Society6 - product review

This is a short review for a Tote bag recently purchased for a friend from online store Society6. The bag features one of my own designs called 'Red Floral Decay'. 

Having removed the bag from it's packaging, I first asked a female friend for her opinion. The verdict was immediately positive as far as design and product were concerned. But I couldn't help but to have a closer look myself. 

Indeed, I was very happy with how well the design transferred to the bag's material. The colours were just as they appeared on my computer screen. The material itself seemed quite strong and the dark lining inside was good. It was good to see some double-stitching also and all-in-all I have to admit I thought the bag was satisfactory.

Here's a quick video of some hairy guy checking out the bag.






To quote Society6, these Tote bags are "hand sewn in America using durable, yet lightweight, poly poplin fabric. All seams and stress points are double stitched for durability. Available in 13" x 13", 16" x 16" and 18" x 18" variations, the tote bags are washable, feature original artwork on both sides and a sturdy 1" wide cotton webbing strap for comfortably carrying over your shoulder". 
I'm not sure what exactly poly poplin fabric is, but the bag felt like strong canvas-like material to me!

Conclusion: 

I was happy to see my design transfer well on to this material product. Colourwise it was perfect and fashionwise it got a thumbs-up from a female colleague.

Here are a few more of my Tote bag designs, and they are all for sale at my Society6 online store here

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- Alan 

               

                                                             

Red Barn Blues!

With the summer a distant memory now, I just wanted to share one of my paintings which reflects summer for me here in Finland. It's a picture of a typical red wooden barn in Finland, with a rapeseed field lingering in front of it. The bright yellow rapeseed fields can be so strong in colour they can only but make you smile!

I usually take a small camera with me whenever I go outside whether in the cities or the countryside. I caught this photograph while passing a field near to village of Ingå in southern Finland. I was in a moving car, so the quality isn't great. But I knew from the moment I seen it that it would make a nice painting.

Here's the original photograph with my painted impression below it. 

'Red Barn' Original acrylic on stretched-canvas 
for sale from artist, size 50cm x 40cm.
Prints available from Imagekind.com, just click on image above.

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You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogs  and you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.

- Alan 

                     

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Strongbow's Awakening!

When I lived back in Ireland one of my favourite places to visit was the National Art Gallery. I often found myself walking around the streets of Dublin city on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when suddenly it would start to rain. This was usually the opportunity I took to visit the gallery. It's warm, relaxing and after ten minutes inside I usually forgot about the world outside. It's always been an oasis of calm in the very hectic city that is Dublin. It's a fine complex consisting of four interconnected buildings, the Dargan, Milltown, Beit and Millenium Wings. The oldest of the four, the Dargan Wing was formerly opened in 1864. The newest, the Millenium Wing which was opened in 2002 has a very modern contemporary look to it. You may ask how have they managed to fuse such an old building with such a new one. Well, it's cleverly done and the buildings cannot be truly seen next to each other from outside as both facades face out onto two different streets, Merrion Square and Clare Street.

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I always remember the first time I arrived at the old gallery back in the eighties. As I walked in I was stopped by the vision of the biggest painting I had ever seen. I said to myself “Wow!”. And honestly that's all I could think to say. Since then, everytime I go back to the gallery I always try to see it. The painting is called 'The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife' by Daniel Maclise.

'The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife' by Daniel Maclise, 1854

The painting shows the marriage of Norman invader Richard de Clare, also known as Strongbow, to Aoife, daughter of Dermot McMurrough, the King of Leinster. This marriage was considered a major event in Ireland's history as it symbolised the start of 800 years of British rule. Sized at a huge 10ft x 16ft (that's over 3 x 5 meters I think), it was painted in 1854. I wanted to make this blogpost in recognition of this fine painting and it's Cork-born artist, Daniel Maclise. Today January 25th is the artist's birthday, so 'Happy Birthday Mr. Maclise wherever you are!' and thanks for a wonderful painting. I was recently saddened yet delighted after reading a news article about this painting. Firstly, I found out that the painting is being removed soon from the gallery walls for two years. Then I saw that this was due to a planned restoration. So that news cheered me up a bit. Apparently a US bank is sponsoring it's restoration, which can be read about here. That's good news indeed, especially since I can't see much help coming from the Irish banks at the moment!

Thank you for visiting my blog!!!

If you liked this blogpost then you might like this one too!
Caravaggio - The Taking and Faking of Christ!

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You can receive my blogposts direct to your email or facebook profile by pressing the follow button at NetworkedBlogs  and you are welcome to visit my art page on Facebook by clicking the 'Like' button under my signature below.

- Alan 

               

                                                             

First sale on Softpixels! Woo-hoo!!

I recently joined a new Helsinki-based company called Softpixels who sell canvas prints. They have a small selection of my artwork for sale in canvas print. These paintings are exclusively available from Softpixels.
It's always good news for any artist when they make there first sale with an associate. And I'm no exception.
So I was very happy when I told that a customer bought a print of my painting 'Consume, Consume, Consume'.
It's one of my personal favourites, inspired by the world we live in today and painted from my own imagination.
I was especially happy that the customer ordered the largest print size available as it is best viewed on a large scale. I still have the original rolled up in a tube at my studio. It was painted with a mix of acrylic paints, wax crayons and chalk pastels and is too large for me to fit into a frame at this present moment. I would really like to frame it some day.

'Consume! Consume! Consume!'

A large hand-painted acrylic on paper artwork. This symbolic painting features the strong image of a human biting into the sun, the source of all life on earth. Using purple, the colour of power and rugged, man-made shapes to symbolise mankind, against the colours or red and green representing the earth, life and all the things we need to survive.


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Alan.

Oldies but goldies!

I just agreed to allow a new Finnish company sell some of my artwork. Based in Espoo, the company is called Softpixels, a brand new company selling canvas art prints online.

For this project the people at Softpixels chose a selection of my work that appealed to them. Surprisingly to me, they picked out some of my older pieces, and now they have set up a cool new page for me on their website. I'm very happy that they chose some of my old work as it represents an important time for me when I was only developing an art portfolio, and it's really nice to receive some acknowledgement for this work. Yes, oldies but goldies!

Here's some of my paintings from Softpixels in this video clip here.

While the internet becomes saturated with paintings and all sorts of other artistic mediums, it is important for me to spread my work through as many channels as possible. This is the only way of been noticed on the world wide web these days. And such companies like Softpixels deserve full credit for promoting artists like myself. It is also good for my work to be seen through a Finnish site as it can be difficult for me to be found by Finnish internet users, due to the lack of the Finnish language on my own website.

Thanks for reading my blog and you are welcome to look at my art at The Art Garage and at Softpixels

Alan Hogan