THERE is a fine tradition of painting outside in public where you can allow elements of your surroundings to creep into whatever you're painting.
It was radical at the time when artists started moving out out of their studios and now there is a group of artists from Portaferry Arts Society who brave the elements and hike across the landscape in order to connect to the sights and sounds of the tip of the Ards peninsula.
A few years ago they developed the idea of the Portaferry Plein Air festival – a three-day extravaganza where you are welcomed into this village society which shares all its local knowledge about the weather and the best places to paint at different times of the year. Stalled by Covid, they've just completed their third festival in which 33 artists, amateur and professional, spent three days at various places around the village painting whatever took their fancy.
After a 9.30am start of tea and home-made bakes, the group gathered in the central market house in the village where an invited artist would give a demonstration or talk about their practice. Rosie McClelland, Paul O'Kane and Rosie McGurran did one day each and they explained some of the processes of their own work, including materials used and how art-making outside affects their own art practice, from making realistic paintings to capturing elements of different spaces to develop their own painted dream world.
The gathered participants were invited to use or ignore the advice. As participants moved to different parts of the village the demonstration artists would move around the participants, giving hints and tips on everyone's work.
The festival has been in my diary for many months but nearly slipped out due to other commitments, but I thoroughly enjoyed being in the village with my mum spending each day outside. I'm a seasonal painter and the urge comes and goes, and spending three days in supportive company was exhausting but great fun. At the end of each day everyone shared their work for the day and spot prizes were given.
As someone who is normally in the village to visit relatives dead or alive it was lovely to plonk my chair in various spots and view and paint a world that has changed much since I grew up in it. But the turn of the tide stays the same and as I observed the motorbikes and cyclists enjoying the peninsula circuit I wondered if people have finally realised all the beauty on our doorstep?
On day three a trip on the ferry gave me a surprise. I'd thought that my lifetime had given me every experience on the Strangford Lough that I was likely to get. However, in a flash up popped two dolphins at the side of the ferry.. Shocked, I ran inside to tell the passengers only to find some too busy with their phones to notice while others ran to see. It's strange what simple joy can bubble up from seeing such beautiful creatures.
The festival is run by Sarah Brown and a team of volunteers. The three-day experience was well worth the £65 and they really do encourage people at every level to attend – and abstract artists are most welcome. After all, what's the point of being an artist if you never break the rules?
Portaferry Plein Air is an annual event run by Portaferry Art Society which has been on the go for 45 years. Rosie McGurran will be running a Plein Air week in Roundstone, Connemara, in August.
Thursday, June 1 is Late Night Art when all the galleries in Belfast will be open late. Come and see what the fuss is about.
