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Fergal Brennan

Fergal Brennan

Fergal Brennan is an animator and educator based in Leitrim, with over 20 years’ experience of creating amazing animations. He tells us more about the inspirations behind his recent works.

It's In Your Head

It's In Your Head

Watch the completed film by Amanda Coogan and her young dancers!

Ruth Medjber

Ruth Medjber

Dublin born, music and portrait photographer, Ruth Medjber was encouraged by her father from an early age to take photographs.

Colin Martin

Colin Martin

Colin Martin is an artist and teacher in Dublin who loves painting and film. He has done lots of cool projects in the art world, like working with other artists to make prints and curating art exhibitions.

Amanda Coogan

Amanda Coogan

Amanda is an internationally recognised and critically acclaimed artist working across the medias of live art, performance, photography and video. She is one of the most dynamic and exciting contemporary visual artist’s practicing in the arena of performance. Her extraordinary work is challenging, provocative and always visually stimulating.

Tadhg Crowley

Tadhg Crowley

Tadhg Crowley, Senior Curator at the Glucksman Museum in Cork, talks about his job of planning and putting on art projects for people of all ages and skill levels. He also talks about how important art is for communication and understanding, and gives young artists tips on how to enjoy being creative.

Aoife Dooley

Aoife Dooley

Aoife Dooley is an award-winning illustrator, graphic designer, author and comedian from Coolock, Dublin.

Annie Fletcher

Annie Fletcher

Annie Fletcher is the Director of IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art. A noted international curator, Annie has extensive leadership experience in the contemporary arts.

The Face

The Face

Faces have fascinated people for thousands of years, from ancient portraits to modern-day selfies. They communicate our feelings, and artists use them to capture character. Art expert Helena Hunt tells us more...

Cubism

Cubism

Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing our reality in European painting and sculpture. Oisín Kenny from the National Gallery of Ireland tells us more…

Mark Duffy

Mark Duffy

Mark Duffy is an Irish artist who lives in the UK. His photography, which often shows British politics with a sense of humour, is a way for him to explore modern issues and the power of the media.

How to Write an Artist Statement

How to Write an Artist Statement

An artist's statement is simply a short introduction to your work. It can be whatever you think is significant or whatever might help a viewer to better understand your work.

Ola

Ola

Ola is an artist from Galway who is studying animation in IADT and loves the possibilities digital art offers. She is drawn to art with solid storytelling, strong colour choices, and exaggeration of reality.

Clay Heads

Clay Heads

Heads or Tails? We say Clay Heads! Download our demo doc and follow the steps to make your very own Clay Head.

Photographing Your Artwork

Photographing Your Artwork

Here are some Top Tips for photographing your artwork from art student Laura.

Plastic

Plastic

This is Plastic! It can be formed into almost any shape and used to make nearly anything…yes, even art!

Pinch Pots

Pinch Pots

Our Pinch Pot demo shows us the most useful techniques for hand building with clay, which is one of the oldest and simplest forms of pottery. Time to get your hands dirty!

Noah’s Wheel Painting

Noah’s Wheel Painting

Art can be made out of anything and anywhere, including using a wheelchair to create tracks in puddles or paint, with the resulting abstract and unique artwork reflecting the creator's personality and style.

Fatti Burke

Fatti Burke

Fatti Burke is an Irish author and illustrator who is known for her educational books for kids. She likes to make art about food, home, and animals.

Ross Carvill

Ross Carvill

Ross Carvill, a freelance illustrator from Dublin, Ireland, thinks that art's job is to create worlds beyond our own and show them to the viewer. He gets ideas from everything, like animals from faraway places and conversations with strangers on the street.

Kate MacDonagh

Kate MacDonagh

Kate MacDonagh explores dualities of light and dark, scale and ephemerality, stillness and movement, and spectral and material.

Clay

Clay

This is Clay! One of the most fun and versatile materials out there and is used in everything from false teeth to toilets and of course art!

Paper Lantern

Paper Lantern

In this demo we learn about paper lanterns. Traditionally, they were released into the sky on New Year’s Eve. Why not make them for your next party?!

