Homeland - New Solo Exhibition and Video

'Our Mountain', 60x60cms

My new exhibition, Homeland, opens in The Doorway Gallery on June 27th.

I'm starting to get excited about it now and am really looking forward to seeing the reaction to my latest 'Family' paintings. It's a little bit of a departure for me and has made the new show much more personal. I don't have too many of them in the exhibition but just enough to tell a little story of our time living on Achill Island.


That's the family there in the painting above, on 'our beach', under 'Our Mountain'. Jack the dog isn't ours but he likes to hang around and play with the kids, so he get's to be in the painting!

Homeland Video

I put together a short video, a mix of paintings from the show and some footage that I shot in my studio of me talking about the ideas behind the exhibition. It features a song from The Harvest Ministers, 'You do my world the world of good'.

This was the first single we ever released, it was recorded around the kitchen table in the recording studio in one live take. It's still one of my favourites and just goes to show that sometimes that special 'magic' comes only once and you have to learn to leave as it is once you've found it, and don't go trying to 'improve' or tamper with it. Just like a painting!

New Work On Show at the Affordable Art Fair in London this Week

The Affordable Art Fair takes place again this week in Hampstead, London and once again the Doorway Gallery will be exhibiting some new work of mine there.

'Riverbank Rooftops' Oil on Canvas, 60x60cms by Padraig McCaul

 If you would like free tickets to the fair please contact the gallery at..

24 South Frederick Street, Dublin 2
Ph: 01 764 5895
www.thedoorwaygallery.com 

As if to act as a reminder to me to let you know about the fair I received a lovely email over the weekend from someone who purchased a painting of mine at the fair last year. Without giving away any names I thought I would share it with you...

'I bought a painting of yours over a year ago at the affordable art show. It seemed so much money at the time and I had to pay half in cash and borrowed half off my sister. It looks amazing in my house now and I love it. Sometimes if I'm watching tv and its boring I swing my head round and sit and gaze at it instead. I've had so much pleasure from that painting, I thought you should know!'

'The Road Home' by Padraig McCaul, Oil on Canvas, 100x100cms

Now there's an email that put a smile on my face :) It's amazing how good it can make you feel when someone goes to the trouble of simply letting you know they are enjoying your work!

You should try it sometime, I know I plan to.

2 days of Sunshine, Pleasure and Painting on Achill Island

What a great weekend! I've just been reflecting on a perfect weekend painting on Achill Island with a lovely group of enthusiastic (and talented!) art lovers. Easy to see why my summer painting workshops are something I look forward to each year!

Painting workshop with Padraig McCaul on Achill Island , 2013

But this one was extra special. Glorious sunshine for the 2 days, breakfast in the garden each morning with the kids, before meeting up with the group to share some of my favourite painting locations on Achill. We spent a lot of time sketching and talking and just looking at the unspoilt views at Keel and Dooagh and Saula. The remainder of the day was spent painting indoors, absorbed in the challenges of trying to put down on canvas what we had spent the morning observing and sketching.

Then there was the bonus of getting to build friendships that I know will last for a long time. Add to that  a great evening at home on friday with friends from Dublin, a gorgeous meal on saturday night in the Bervie (top 5 places to eat in Achill according to the Irish Times) with two very special people from Canada, a celebratory pizza with the kids in Pure Magic on sunday night (also in the top 5 places to eat!) and it all adds up to the perfect weekend.

Drawing the Minaun Cliffs on Achill Island, June 2013

Next painting workshop on Achill is not until July 20/21 but I'm already working on the weather!

'West Cork Homestead' - A New Painting For The London Affordable Art Fair

I just got back from a trip to Adrigole, a small village on the Beara Penninsula in West Cork. I was dropping some new paintings into the Hungry Hill Gallery, one my favourite trips each year.

'West Cork Homestead' 80x80cms Oil on Canvas, By Padraig McCaul

It takes a while to get there from Achill, about five and a half hours, but once you turn off from the main Killarney to Cork road and start driving along the narrow Kerry roads that bring you to Kenmare, you start to forget the previous four and a half hours of monotonous driving and become enthralled by the beauty of the landscape. Thick, lush green hedgerows and trees follow the winding roads that bring you to the beautiful town of Kenmare. After that it's a drive over the Caha Pass - no time this trip to take the more scenic route over the Healy Pass - before you reach Glengarriff, nestled in the Beara landscape of barren rock and bright green fields and trees, with it's boats and pubs and tourist shops. And then it's only a short trip down to Adrigole, with Bantry Bay on one side and the mountains on the other. It's an amazing place.

And every time I go there the sun seems to be shining! But what gets me every time is just how green the landscape is, and how blue the sea is. These are my 'Cork' colours. Green and Blue. My painting 'West Cork Homestead' is typical of my 'Cork' colours. It depicts a small Irish farmhouse, with it's hayshed and barns tucked in close to it, overlooking Kenmare Bay on the other side of the Beara Penninsula to Bantry Bay.

The Doorway Gallery will be exhibiting West Cork Homestead in a few weeks time in London at the Affordable Art Fair which takes place from june 13th to 16th. Please contact the gallery via their website for invites if you would like to addend the show - they would be delighted to send you out some.

It is also one of two new Limited Edition Archival prints that I have released in advance of my upcoming solo exhibition 'Homeland', which the Doorway Gallery will be hosting this summer in Dublin (more details to come in the coming weeks). It is printed at 18"x18" on Hahnemuhle German Etching paper, signed and numbered in an edition of 100, and has been produced by the master printers themselves at Inspirational Arts,  Dublin, so the colours are sparkling!

The Limited Edition Archival print of West Cork Homeland is now available to order online at www.padraigmccaul.com . It costs €250 ($325) and includes shipping worldwide.