The secret gallery's blog » love

Love Unity

Marianne Slevin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:17:47 +0000

‘Love Unity’ Work in progress, oil on canvas Marianne Potterton 2009

We are getting married on 14 of August! Life and art have always merged for me. So it makes sense for us to get married the same day as having the opening of the exhibition ‘Merging 3’. I have been painting a lot of Love paintings and brides lately! ‘Merging 3’, will be an exhibition of Paintings by myself, Sculptures by Madeleine Irene Smyth and Paintings and Works in Ink on Japanese ply by Mary Foudy O’Halloran. In the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon, opening at 7pm on 14th August running till 12th September 2009. It is also James Birthday on the 14 August! No we are not busy at all!! James Is doing wonderful work designing all of the invitations for both the exhibition and our wedding as well as posters, and some other stuff too!

Some art in the garden

Marianne Slevin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:51:43 +0000

This are some photographs I took today in the garden of the Secret Gallery.

“Travelling forty days the roads and trails of a distant country” Mixed Media on board, haiku poems written on Travels to India and Nepal

“This Moment” Oil crayon on a concrete, rust and dried paint mould that came out of an old bucket I found while clearing out the garden to plant vegetables!

“Love, Laugh, Sing” A recycled cable holder with words written in pencil painted and varnished.

Light shining through paintings

Marianne Slevin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:43:33 +0000

Detail of a painting leaning against a window, oil on canvas

Paintings are in transit, and as I walked out of the emerging gallery space this painting caught my eye. One of the things I am fascinated in my art practice is by making or doing things that are fleeting. I have returned to painting after years of making work that is long gone even many of the photographs of that work have long gone too! I still like to make ephemeral work as well. I think the two ways of working help each other when things get too permanent, I go and do something impermanent and vice versa. James has been really encouraging and that has helped me a lot to make both permanent and transient art. Once you leave college it is hard to keep going on your own without support, sugar I have no excuses!

This is a darker version of the same painting. I liked that it looked quite dramatic! An oil painting is thought of as an unchangeable, permanent thing, I find it interesting to play around with that notion, even of the actual painting does not change, how we see it can be very different. One of the paintings I remember changing most was one I painted many years ago, I used oil and mixed media, the surface was smooth in places and gritty in others and has many different textures so depending where you stand or what light you see it in it looks completely different even though the whole painting is blue. I like the idea of paintings being lit from the back, it reveals different marks, such as where the paint is thinner or there have been paint taken away like the words I wrote by using the back of the paint brush. This painting is called Love.

Crianza Art!

Marianne Slevin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:01:15 +0000

Despite having lived in Spain for several years, and drunk my fair share of Rioja Crianza wine, I always thought it was the variety of grape until I was informed the other day by a wine expert that it meant ‘nursed’ ,I hope I heard correctly! Well this makes great wine and also it is great for art too! To care for and love and nurse what you are creating is one of the surest ways to create something great, what ever it may be! Enjoy!

The Power of Words

Marianne Slevin — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:52:49 +0000

I think of the words we use as being very powerful, that they go out into the universe whether they are written, spoken or sung. Positive words have positive vibrations and so with the opposite. I try to use positive words in my art practice or at least neutral words. Names of places often seem to influence what happens in the place, such as in Northern Ireland could it be possible that if “Stormont” had another name (Starmont maybe?) would peace have been a little bit easier to achieve? To me millions of people writing and saying a word that conjures up images and feelings of torment, and the mount of storms! (tormenta being the spanish for storm) cannot be helpful when aiming for peace! Peace talks in such a building, sounds like starting at a disadvantage! What are we calling for? The words I used in the “sheet in the sea” pieces were based on this idea, as well as for me of being a visual affirmation of harmony between humans and the rest the natural world.

Love Unity Love Laughter Love Live Love Light Love Love Love!!

Interventions on the beach at Fanore

Marianne Slevin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:01:09 +0000

Today was a lovely day, part of it involved a journey to Fanore beach. I did something that I had not done for a while, that was go for a walk on the beach on my own with my old camera, sorry no images yet, I will have get the film processed! The sand was formed into miniature sand dunes with little islands of no dunes, in these islands I wrote words, such as: Love, unity, joy, smile, laugh and Free Tibet.

I also found the piece of silk from a Foxford blanket that had been a wedding present given to my parents. I had been carrying around in my camera case for years, taking photographs of it in different situations. The pale blue piece of silk was very fragile and had come away from the rest of the blanket. I repaired the length of silk with horses hair. It reminded me of the the white silk scarves that it is traditional for Tibetan Buddhists to give when they met someone. It also reminded me of the Tibetan prayer flags also known as Wind Horses. I took some photographs of the silk going across a large rock, in places it was a bridge and in there places it was a pale blue path. It was fun to do these playful interventions again.

The last time I did an intervention on Fanore beach was 7 years ago when I stuck bamboo leaves in the sand I had written words about the surrounding area on the leaves, then waited for the sea to come in and to see what would happen the leaves; how the words would be effected by the sea and how the leaves would be dispersed and float on the in coming waves, and I documented this. I enjoy the playful, poetic, absurdity of these interventions!