New Vlog Series - Coffee With Ciara

Hi everyone!
Yes, I know I am a bad blogger :( I am just finding it so hard to connect with my readers through writing. I'm not a natural writer, I know that but I feel like I am not getting my real, true voice across to others. So I decided to start up a new vlog series called Coffee With Ciara and the idea of it is to answer random questions about myself in the hope that you will all get to know me better. I want it to feel like we are having a coffee and a chat together, just like friends would normally do. I will upload a new video every Thursday on my Youtube channel.

As this week is the first week, I just Googled a list of random questions ( I think I found "questions to ask on a first date lol) and I used random.org to generate a question for me to answer. I am hoping that by next week I will have a few "real" questions from my readers/subscribers to answer and that will be a lot more fun :) If not, I will continue to use the list I have until I do get some real questions.
So I urge you to please, please ask me some questions. Anything at all! Anything you would like to know about me or about my art practice. Leave a comment below or email me at ciaramcguireart@gmail.com

This is my first time speaking to the camera and I have to be honest, I don't love it. You may notice that at the start of the video I come across a little stiff but I do loosen up as we go on and become more comfortable. I really dislike the sound of my own voice in a recording and I don't usually spend much time looking at myself in that much detail (I had to during the editing process). You start to notice all your "flaws" and subtle mannerisms that you never even noticed that you do.. but, I will get used to it. I think it will be a good thing to get used to it because at the end of the day, no matter what I hear or imagine about myself in my head, what other people see (physically speaking) is what we really are, wouldn't you agree? So, it is a good way to start loving the real you.

I really hope that you enjoy this series and that it gets some interest. I can't express how much I want it to feel more like a chat among friends as opposed to me just talking about myself so the best way for that to come to fruition, I think, is if I receive some real life questions.


Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Ciara
x

50 Painting Challenge Update

Hey everyone! Well wow am I behind on these large paintings or what? I am only on #2 and it is the 2nd week in February. I worked it out that if I were to accomplish 50 large paintings this year I would have to paint 1 a week (ish) so that's gone a bit out the window hasn't it? But fear not, I am not going to let that stop me. I will just keep keeping on as they say, try to get as many done as I can this year and if I do end up finding myself with a little more free time down the line I might be able to knock out a few more than 1 a week. The challenge is more about overcoming my "fear" of large scale paintings not so much about painting exactly 50 paintings (but it would be nice to tick it off my list) So, on that note let me show you large painting #2..... 'Reveal'

As you can see I created this piece on a large piece of thick paper that I taped to the wall in my studio. This is just a challenge I am setting for myself, I'm not planning on selling these paintings (not all of them anyway) and so I don't need to create them all on canvases (which is great because large canvases can be pricey) 

 I really enjoyed creating this piece. The colours I picked are so warm and bright, reminding me of the coming seasons. Also, hearts. Valentine's Day. I couldn't resist.

 Some of the products I used for this piece include oil pastels, dictionary pages, acrylic inks and home made stencils.

So what do you think? I'd love you to leave a comment below and let me know if you like it. Also, I did video some of the process which I will be uploading to my Youtube channel soon but unfortunately the battery went dead after a while and I didn't notice so you won't get to see me create this piece from start to finish. Sadface. But a least you will get to see some....

Happy Wednesday!

Ciara
xoxo

50 Paintings Challenge #1 + First Youtube Video

Hey lovelies! This year I made a list of some New Year Goals, some things I wanted to get started, challenge myself with and some are just for fun. I've decided to document my progress on each of these goals here on the blog in the hope that it will encourage me to make more of an effort to see them through. One of the challenges I have set for myself is to paint 50 large paintings to hopefully loosen my fear of large scale work. This means I will have to paint 1 large painting almost every week of the year, exciting stuff! So with that in mind,  I want to share with you all my first painting in this challenge and what is now a new weekly blog feature. You can see the blog post I wrote about my 2014 New Year Goals here.

"Rejoice in the Unexpected" sis a mixed media painting on a chipboard panel. I forgot to measure it (oops), it's not huge but it is a lot bigger than the scale I am used to working with and I didn't want to throw myself completely in the deep end so I thought that this size was safe enough to begin with. I hope the surfaces I work on over the year will gradually get larger and larger.
Not only do I have photos to share but I also recorded a video of some of the painting process which I uploaded to Youtube. My first ever video! I'm thrilled I have finally taken the plunge and recorded a painting video because it is something I have wanted to do for a while now but I only recently got the equipment to make it possible.

Here is the video I recorded of the painting process for "Rejoice in the Unexpected". If you would like to subscribe to my Youtube channel you can by clicking on my name and then clicking the big red "subscribe" button on the right hand side of the screen. This will allow you to keep up to date with what I'm doing and be alerted when I upload new videos (which I will, I promise)

I hope you enjoyed the video, I'd love if you let me know what you think. Have you set yourself any New Year Goals that you are determined to keep? Leave a comment :)

Take care
Ciara
xoxo