Ifeoma U. Anyaeji

Ifeoma U. Anyaeji

Ifeoma U. Anyaeji, a neo-traditional Nigerian artist, uses non-traditional methods to find new uses for things that have been thrown away and to document sociocultural experiences. Her work makes statements on the value-utility orientation of modernity and its effect on the environment.

Jo May

Jo May

Jo May is the Creative Exploration Officer at ReCreate, a social enterprise and registered charity that makes art materials and educational supplies accessible and affordable to all sectors of the community. Her job is to support people with their creative confidence and make them feel something.

Arran Murphy

Arran Murphy

Arran Murphy is a Fashion and Costume Designer/Maker and Educator who uses her skills and expertise to showcase and promote Circular Fashion as a sustainable alternative to Fast Fashion.

Harry Clarke

Harry Clarke

Harry Clarke was a stained glass artist who won scholarships to travel to France and England and won gold medals for his designs. Harry Clarke designed The Eve of St Agnes, which won the gold medal at the Irish Art Exhibition in 1924 and was bought by the Hugh Lane Gallery in 1978.

Francesca Hutchinson

Francesca Hutchinson

Offaly-based multidisciplinary artist Francesca Hutchinson examines fleeting materials and life's transience. She believes everyone should respect art because there is no right or wrong way to make it.

Laura’s Character Design

Laura’s Character Design

Laura's character design is a way for her to express herself and her view of the world. Her advice to young artists is to keep drawing and look at other people's work.

La Tène

La Tène

Go back in time and take a look at how the people of the Bronze Age and Iron Age designed their metal work objects with motifs.

Sarah Flynn

Sarah Flynn

Sarah Flynn is a Fashion and Textile Designer based in Dublin, Ireland who specialises in Woven & Constructed Print Textiles. Her work explores traditional hand-woven techniques while raising awareness of the importance of traditional textiles, creating beautiful pieces that do not destroy the planet and promoting slow fashion awareness.

Recycled Pen Holder by Ross Carvill

Recycled Pen Holder by Ross Carvill

Create art along side Ross as he illustrates his way through each episode by downloading our helpful instructions.

Digital

Digital

This is Digital! Chances are you’re reading this on a digital screen made up of hundreds and hundreds of pixels. They are so small but yet they are mighty!

Will Sliney

Will Sliney

Will Sliney is a comic book artist who has worked for Marvel and Star Wars. He thinks that the job of his art is to tell a story, to bring a script to life in the best way possible so that the reader feels the emotions he wants them to feel while experiencing the story.

Metal

Metal

This is Metal! Strong, sturdy and durable, metal comes from minerals that are found in rocks!

Hannah in Space

Hannah in Space

Hannah's love for space and passion for art has inspired her to paint a beautiful picture of the Earth using her mouth as she finds painting with it relaxing and a way of expressing herself, motivating others to embrace their differences and have fun painting.

Aideen Barry

Aideen Barry

Aideen Barry is a visual artist who is known both nationally and internationally. She uses performance, sculpture, film, and lens-based media to express herself, and she uses visual trickery to create a heightened suspension of reality.

Ink Spot Fun by Ross Carvill

Ink Spot Fun by Ross Carvill

Create art along side Ross as he illustrates his way through each episode by downloading our helpful instructions.

Sean Corcoran

Sean Corcoran

Sean Corcoran is an environmental artist who works in the environment with raw materials and is best known for his sand art. He is self-taught and is constantly researching and learning new things.

Milk Carton Head

Milk Carton Head

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Plastic fanatics be sure to follow this motto in our latest demo doc to make your own Corpse Bride from a milk carton.

James Earley

James Earley

James Earley is an Irish artist who makes pieces that look at power, social inequality, religion, politics, and, in the end, how cruel people can be. He is a multidisciplinary artist who focuses on concept-driven work with a focus on colour, composition, materiality, and scale.

Print Van Go

Print Van Go

Print Van Go uses printmaking to facilitate learning and social engagement while promoting contemporary fine-art printing.

