Painting the Nation with RTE

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It started with a text from a friend .. 'hey you should apply for this' ... Erm, reality tv? I don't think so lol. But then ... friends and family started to encourage it ... 'ah sure it won't do any harm to apply' etc etc. .. Pauline Mc Lynn is hosting!? ... ah g'wan so.

Me literally having tea with Mrs. Doyle!!

I applied and I got through a few interviews. At this stage I wanted it, badly, I saw how much others wanted it too. Made the top 25! We met in a hotel function room for a camera test and a series of drawing challenges. Ooh pick me please!

A week passed. I was convinced I hadn't made the cut. I had heard through the grapevine that Sinead Mc Carthy had made it through. Surely, they can't have two Sineads from Cork in the top seven I thought to myself? Doesn't that break the rules of reality tv?

Two days before filming started, I got the call. You're in! Woohooo .. what next?

I met the other 6 artists, what a bunch of great people. Let me introduce them.

Me and Agnieszka

clockwise from top left ... Agnieszka Ryan, Louise Treacy, Sinead McCarthy, and me!

Pauline and Alan

Alan and David

Wiki Lou and FreeRange

The gang!

Powerscourt Waterfall

After the meet and greets we were pretty much thrown in at the deep end, although we had 30 minutes of filming us walking through some doors over and over first. We must not have been doing it right.

'You have 90 minutes painters and your time starts now!'

The challenges started quick and fast. That was pretty much it. Paint for your life, don't think, just paint. Each half hour episode took about two 12 hour days to film which I imagine is no mean feat to edit. On each episode, our first challenge was usually 90 minutes and the second one was 2-3 hours depending on medium, which was prescribed. One day we could be working with our strengths in a medium we were comfortable with and the next day it was all on its head, but it kept the show fair and was very much a level playing field.

What was interesting was, as a group, there was more of an air of camaraderie than of competition. Art being such a solitary pursuit, I think it was a novelty for all of us to have company to share the view and experience.

Exhausting? yes! Stressful? Yes! Fun? Oh the craic was mighty! Would do it all again in a heartbeat!

Some examples of my work from the show ... 

Feature in Evening Echo