Tuesday, 6th March, 2012 / Posted by: Ciara

Illustrated, as advertised

Illustrated, as advertised Image

‘Illustrated, as advertised’ is Steve Simpson’s first solo show since Miss Baker pinned his ‘Birds of the British Isles’ series to the cork board in 3rd class. That exhibition lasted a whole term, you only have a mere 3 weeks to see this one! Steve was the winner of Fire's 2011 ILLUSTRATION at FIRE competition and this exhibition will showcase a selection of recently commissioned and self initiated projects, from a career that spans nearly three decades. The Show opens tomorrow, Wednesday 7th March at 6pm at The Copper House Gallery and all are welcome, so drop by to see some award-winning illustration and find out more about the mysterious Magic Monkey.....

Art / Exhibitions / Illustration / Illustration at Fire / The Copper House Gallery / Comments: 1
Tuesday, 28th February, 2012 / Posted by: Leszek

Really small galleries - exhibition design & planning

Really small galleries - exhibition design & planning Image

We saw this image and felt we'd love to both acknowledge it as a beautiful object and to use it to illustrate our open call for participants in our series of free masterclasses in 'Design & planning exhibitions'. The image is by David Anthony Hall and is taken from his deservedly acclaimed website www.one2fifty.com which showcases his work and which uses scale models to facilitate visualisation of his work at full scale.

Our masterclasses in exhibition design and planning use models or maquettes together with simple vector programme techniques to build a physical 3D model of your exhibition or project and are a huge help when editing and curating work towards a show. The files produced are of direct application for producing labels, vinyl text and interpretive panels. The maquette itself is of great help when installing the show and images as it is to scale and contains all dimensional information needed.

We're running the classes for over 130 photographic and fine art students at present and have now been asked by several practicing photographers and artists to extend the classes to them. Please let us know if you'd like to attend a class or if you can raise a group of between eight and twenty individuals then we'll be delighted to look after you. The masterclasses are free and are part of the Fire and Copper House Gallery initiatives to support the arts in Ireland.

Uncategorised / Comments: 1
Monday, 13th February, 2012 / Posted by: Leszek

21st-century technology

21st-century technology Image

 

We were delighted to see a lovely article 'Images that see further' by Ros Drinkwater in this Sunday's Business Post. 
Ros's article references our current exhibition, Sean Hillen's 'ReViewed' in our Copper House Gallery, following a discussion  of an exhibition currently showing in Washington DC, 'Snapshot: Painters and Photographery, Bonnard to Vuillard'. She mentions our '21st-century technology' which we've coupled with our decades of fine art printing skills for Sean's show.
Quoting Ros directly she says 'To see how 21st-century technology has energised a modern master, I'd recommend a visit to the Copper House Gallery, which is currently showing ReViewed, an exhibition by Sean Hillen. Radical new scanning technology and skills deployed at the Copper House magnify each surreal detail of Hillen's collages, giving the viewer an insight to his finely crafted microscopic world.
As a ten year-old growing up in Newry, Hillen recalls "trying to imagine living somewhere where there wasn't a constant war, and finding it unimaginable, but knowing that it must exist". Having studied at Belfast College of Art and the Slade in London, he put his experiences to good use with a series of critically acclaimed photomontages based on his own documentary photographs of the Troubles.
His take on the Celtic Tiger, a series entitled Irelantis, was described by Guardian critic Mic Moroney as "hilarious and destabilising . . . souped-up Catholic kitsch colliding with a vivid, comic-book aesthetic".
The exhibition comprises works from his four series: The Troubles, Irelantis, What's Wrong? (collages which combine the 9/11 atrocities, major Irish literary figures and scantily-clad beauties to add up to a devastating indictment of our times) and Searching for Evidence, which includes the prescient 2007 collage No Evidence Of A 757 Near The Ha'Penny Bridge, Dublin?'
A big 'thank you' to Ros for this interesting article and for including Sean and ourselves in it.
'ReViewed runs until March 2nd and we'd love you to call and see the gorgeous photographs, we'll show off the scanner too if you'd like to see it!
Exhibitions / Fire Fine Art / Fire Print / Photography / Scanning / The Copper House Gallery / Comments: 0
Friday, 3rd February, 2012 / Posted by: Joanne

Message in a Bottle

Message in a Bottle Image



Just a little something to ease yourself into the weekend. This stop motion was created by Kirsten Lepore and tells the tale of a long distance friendship in a quirky, thoughtful way... using sand and snow!

So if you haven't seen that one friend in a little too long a time, watch the video, pick up the phone and go for a pint! Enjoy!

Fun / Comments: 0
Tuesday, 31st January, 2012 / Posted by: Joanne

Adrienne Geoghegan Art Boot Camps!

Adrienne Geoghegan Art Boot Camps! Image


We're dangerously close to the beginning of February and unfortunately those new years resolutions of evening exercise plans are well gone. Fear not, we have great news for creative minds itching to be challenged and developed.

Adrienne Geoghegan, of the Illustrators Guild of Ireland, is running a series of boot camps for all visual artists, aspiring illustrators and visual art practitioners who wish to build their portfolio and try out different art forms. From 'Art Tasting' to Picture-Book courses, Adrienne's boot camps are of a unique and colorful nature.

Adrienne has written and illustrated picture books for children, editorial illustration and advertising over the past 17 years. She has also worked for the likes of Ladybird and Macmillan's Children's Book's amongst others. Her success as an illustrator, artist and teacher is one of the many reasons to check out these courses running for yourself.

For more information visit Adrienne's website or find her on facebook and twitter.

Workshops / Comments: 0
Friday, 27th January, 2012 / Posted by: Joanne

A Little Gem

A Little Gem Image



It's funny the things you stumble across on twitter, the land of tweets and retweets and tweeple (that's twitter people). They're sometimes weird, sometimes wonderful, a lot of the time just plain random, but thanks to a good follower of ours we were alerted to a little something that has Fire's name all over it, a theme song if you will!

Thanks to @stitchlily for sharing this gem of a song, impeccable taste! Quite an appropriate song in preparation for painting the town red this friday evening, enjoy! 

Fun / Comments: 0
Thursday, 26th January, 2012 / Posted by: Leszek

‘ReViewed’ by Seán Hillen

‘ReViewed’ by Seán Hillen Image

We've always been ardent admirers of Seán Hillen’s distinctive collage artworks so were delighted when he accepted our offer of a show at The Copper House Gallery.

We revisited his originals, scanning and digitally remastering them using our Cruse Scanner, before producing new art works as liquid acrylic Lambdachromes.

The excitement when we saw the outcome was unreal so we wanted to share a sneak peak of one of the test prints with you. You'll be able to see this re-imagining of Seán's gorgeous work when the show opens on the 8th of February and hope to see you there!

Exhibitions / Fire Fine Art / Fire Print / Scanning / The Copper House Gallery / Comments: 0
Monday, 23rd January, 2012 / Posted by: Joanne

Coal Story: The Making of

Coal Story: The Making of Image



With another exhibition, comes another video! This short video shows the work and processes involved in our Propeller 2011 winner's first solo exhibition. It reveals the journey of Derek Fortas's Coal Story, from concept right through to the opening night and everything in between including printing, mounting and hanging of the exhibition.

We are also proud to say that it was featured on an Indian online journal... publicity is publicity! So enjoy and to all you potential Propeller 2012 entries, this could be your work next year!

Fire Fine Art / Propeller / The Copper House Gallery / Comments: 0
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