Loughlin

Loughlin "Lockie" Brady Smith

Lockie is a sign writer, graphic designer, lettering artist, and type expert who lives in Dublin. Sign writing and painting is an art that has been around for hundreds of years. It requires skills with lettering and layout.

Open Road

Open Road

The Open Road Project, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Cork City Council, was created to give children from a variety of backgrounds a greater platform from which to share their perspectives.

Shangarry Potters

Shangarry Potters

Ron Barrett is the head potter at Shanagarry Potters. He gets a lot of ideas from the natural world around him and makes simple, useful, and real handmade pieces that make life better.

Paper

Paper

This is Paper! From piñatas to puppets, paper is used to create all kinds of wonderful things with its endless weights and textures.

Spraoi Studios Waterford

Spraoi Studios Waterford

Follow Izzy, 16, on her behind the scenes tour of Spraoi Studios in Waterford.

Holly Pereira

Holly Pereira

Holly Pereira is an illustrator and muralist who lives in Dublin. She wants to find out how colour and design affect public spaces, so she makes bright, happy places where people can play.

Shane Keeling

Shane Keeling

Shane Keeling is an artist from London who is part of the group Boys Don't Cry. He uses humour and takes risks to make process-driven art and encourage conversations about men's mental health in the creative industry.

The Fonthill Vase

The Fonthill Vase

The Fonthill Vase is an ancient porcelain jug that was made over 700 years ago in China. It is decorated with experimental relief decoration and was considered a precious item due to the secret of how to make porcelain only being known in China at the time.

Joanna's Pop Art

Joanna's Pop Art

Creating a pop art self-portrait is a fun process that involves tracing the image and adding a gradient effect. The end result shows how the artist wants to be seen.

Exploring Japanese Art

Exploring Japanese Art

Discover the unique and painterly quality of Japanese woodblock prints using washi paper, watercolor pigment, and a lot of patience, as taught by Irish artist Kate McDonough at the Chester Beatty Museum.

Recycled Plastic Jellyfish by Ross Carvill

Recycled Plastic Jellyfish by Ross Carvill

Create art along side Ross as he illustrates his way through each episode by downloading our helpful instructions.

Bas Relief

Bas Relief

Gavin, a fifth-year art student, is creating a bas-relief panel using paper clay, a technique where the image stands out from the back slab of clay, and enjoys working with the versatile medium.

Katelyn Painting

Katelyn Painting

Katelyn likes to paint because it makes her feel calm and happy. She likes to use different colours and styles to make her own unique art.

Making Costumes At The Lyric Theatre

Making Costumes At The Lyric Theatre

If you've ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a theatre production, then you're in for a treat!

Tullamore Art Class

Tullamore Art Class

Students in Tullamore Art Class learn about the different ways art can be made and how it relates to life.

Slab Pots

Slab Pots

Push your clay skills to the limit and make a Slab Pots! This is trickier than hand building, but it’s really fun and the results are worth it.

How We Talk About Art

How We Talk About Art

Art is all about looking at a painting and having your own thoughts about it. The Visual Thinking Strategy is used in class to get students to talk about what they think about the art.

Making Glass with Sophie

Making Glass with Sophie

Glass is one of the most ubiquitous and yet least understood materials in our lives. From the windows that let in light to the mirrors that reflect our images, glass is everywhere, yet we rarely think about the process by which it is made.

Sarah McAuliffe

Sarah McAuliffe

Sarah is a curatorial fellow at the National Gallery of Ireland. She does research on the gallery's permanent collection, looks for photographic works to add to the gallery's collection, and puts together exhibitions that show art in new and interesting ways.

Zahra’s Hanging Garden

Zahra’s Hanging Garden

Zahra's love of hanging flowers and painting them with cotton buds shows how art can be both relaxing and a way to show who you are.

Book Making

Book Making

Are you a book worm? Learn how to make a sketchbook from your own homemade paper, which you can use to kickstart your own artistic career!

Tie Dye

Tie Dye

Now we're going to tie dye some t-shirts with the natural dyes we made. Make some groovy t-shirts with the swirl technique by following along with this demo!

Grandad’s Studio

Grandad’s Studio

Art is a limitless form of self-expression that allows you to create whatever you desire, without the pressure of perfection, and it is ultimately up to you to define what art means to you.

