Skip to main content

Mountpleasant Community Street Art Mural Project, Ranelagh Arts Festival.



One rainy, cold day in Spring 2013, a few of us were sitting in the back office of Ranelagh Arts Centre, wrecking our heads trying to think of new projects to put forward for Ranelagh Arts Festival later that year.

Mountpleasant Mural Project was an idea we felt might work. It would involve collaborative  Community Paintings, which would eventually be on display as outdoor art in a local area.

We proposed  that we would create 4 -6  permanent outdoor 2D artpieces for the enjoyment of local community for display in Mounpleasant Park in Ranelagh, Dublin...and that we would involve the  the local RMDS Primary school, local community and park visitors in the creation of some of the pieces.
At the end of it, we hoped to have  a few outdoor permanent paintings in the park for all to enjoy, and which would hopefully inspire community and other artists to the potential of projects like these in the city/country.
We felt that this project might provide a much needed uplift for a park which is not well developed.

We received some funding from Dublin City Council for materials following an application, - heartwarming in the depths of recessionary times in Ireland, and got to work.
I am inserting images of the project below, as a picture is worth a thousand words, - is that how you say it ??



Preparing for Mountpleasant Mural Project

The size of the marine ply was decided by the size of my Suzuki Liana hatchback, which has tons of room for a smallish car.
Drawings of a series of stone arches would act as potential "frames", and also to keep a cohesion to the project and of course the costs down.




" View from Charlemont Bridge towards Leeson St Bridge on the Canal,"

Walking around Ranelagh started to include some photographs of local scenes.



" One of the classes of RMDS coming into the park."

A few local scenes were chosen, and the first painting was commenced during Ranelagh Arts Festival week by the children of Ranelagh Multidenominational School.



" Excited pupils lining up to paint"

Joan Whelan, the school Principal was very supportive of the project, and allocated a day on which every child in the school was to have an opportunity to put a brushstroke on the painting.



" Painting has started"

Not a drop of rain!



" The proud signatures of every pupil in the school"

 Also, every little artist got to put their signature on the side of the painting - on the frame. This all took place in Mountpleasant Square Park, next to the school.



" Charlemont St. Bridge"

There were very few final touches neccessary!



" The Hill " area in Ranelagh, "

Lee Dunne, a local Dublin author wrote a book "Goodbye to the Hill", describing life in this area early in the last century. 



And we're off! We set up at the gates of the park, with "The Hill" in view, and started painting around 12md on the first Saturday of the Festival



Lots of interest from passerbys.


Local artists Gerhardt Gallagher and Jean Doyle, putting their marks down.


Lovely colourful mess


I love this picture, it says it all. We managed to finish this painting on the day.


" Ranelagh Gardens"

We chose to paint this scene.


" Photo of Ranelagh Gardens"

Reminds me of Monet's water lilies.


" Painting  Ranelagh Gardens"

 We set up in Ranelagh Gardens on the second Saturday of the Festival to attempt a painting of the pond in the park.


 It was a wonderful day, as there was lots of live music and dancing to entertain visitors from near and afar. 


"Ranelagh Gardens painting"

The big event of the day was to be the launch of a hot air balloon from the park to commemorate a previous hot air balloon flight by Richard Crosbie in Ranelagh. This project was always very close to Terry Connaughton's heart. Ranelagh Arts Centre would definately not have survived over the past few years, were it not for his commitment to community and tenacity as Director of the Centre.
There are wonderful photographic records by Michael Foley of this great day on the Ranelagh Arts website, see www.ranelagharts.org 

These are the Flickr pages, I'm sorry I can't link them , but they are well worth looking at
.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranelagharts/sets/72157635990006204/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranelagharts/9988336895/in/set-72157635990006204/


"Balloon launch"


One of the most remarkable moments in Ranelagh’s history remains Richard Crosbie’s balloon flight in 1785 from Ranelagh Gardens in Dublin, Ireland. His was the first flight by balloon in Ireland. In the closing event of the Ranelagh Arts Festival, balloonist Tom McCormack paid tribute to this figure in Irish aviation by recreating his legendary launch, only the second time a balloon was launched from these gardens.

A wonderful day in Ranelagh Gardens.

We have a completed fourth painting to complete our series of Mountpleasant Mural paintings.
It commemorates the balloon launch.




A very successful community project.





Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Doggie artworks

I love dogs, and this year I have been working on some doggie images. Here are a few..this one is of Sammy, my friend Jennie's Westie.... It is done with chalk pastel on Ingres paper, - I like the dry, chalky , matt, feeling of working in this medium. It can be dusty and messy to work with , but all this is forgiven, as these pastels are so easy to transport. "Boxer puppy", acrylic on canvas 30cms x 20cms Sometimes, a painting paints itself without much effort from the artist , and this is what happened here , - I was surprised to see this wee dog looking back at me. Some times this happens me when i work with animals. This is a mixed media work on canvas of Pucci, a much adored  2 year old lab. Not a great photo. This work is on a large canvas ( A1) size , and is worked up using acrylic, pastel and inks. Above is "Valentine", a mixed media on canvas. He is a rescue dog , an American bulldog crossbreed who was lucky t...
Read more

"Sense of Place" Art Exhibition in Tallaght University Hospital Dublin. June - September 2019.

Some weeks ago, I was honoured to be asked to prepare a hashtag body of artworks for hashtag exhibition by the family of the late Maeve Doyle. Maeve left a vast hashtag collection of hashtag paintings, hashtag drawings and hashtag poems, expressing a wish that her hashtag artworks be exhibited further afield. " Meeting of the Waters in Avoca". Watercolour. 30cms x 20cms Born in 1958 to a German refugee mother and an Irish father, Maeve was the youngest of their four children. Most of her life was spent living along the coastline of south Dublin, from which she derived much of her inspiration. She studied Fine Art Painting in IADT, known then in the 70’s as Eblana Avenue. She was a gentle and sensitive young woman, who was a true working artist expressing herself in a free and fluid manner through her several media. I was delighted to find the perfect hashtag art venue for her work in hashtag # tallaghtuniversityhospital , which is the National Cent...
Read more

" Let's make Art" workshops, 2011

This post describes 6 weeks of an 8 week series of "Let's make Art" workshops..open to anyone who felt like taking part. We explored various arts materials and ways of working over the 6 week period. Night number 1 Off with a bang! The first night went very well. As the " Emerging Artists" exhibition was on in Ranelagh Arts centre, we went on a tour of the artworks in the gallery spaces.  It was a great idea , as we discussed drawings, installations , porcelain sculpture, print , photography, textiles ( knitting !),jewellery,and mixed media. The visiting public were asked to vote for their favourite works...and the that artist will be awarded a 2 month residency in one of the centres studios - plus a solo show . Some beginners were able to let loose with charcoal drawings, and "wow",   there was a lot of energy in the room as people rose to the challenges of really getting into some drawings, and brave and exciting things were ...
Read more