Don Conroy
artist, writer, presenter, environmentalist
Unique opportunity to get creative with Don in glorious Greece
Don has decided to team up with Argo Experiences in Greece to deliver a unique, once in a life-time 5 day creative course, “Drawing & Painting with Don – Art & Nature”.
Over the 5 days Don will share his knowledge and skills regarding drawing and painting as well as his passion for poetry, philosophy and nature. During the field trips he will not only point out local birds, fauna and flora but also provide guidance on how to look at the landscape from a creative perspective.
By the end of this course each attendee will have completed his/her own personal project under Don’s guidance
For more details on this exclusive package contact Argo Experiences on;
emmanouil.revmatas@gmail.com
or
barbs_rev@hotmail.com
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s day always bring back fond memories for me. Today I’m reminded of the time my family and I went to an outdoor screening of Disney’s Darby O’Gill and The Little People in Temple Bar. This is a movie I would highly recommend any time, but today is a particularly good day to watch it. Sean Connery even treats us to a tune in the movie! This is a great family movie but watch out for the banshee!
The Good Folk
Don Conroy original cartoon called "The Good Folk".
€125.00
Zen Nature Collection 2019
I have recently completed a collection of brush and Indian ink paintings inspired by the meditative feelings evoked by the natural landscape. This is the first painting in this collection.
- Size: A4
- Medium: Indian Ink
- Price: €110 plus €7 postage and packaging
Below you will find the first twelve paintings in the Zen Nature collection.
Young Hearts Run Free
I am delighted to be part of Young Hearts Run Free‘s latest creative festival, No Idle Day.
For my part, I am doing a drawing workshop in No.5 South Leinster Street, home to Friends of the National Gallery of Ireland (as you probably know, the Gallery is one of my favourite places in Ireland).
The workshop is on from 11:00 until 12:00 and I am thrilled that illustrator Steve McCarthy will be joining us.
Tickets can be bought here (children go free) and proceeds go to the Dublin Simon Community.
Hope to see some of you budding and existing artists there! It is for adults and children alike.
I must drop in and visit the two exhibitions in the Gallery afterwards, Creating History and Eclectic Images. A good way to spend a Saturday, in my opinion!
TV3 this Thursday at 7pm
Catch me on TV3 this Thursday evening at 7pm on – you guessed it – the 7 o’clock show. I will be joining the warm and witty duo Martin King and Lucy Kennedy so we are sure to have a good old chat.
What Leonardo means to me
Recently I paid a visit to the National Gallery of Ireland – one of my favourite haunts – to view the small exhibition featuring ten drawings by the great Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, on loan from the Royal Collection Trust.
It was a rare privilege to stand there and gaze upon images such as a study of the head of St Anne executed in black chalk, or the lively sketches of cats, lions and a dragon in pen and ink, looking at some of the swirling lines in the drawings in the knowledge that Leonardo was not only an artist, but sculptor, engineer, designer, philosopher, poet, musician, architect … One gets a clue that Leonardo’s mind must have been in hyperdrive, having left us reams of notes, sketch books, designs, cartoons, paintings, engineering projects for flight etc.
I remember the first time that Leonardo’s drawings really came to my attention. Believe it or not it was while I was awaiting a No 10 bus (sadly no longer in existence). A tall, friendly man standing at the bus stop asked me was a bus due, otherwise he would hail a taxi. I assured him one would arrive any moment. I asked was he American, recognizing the accent from the movies. I was not usually so forward at the tender age of eleven, but one didn’t often hear those tones on a bus from Donnybrook to the city centre. Then I remembered my sister telling me that Canadians would be offended if called American, and vice versa.
Well, this gentleman was from New York. He was carrying a large polished leather portfolio. He invited me to sit with him, as the bus was empty at that time of day. He asked me did I like drawing? Me? Like drawing? I loved it! How did he know? Yes, I beamed, I’ve been drawing since I was four. Would you like to see something very special? I nodded. Ritualistically, he opened the leather case at the same time throwing a glance at my hands. I sensed he was checking they were not grubby.
