IN June 2016, John Paul O’Donoghue embarked on weekly sessions at CoAction with Tom. JP had done a lot of painting before and had always loved it. Working with Tom, JP gradually arrived at his wish to work larger, which involved overcoming several major physical difficulties.
John Paul started to paint on board, primed with white, or a colour, then with acrylic paints. One significant ‘invention’ was to use board about 50cms wide so that JP could reach both sides with the brush with Tom turning it round and moving it along when JP wanted.
This meant that JP could work on almost any size of board that he needed to. A further discovery for JP and Tom was to start JP painting on a small version of the work onto paper and then prop the boards to be used against a wall and project the small painting onto them with a projector.
The next stage would involve Tom doing a rough pencil drawing of the main features of the projected painting onto the boards, with colour notes.
This was JP’s guide for painting the boards. More often than not, JP would depart from the guide but it was still there and it was crucially all JPs own work.
JP has now done seven of the large paintings and the most recent is destined for a prominent place at CoAction. Others have been snapped up by family members and friends.
The whole operation is lengthy and very enjoyable and shows a remarkable characteristic of JP that apart from his skill and ability as a painter, he has incredible determination.
