Picnic Time

Trim artist Mel Brady of Maximillist Art has been invited to take part in ‘Artlot’ at Electric Picnic this weekend. She will join Fergal Coghlan, Kevin Bonham and Aga Szot of the Icon Factory for the event.

Mel, who is a self-taught artist, said Artlot will provide visitors with “lots of art eye candy”.
“I am delighted and can’t wait to be able to watch and learn from their many years of experience and also add my style to the project.
“I don’t want to give too much away, but it includes a 10ft Wall-Mural, 38 original works on exhibition, painted vinyls and I will be live painting my images on to skateboards. People will also have the chance to express their inner artist with a selection of paints and materials supplied for everyone to ‘have a go themselves’, maybe even tag the wall mural if they want to be a rebel.”
Mel has spent the last three weeks working on a new piece especially for Electric picnic. “It is of course my own colourful interpretation and will only be available this weekend at Electric Picnic. The prints will be available for purchase over the three days including a selection of popular Maximillist Art works including some of my art printed onto canvas Tote-bags, a must have for every festival goer and all round trendy people in general.”
A self taught artist, Mel has been developing her craft in Ireland since August 2015. “Since childhood I’ve had a keen interest in pop art and animation. I worked with these styles for many years, mostly as an escape, but later in adulthood, it was a way to make ends meet, picking up commissions and selling a few pieces.”
In recent years, Mel started to show her work in exhibitions. While on assignment in New York, she created a series of photographs to paint from, and this led to her first solo show in March 2015 in Germany.
Her work was received well and given an excellent review by critic Sandra Zendel’s in Kultur Regional, Rheinland Pfalz Zeitung, a regional cultural newspaper, who described it as “A lot of colour and provocation”. All the work sold, and paintings from the exhibition made it to collections in Germany the UK and America.
Mel held her second solo exhibition called ‘All Walks of Life’ at The Icon Factory, Temple Bar, Dublin, in their gallery space last year. The Icon Factory, is an artist’s cooperative, not-for-profit collective run entirely by artists and volunteers.
This exhibition was based on a selection of paintings from photographs taken on Mel’s travels. “I take the real life photographed situations and exaggerate them in an animated form with vivid colours and I try to highlight the controversiality from that region/place.”
More information and examples of Mel’s exhibitions and work can be found on www.iconfactorydublin.ie and www.maximillist.com.
Trim band Youth Mass will play the main stage of Body & Soul at the Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally from Friday 1st September.
Returning for its 14th year at Electric Picnic, the Body & Soul village will continue to boast its trademark line-up of trailblazing musicians, soothing therapies, mind-expanding workshops, incredible art, revitalising spa treatments in an ambience that oscillates from intimate moments in cozy corners, to lavish parties that rage long into the night.
 

Luke Reilly from Otherkin at Slane

The stage times for the main acts at next weekend’s Electric Picnic have been revealed with Youth Mass set to rock the main stage in Body & Soul on Saturday from 6.15pm, while Slane outfit Otherkin, who supported Guns‘N’ Roses at Slane Castle this summer, will be in Rankins Wood on Saturday from 4pm.
Garage-rockers Otherkin have just released new single, ‘Come On, Hello’ as the buzz builds for their much-anticipated debut album, ‘OK’.
2017 has already been a tornado of touring for the band, with three UK adventures, one headline, one with The Amazons and a third with punk legends the Dead Kennedys. The band opened at Slane Castle, made their download debut at Castle Donington and kept the Otherkin flame burning in Holland and France. Just recently, they were championed by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich on his Beats1 radio show. Slane Irish Whiskey will be providing history and tasting on the Theatre of Food at the Picnic.