-
SOLD OUT!I made this painting after spending time in residency on Westport Pier. There was something about the comings and the goings on the pier that seemed determined but ancient in origin. The onland cargo was a mixed bag of folks earnestly aiming to climb The Reek, locals going about their daily lives and visitors - many who were endevouring to retrace the steps of ancestors who had set off from here. The small boats setting out in Clew Bay by contrast, seemed resigned to the winds. Mixed media on canvas 40cm x 40cm in slip frame ready to hang -
SOLD OUT!Oil on Canvas, 120cm x 100cm in slip frame. €3950.00 -
One of the last paintings from my Mayo Lakes series, 'Memory Onmiscent, Time Intangible' was made during a residency on the shore of Lough Carra. My aim was to document the landscape, the lakes themselves and the indigenous entemology but the work evolved to include an inner landscape, documenting feelings about place, memory, family, the passage of time and how nature can bridge the gap between generations. Oil on Canvas 20cm X 15cm in floated frame
-
SOLD OUT!This large piece captures my 'love at first sight' impressions of the Kerry Bogs. It was painted in-situ in the middle of the bog at Emloughmore. I painted it in a tee-shirt on a bright January day – my birthday – it was my first BIG painting and truly felt like a gift. Mixed media on canvas 148cm X 104cm -
I made this piece over an Easter weekend in my studio. I wasn't entirely sure what I would paint but I had recently returned from a residency in Kerry and the view of the ancient famine village at dusk, with smoke billowing from the little chimneys haunted me and found its way into the work. The famine village is located at Cill Rialaig on Bolus Head, on the last road out of Ireland. The location has been central to much of my work here in Ireland. Residencies here provided an essential time and space to immerse myself in the landscape and it's history - so that I might respond to and develop a sort of language of the land. mixed media on canvas 148cm X 104cm
-
SOLD OUT!'Soft Day, Lough Mask' is a pet painting of mine, small in stature, it speaks volumes about 'My' Mayo - a misty place, often inclined to rain. It took me a while to know the place, but once it got hold of me, it was inside me forever. It takes me all 5 senses to paint Lough Mask - it is heart work too, bound up in memory and tradition. There is no other way to paint, really. And even when trying to paint from a boat or from the Lough Shore in the squalliest of weather, I realise in Mayo they are all soft days. Oil on canvas 15cm x 20cm in floated frame -
SOLD OUT!'The Big Sky' collection was inspired by a residency at The Ballinglen Arts Foundation in North Mayo. During the 6-wk residency, I spent a LOT of time walking by the sea. There is - for me - a conflict between being inside and outside the studio. - I always want to be working. Of course, in this instance walking is working. The constancy of the tides is so calming and invariably that made it's way in to this new, looser work. As did a lightness of touch (and spirit!) also manifested in the pink and peaches of the landscape. It was time well spent: Time in wide open spaces = cardiac care. Oil on Canvas 35cm x 45cm in Slip Frame -
SOLD OUT!Lacken Strand is one of those wide, open spaces that you can't hide from or in. It is, to my mind, one of the most enchanting places on the island of Ireland. In the vastness of the expanse of the scene you really can't escape or hide from the elements. While on retreat at the Ballinglen Artists' Foundation I took daily walks at Lacken. The weather was broody and moody even in mid-Summer. Oftentimes, it felt like four seasons in one walk but even in perpetual motion there is always order in the natural world. Oil on Canvas 45cm x 35cm in Slip Frame -
SOLD OUT!Dun Briste, a significant stack of land was sliced clean off Downpatrick Head hundreds of years ago. Folklore has it, that it was our own St. Patick who separated the land with his crozier in consternation with a non-believer who was slow to sign up. Regardless of the tall tales, the sight of that stack of land in the midst of the wild sea and contemplating the gap between the landmasses can't but move a body. The vastness of the scene is humbling but also an opportunity - a jumping off point - in which to make your own departure, your own interpretation of the landscape and life. Oil on Canvas 45cm x 35cm in Slip Frame -
SOLD OUT!While on residency at The Ballinglen Artists Foundation, I walked a lot on Lacken Strand. In 6-weeks I only ever met 2 other people on the lovely, long strand. During these walks, ideas would percolate - some good, some bad. It's hard to know in the solitude of a retreat if you're on the right track or veering off down (another) blind alley but the constancy of contemplation on these walks helped to refine the body of work that is 'The Big Sky' . Most times on these walks I would document those thoughts in a notebook and it is these ramblings - thoughts and tangents - that underpin this love letter to the world from Lacken. Oil on Canvas 45cm x 35cm in Slip Frame -
SOLD OUT!I often say my work is best described as holding on and letting go. Letting go of all the doubt, fear and notions and holding on for the good stuff to come through. This painting was years in the making – it just wouldn’t quit! I turned it to the wall for a while and then, one evening, it sort of painted itself. It was a time when I was attempting to close out my Mayo Lakes series but they kept turning up on the canvas. This is a sort of swan-song to my Mayo Lakes series, bridging the gap to The Big Sky collection that followed. It is, I think, about devotion – redemption and renewal –about new beginnings and moving on to new, ancient landscapes. Oil on canvas 100cm x 75cm in slip frame -
SOLD OUT!Oil on Board 35cm x 30cm In slip frame ready to hang -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm Ready to hang in slip frame -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm Ready to hang in slip frame -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 100cm x 120cm Ready to hang in slip frame -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 100cm x 70cm SOLD From ‘The Outliers’ collection, which marks ten years painting in Ireland, ‘On Solid Ground’ is a painting that is a reflection on and a distillation of 10 years of residencies and time out painting in Ireland. It was painted in my studio but brings together an amalgam of places that have bolstered, sustained and influenced my painting practice. In his book ‘The Outliers’, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that it takes 10,000 hours practise to master a skill. Some time during the past decade in Ireland, I have crossed over that threshold which has delivered me to this solid ground. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 100cm x 70cm SOLD Painted in a series of breathy layers, ‘A Second Coming – In Ciarraí’ was made while on residency in Cill Rialaig, in Kerry. It commemorates the life of a friend. My residency was in January when the world seemed slowly to begin again. From high up on Bolus Head during those short, moist days, I wondered how do we distinguish time and mark out days. Indeed, how do we capture the essence of a life – but in breaths. And so this painting was made slowly in lots of very loose layers. I wanted to paint like breath on glass – similar to the way weather, hovering between sea and sky, makes a ghostly impression over The Skelligs. The painting became a sum of it’s parts – lots of light layers which, when combined attempt to capture the essence of light and a life.
Contemporary Irish Landscape Painting
