year's Culture night which takes place tomorrow on Fri 23rd September. There are lots of events organised and well worth visiting. Visit the ART section of the website for full details on arty events.

If you were lucky enough to have obtained a 'Culture Night' free ticket for the Dublin Contemporary 2011,  Ireland's International Art Exhibition, then this too is well worth a visit. Visit the official website for info on tickets and what is on show. The exhibit runs until October 31st so there are plenty of opportunities to visit.

Anna Bjerger, 'The Furnicular', Oil on board, 70 x 60 cm , 2008,

And finally, in yesterday's Irish Times an article about the restoration of one of the National Galleries most treasured pieces appeared.

Tim O Brien writes, 'The National Gallery of Ireland has put its ongoing conservation of the iconic painting The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife online.

While the painting, described as one of the most important historic works in the gallery’s collection, is being conserved, visitors to the gallery’s website will be able to see into previously restricted areas, accessing updates of the work in progress through pictures and videos. There is also a document archive and descriptions of the significance of the painting.

The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife is the work of Cork-born artist Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) and is, in the words of the gallery’s director, Raymond Keaveney, “the size of a small lawn”. The online resource includes a timeline recording the various stages of the project since autumn 2010, when conservation was initiated'.

The rest of the article can be read HERE

Exhibition Review

Posted today is Phoebe Morrell's (Form II) account of her visit to The Pearse Museum earlier in the week to see the Irish Guild of Embroiderers Exhibition  titled 'Off the Wall'.

Today I went to The Pearse Museum with all of the Form II art pupils. In our art lessons at the moment we are focusing on the topic of embroidery, which is an image made up of different materials that have been sewn onto a background of your choice. At the Museum there were loads of different pictures, with many types of materials. Some pictures were very peaceful when I looked at them, because of the gentle colours the artist had used or the scene they had chosen to depict. One of my favourite ones was The Ocean Way by Mary Gray. It was a mixed-media water-scene made up of fabric, stitching and layers of paint. It also included hand embroidery stitches in cotton and metallic thread. I liked it because it was very simple but very pretty at the same time, with a lovely golden orange goldfish in the centre, surrounded by different shades of blues and some greens. It was a lovely experience for my first Art Trip.

By Phoebe Morrell, (Form II).

Pearse Museum

Today Form II visited St. Enda's Park where they viewed the Embroiderers Guild  Exhibition on the top floor of the Pearse Museum. Here they saw a number of traditional as well as contemporary embroidery techniques. Posted today are some images of the pupils at work in the Museum as well as a group shot in the courtyard beside the Museum!

Embroidery Exhibition

Tomorrow,  Form II artists will visit the Irish Guild of Embroiderers exhibition 'Off the Wall ', which is on display at the Pearse Museum in Rathfarnham.

Pupils will examine  traditional embroidery techniques, in addition to some of the latest innovations regarding fabric printing, dying and machine embroidery.