Firstly, I would like to welcome any new visitors to my art blog from Shell E&P Ireland Limited (SEPIL), Statoil Exploration Ireland and Vermilion Energy as well as BAM, Roadbridge and all of the subcontracted companies and professionals working on site or in the background at the Corrib Natural Gas Installation.
It is my hope that you, along with all my wonderful readers, supporters, collectors and subscribers worldwide will enjoy seeing this Commissioned Painting Project unfold and develop over the coming year.
In the autumn of 1926 Ireland's most famous political painter Sean Keating began a series of paintings to commemorate an engineering project which became known as 'The Shannon Scheme'. This series of paintings commemorates a collaboration between Siemens and the Electricity Supply Board's (ESB)'s work to bring electricity to all of Ireland by way of hydro power.
Artist Sean Keating on site at Ardnacrusha, © RTE Stills Library.
In late November of 2012 Peter Colleran of SEPIL contacted me on viewing my work and this collection of Keating's paintings entitled 'Enlightenment and Legacy'. Peter and I began a dialogue around the idea of commemorating the 'Corrib' project along similar lines.
By means of a somewhat crude introduction to all my new visitors, my name is Richard Hearns. I am a thirty three year old Irish Visual Artist who has been working full time as a professional artist since obtaining a Bachelor Degree in Fine Art interdisciplinary Digital Media in 2002 at IADT, and a Higher Diploma in Art, Craft and Design Education in 2004 from The National College of Art and Design (NCAD).
My work has brought me all over the world, and I have to date collectors and subscribers on all four continents. I have been drawing and painting since I can remember, in fact I can never remember a time when drawing and painting was not an integral part of who I am. For the last number of years I have worked and kept studios in the south and the west of Ireland both in Roscommon and County Kerry as well as County Mayo and now in the Burren, County Clare.
A great deal of my work to date involves working from life and out in the open landscape where I can truly experience and savor the various compositions I arrange in front of me. I work mostly in a representational style, meaning I create paintings that mimic to some degree the real world, and become a distillation of my experience.
Artist Richard Hearns at the easel, near the village of Ballyvaughan.
I look forward now and over the coming months to introducing you all to my work and this project as it unfolds by way of a monthly blog update and newsletter.
I too have set myself deadlines and a minimum output for the period in question and am excited to share with you my processes, insights and developments, as the project unfolds, as well as my other ongoing work for coming solo exhibitions in Dublin and New York City.
I am sure I will, over the course of the commission, meet with many of you who are working on the project, both on site and in the offices of SEPIL and the partnering contracted companies. I very much look forward to those encounters.
The
Corrib Natural Gas installation is an incredible energy project, not without its controversy, and I look forward to capturing many aspects of its development and history in paint to become a document and record for the Irish nations history.
Here below are a couple of images of preliminary sketches in oil on canvas to whet your appetite.
Please do pop your email address into the 'subscribe' feature on this Blog to receive updates on my work, projects and exhibitions.
Yours Sincerely,
Richard Hearns B.A, HDip ADe
Web: www.richardhearns.com
Blog: www.richardhearnspaintings.blogspot.com
Email: info@richardhearns.com
Phone: + 353 (0)86 216 1135.
