Belfast Print Workshop

I had a fantastic day being taught how to monoprint at the Belfast Print Workshop yesterday.

 Playing with gorgeous vibrant oils, collages and using a giant printing press. Great teaching and lovely group of students who like me wanted to brush up on their skills and try out new techniques. 

Ai Wei Wei at the RA

Looking forward to going in to see this exhibition, but in the meantime I really enjoyed walking through the striking installation of sections of trees in the courtyard: collected from the mountains of southern China. 

Floating

The latest addition to my series of drawings of camellia, the national flower of Yunnan. This charcoal drawing is 29x42cm

Feast of Irish Colour

Monica Boyle Falacies of Hope VI

Yesterday I was delighted to discover the Barbara Stanley Gallery on Connaught Street which shows Irish contemporary art. What a find. I recognise some of the artists and loved seeing lots of Irish landscapes, as my own dissertation at university was on Irish landscape art. The soft atmospheric colours in some of the paintings are typically Irish with the good old Atlantic weather fronts blowing in - usually bringing rain!
I was struck by the rich glowing colours in Monica Boyle and Cormac O'Leary's paintings.

Looking forward to seeing more Irish art in future shows at this Gallery, especially having had a warm welcome from the owner.

Cormac O'Leary All Soul's Night

First painting sold

I've been experimenting with inks and oil pastels in my Jasmine series over the past few months. I've loved layering sumptuous colours in different media in dozens of studies.

Huge jasmine flowers suspended in water become surreal floating landscapes with depth.

I've sold my first finished Jasmine painting, after many many studies and it's gone to a lovely home in Belfast! 

Floating Jasmine

Summer shows are now over and I've loved getting back to playing with paint again, inspired by colour saturation on the west coast of Sweden.

Here is a preview of my new series 'Floating Jasmine' with underwater flowers in luscious colours.

I'll soon be back in Flux Studios working on my new silver collections, ready for autumn. Revving up for a summer of creating.

Claire Hart Design in the Yard Gallery

For those of you back in NI, the next time you're in Holywood have a coffee at The Yard Gallery where you can see two of my newly-arrived paintings -  Chinese teacups with blossom. They were framed at my favourite local gallery Great Expectations in Camberwell, SE London - and what a fantastic job they've done. I'm looking forward to calling in to The Yard next time I'm back in Belfast.