sketchbook

sketchbook drawings i made in a tent whilst on a cycle trip in Normandy

tarot yurt fest

Judgement, The Star, The Moon, Death...

the moon

 the empress

 home... (i wish)

 Death with a redstripe

 the star & temperance

 the high priestess

the moon 

Wallpaper

 i got a bit bored of the white walls...

I was inspired by the artists at  Charleston Farmhouse to paint the walls, the farmhouse is half a mile from Firle village. Virginia Woolf lived in Firle and would walk the old coach road that leads to the Bloomsbury farm.

MEZZOTINT

I took a course in Mezzotint led by Ray Dennis at Brighton Independent Printmakers. It's the reverse of etching...you burnish the light back from the dark on the rocked copper plate. 

Here is a brief description: Mezzotint achieves tonality by roughening the plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth, called a "rocker." In printing, the tiny pits in the plate hold the ink when the face of the plate is wiped clean.

 I made this print on the course.

 the little picture of the kid with the bear hood is by Ray Dennis. His work is amazing...there is such a lot of detail and delicacy. I bought this from him ...and i love it. Below is a picture of a 'rocker' for creating the surface on the copper plate.

delivering to Avocet Gallery

I now have work in Rye Harbour at Avocet Gallery and Tea Room http://www.avocetgalleryandtea.co.uk/ ... it's a really beautiful area that has inspired artists for years. I delivered my work by bicycle, then went for a bike ride through the nature reserve and found a really cool house on the beach made from two old train carriages... Also recently I discovered the books by Lloyd Kahn and his blog http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/ which if you like wood, trees and natural build architecture like me then feast your eyes over one of his books published by Shelter Publications, -  they are awesome, truely inspiring...my future project will be to build my own house ...first step to build a clay pizza and bread oven

salad days!

I made these for a friends wedding last week, thought they looked nice enough to post ;)

wild rice with toasted almonds

 quinoa tabouleh with wild mint

classic greek salad

Great Ormside

Great Ormside, a photo by Erin MacAirt on Flickr.

a walk in the woods

Lansdown Gallery

              MacAirt & Stevens

Wilmington Giant          

Exhibition open 9th - 21st July Mon to Sat 9-5pm! At the Lansdown Gallery, Lewes I'm exhibiting work along with fellow Firle Artist Paul Stevens. Pauls oil paintings of the Sussex landscape have an essence of magic, subtle and ethereal ghost like horses and bold greens that really capture the green i see on the downs in the early summer. I'm showing new dioramas and etchings

Paul Stevens sitting in front of something beautiful

me and my sis    

It's nice to show my work in Lewes...last time I put work up in this town i exhibited my degree show work - a series of photos i took at Les Trois Garcon of my friend Ayan dressed up in an 80's cocktail dress wearing a gas mask customised by me covered with diamante and sequins...it was an anti war statement just after 9/11- an ironic propaganda shoot promoting war by making it sexy, glamorous, commercial,fashionable.  Okay my work is different now... but that was 8 years ago!

private viewing

.. the show opened last friday and is on until 21st July 2011

click here to view more of my work

Romanticism

"Man was trying to escape the burdens of his own time. And such an escape was found in nature, particularly in desolate, uninhabited landscapes far removed from a city environment"

 The Old Coach Road, 2010

Bouly Party

 BIP Art now has it's own art vending machine. Get your vend Art made by the printers at BIP... And a chance to look around the studio... http://www.bip-art.co.uk/ 

Ann d'Arcy Hughes, Hebe Vernon Morris and Helen Brown run the workshop. They are all printmakers of course! Ann taught me the etching process. You can find her work here: http://www.anndarcyhughes.co.uk . Ann has also published a print-makers bible 'Printmaking - Traditional and Contemporary Techniques'.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erinmacairt/

Appleby Horse Fair

What an amazing experience...
I think the last few days are going to have an impact on my next etchings.

 gypsy cobs

 Fair Hill, where everyone camps for the week. There you can see some of the most beautiful vados...some for sale, (... £20,000...and then I'd need to buy a horse). I love the gold...

 Dressed for the occasion

 Sun setting over the Eden Valley

 Man & Horse

 the Cobs who stampeded across the river to eat our strawberries...  they even tried to get the cork out from the wine bottle, but Natalie drew the line when they tried for the maya gold chocolate... ah and they look so peaceful in this picture moments before charging us ...