Head Piece

Head Piece

Feel like a King or Queen, with your own crown! In this week's demo, we'll make a headpiece out of different types of metal, using Repoussé.

Batik

Batik

Batik is a unique dyeing technique that uses wax resist to create intricate patterns on fabric.

Very Personal Portrait by Ross Carvill

Very Personal Portrait by Ross Carvill

Create art along side Ross as he illustrates his way through each episode by downloading our helpful instructions.

Leanne McDonagh

Leanne McDonagh

Leanne McDonagh is an artist and teacher. As the Traveller Education Coordinator for Cork Institute of Technology, she uses her art to show and record her community from the inside.

Chair Design

Chair Design

Hold onto your seat! Learn how to construct a chair out of paper, taking inspiration from famous Irish furniture designer Eileen Gray.

Pinhole Photography

Pinhole Photography

Pinhole photography is a beautiful and fun way to take pictures. It uses a dark box with a tiny hole to make an image, and the simple materials and hands-on process help you understand photography better.

Joe Caslin

Joe Caslin

Joe Caslin is a street artist and art teacher who believes that it’s an artist’s job to try and make young people question and to think differently, and his art asks us to consider how we can become better and kinder.

Colour

Colour

This is Colour! It can be natural or man-made, and some of the craziest stories in art history are about colour.

Visiting the Chester Beatty

Visiting the Chester Beatty

Explore the fascinating world of paper conservation with the help of Sophie, a paper detective who has given us special access to a top-secret area of the Chester Beatty Museum.

Yahia & Adam

Yahia & Adam

Meet Yahia and his brother Adam! They love making art together and having fun while they do it.

Brightening Ballyfermot

Brightening Ballyfermot

The Brightening Ballyfermot project successfully transformed a graffiti-covered bridge into a beautiful street art mural representing diversity, fostering teamwork and expression of emotions through art, showing how it can unite and accept everyone regardless of race or ethnicity.

Abu Bakar’s Monster

Abu Bakar’s Monster

Abu Bakar likes to draw scary monsters with names like "Mr. Spikey Hands" that have different colours and features to show off his creativity and his pride in being an artist.

Creature in a Bottle by Ross Carvill

Creature in a Bottle by Ross Carvill

Create art along side Ross as he illustrates his way through each episode by downloading our helpful instructions.

Backstrap Weaving

Backstrap Weaving

Make your own backstrap loom using this ancient technique to become a weaver and make your own textile pattern!

Glass

Glass

This is Glass! It’s hard but delicate, tough but brittle, sharp but smooth …a real contradiction, yet we don’t know how glass was discovered.

Natural Dyes

Natural Dyes

Get cooking in our latest demo!

Make your own natural dye using vegetables, herbs and spices. Once we have the dye made we will use it to dye some fabric to see what colours it produces.

Fibre

Fibre

This is Fibre! From the threads we wear to the textiles beneath our feet, we often interact with fibres in ways we hardly notice.

Henna Sisters

Henna Sisters

Henna is a beautiful form of art that has been a part of many cultures for a long time and it allows people to express themselves through intricate and unique designs.

Harvesting Fibres on Lough Derg

Harvesting Fibres on Lough Derg

Meet Geraldine Wisdom, a professional artist who has been working with rushes since she was 10 years old. Growing up beside Lochberg, she was fascinated by the beauty and versatility of the rushes that grew around her.

Repoussé

Repoussé

It's Repoussé time! Taking a look at an ancient metalworking technique known as 'Repoussé'.

DIY Scarf

DIY Scarf

Do you have an unwanted jumper? Why not transform it into a Hooded Scarf, that you can stay warm in all year round!

DIY Belt

DIY Belt

In the demo we convert an old unwanted tie into a stylish OBI Belt that your friends or family members can wear.

Eben's Glass Objects

Eben's Glass Objects

Eben makes beautiful flamework objects from glass in his garden shed!

DIY Fascinator

DIY Fascinator

Don't know what to do with your old tights? Turn them into something exciting to wear on your head. Like a fascinator!