Slowly he revealed wonderful sketches of birds in flight, water swirling, plants and rocks, horses in various dramatic movements. As I poured over the amazing images he explained that they were copies of drawings by the great Leonardo da Vinci. He lovingly explained each plate and pointed out certain illustrations. He told me he was visiting several galleries and that he would soon be travelling to Florence. I found out the gentleman was a paper expert; he gave me a few small paper samples as a gift. And he suggested I visit my local library and check out more of the master’s works in book form. No problem, as I was a regular visitor to the Pembroke Library in Ballsbridge. Then all too soon he departed the bus, not before I thanked him for showing me what he called thumbnail sketches by Leonardo.
Over the years I have been lucky enough to see some original sketches and paintings by the great Leonardo, including the Mona Lisa (La Gioconda).
For me the most exquisite face in the visual arts is not the Mona Lisa but the angel featured in the painting The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo, on display in the National Gallery London. There is an equally beautiful version by da Vinci of the same subject in the Louvre in Paris.
Several years ago I was asked to do a drawing workshop in a Dublin prison for its Arts Week. As I entered the room full of young offenders, carrying my portfolio, they were yelling Draw with Don; How is Dustin? Is Zig and Zag in the bag? Zig and Zag are the puppet characters from Den TV – for those living on Mars!!
Well, instead of showing an owl or eagle or Dustin, Socky etc., I pulled out a print of the Burlington House Cartoon (finished drawing) of The Virgin on the Rocks from the National Gallery London, held it up and said: “What do you think of this?”
They all took a deep breath, one young man shouted, “That’s deadly, did you do that?”
So, I’ve included for this blog a drawing imagining the great man in his studio, surrounded by his works.
I believe people such as Leonardo da Vinci come to this world to enrich us and expand our consciousness. I think all great works of art are spiritually charged. Let’s leave the last words to the great man himself, here are two quotes from Leonardo I think you will like:
‘I awoke only to find that the rest of the world is still asleep.’
‘There are three classes of people: Those who see; Those who see when shown; Those who never see.’
What Shakespeare means to me
My introduction to William Shakespeare was in the form of a scratchy film print shown in the school hall. I was 9 years old at the time. The film was Laurence Olivier’s classic film adaptation of Hamlet.
I found it fascinating to watch this young, noble, heroic and troubled prince, in an encounter with the ghost of his murdered father, and the fact that his mother would marry his uncle within a month of his father’s death. Betrayal by some of his friends, and his girlfriend Ophelia going mad, and drowning herself in a river, were further challenges Hamlet had to deal with throughout the course of the play. The famous ‘to be or not to be...’ soliloquy struck a chord with me. Years later I read that Laurence Olivier described this film as ‘more of an engraving than a painting‘.
The Sunday following my viewing of Hamlet, I watched another classic black and white film, John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, where Doc Holliday played by Victor Mature recites ‘to be or not to be…’ in a very moving performance. Then, ‘Have Gun, Will Travel’, a TV show that would become my favourite as a young boy, featured Richard Boone as the character Paladin, who regularly quoted Shakespeare.
Years later I became involved in amateur dramatics, playing in Much Ado About Nothing, in the Lantern Theatre, and in The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice, staged by The Dublin Shakespeare Society. By this time I had several copies of Shakespeare plays on my bookshelf, including a ‘Complete Works of William Shakespeare’.
Attending speech and drama classes at the Royal Irish Academy of Music added to my love of old Will’s work. A weekend ‘pilgrimage’ to Stratford-upon-Avon, and I was signed up for life! I bought a little book of his sonnets and sat reading and reciting them by the Avon river, to an audience of swans, moorhens, and fluttering swallows.
Performing under the direction of Edwards and MacLiammoir in the Gate Theatre production of The Merchant of Venice, attending Hamlet with Ian McKellen and The Tempest with Paul Scofield in London, and over the years watching very many interesting interpretations of Shakespeare’s works including the Disney animation The Lion King, based on Hamlet, have made me appreciate more than any other writer or poet, William Shakespeare could understand the human condition, as expressed in every facet of his extraordinary plays, sonnets and poems.
I’ve completed for publication a story that had been going around in my head for quite some time: it’s called Shakespeare and Ratbag. In it my aim is to introduce young people to Shakespeare’s works, in a novel way.
So, in remembering the greatest writer in English literature on the 400th anniversary of his death, I leave you with a quote from Hamlet:
‘Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.’
Yes For Love
There is a lovely project being run at the moment entitled Yes For Love. Lots of creatives have been asked to do graphics in support and here’s Don’s one. Have a look through the images, they are really excellent.
