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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!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. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 120cm x 100cm SOLD The Outliers is the culmination of 10 years painting here in Ireland. It is from my first studio collection, that is –the first collection I have made from my studio rather than in response to a particular residency. It’s a reflection of 10 years of residencies and time out painting in Ireland, an amalgam of places I’ve painted – and a sort of hybrid of influences. By definition, an outlier is ‘is an observation point that is distant from other observations’. I like to think of the outliers as an outcrop of mythical islands just beyond my imagination – a sort of painting odyssey – a sort of unreachable destination I am happily propelling myself towards and constantly striving to capture. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40" x 30" (i.e. 102cm x 76cm) Ready to hang in slip frame Valentia Island - as a location - had a pivotal and pioneering role in transatlantic communications. I find walking alone the shoreline and swimming very inspiring - it so often translates into my work. While I find abundance in the waves, it makes me think Marconi must have had a magic, marvelous mind to see so much potential beyond those waves. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 125cm x 112cm This large painting happened immediately after I had taken a short holiday in Rosslare last Summer. It was such a lovely little holiday - I had spent most of my childhood Summers in Wexford - so doing the 'borough' beach walk every morning felt - in someways like re-enchanting a long, held connection. -
SOLD OUT!Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas 120cm x 100cm in slip frame ready to hang This painting was made in many, many layers. I started it in my early explorations of cold wax and returned to it - adding layers and experience - over years. The crosshatching motion of the work over time gave depth and seemed to embody the experience of the painting. It isn't specifically about any place but is something of a journey-man painting - as it takes the essence of my experiences over several artists' residences across choppy lakes and along moody shorelines. Although the palette is dark it is ultimately an uplifting piece - signaling home in the midst of a torrent. We are never forever, truly lost, we can always re calibrate, chart out course and navigate our way towards a sense of home. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 124cm x 112cm In slip frame, ready to hang. SOLD You have to keep your wits about you in the sea. Sinking or swimming are ultimate options. As a very recent - and occasional - sea swimmer, I love the immediacy of immersion. It's impossible to feel wishy washy about the sensations. 0.5 seconds after immersion you are fully alive - senses accelerated, at absoute optimum. Although I am in possession of a rambly mind - and prone to projecting forwards or harking backwards, I am a fan of being in in the moment. Sea swimming helps me be 'all in' and be fully alive one moment at a time. -
SOLD OUT!'Wonderland'
Oil On Canvas: 160cm x 160cm In Slip Frame Ready To Hang To be full of future – dreams, plans, schemes and such – is a lovely, latent kind of energy. That’s how I felt when making this painting. As a rookie artist I painted in a traditional context – working out in the landscape, making paintings in response to place. As my practice deepened, the response has become more intuitive. I’ve learned to trust myself and the work, and to understand (to paraphrase the late, great Mary Oliver) ‘My work is loving the world…, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished’. Composition has taken on a more vital, vibrant quality – rather than thinking in terms of foreground, lines, proportions etc, making paintings now feels like composing music. It is beyond looking and seeing and involves a sort of deep cellular listening – to hear, but mostly feel the rhythm of nature. My paintings are made with oils in many layers. Creating this big painting was a joy. Pregnant with possibility, it was in and of itself a wonderland. With every layer it seemed to unfold, evolve and reveal itself to me. Often painting feels like magic - a particular kind of alchemy. It fills me with wonder and a special energy – an illumination radiating from the inside out. -
SOLD OUT!Flume
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SOLD OUT!'From Valentia' (Above us only Sky)
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SOLD OUT!'In West Clare' (We are Eternal)
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SOLD OUT!Threshold
Oil On Canvas: 150cm sq €9,250.00 In Slip Frame Ready To Hang‘Threshold’ marked the beginning of so much newness for me.
After years (and years!) of treading water and often struggling to keep afloat, my painting practice and by association my life, suddenly and almost imperceptibly hit a growth spurt.
Making my largest paintings coincided with finally finding a building that would be my home and house my studio and showroom. Built pre-1900, ‘Threshold’ was created as part of an exhibition to honour the space and all that had gone before and was yet to be.
Poet and philosopher John O’Donoghue wrote beautifully of change and emergence. I loved his notion to ‘ bless the space between us’ as I felt it marked that special time between the past and the future.
“The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival”
I have realised life is never linear and change is as constant as the tide. Even in trying times, we must believe in perpetual motion.
Forward is always a direction. Our evolution is illuminated by blessings and possibility, but you must believe in possibility (often things you can’t yet see, but can just about feel!).
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SOLD OUT!‘Tis (All before us)'
Oil on Canvas,
180cm x 120cm
‘Tis – the west of Ireland abbreviation of ‘it is’ is a term I love to hear. The softness of it fills me with affection.
‘Tis was also the title of Frank McCourt’s second memoir. Following on from his best-selling ‘Angela’s Ashes’which portrayed the bleakness of Ireland in the earlier half of the last century.
While we still enjoy significant rain fall, Ireland of today is vibrant. In spite of challenges economic and social, we are as a people – I feel, forward looking. And our landscape is abundant – it holds and inspires us all.
‘Tis’– this painting, is about looking forward. It was made in many, many layers and gave its own set of challenges. When composing a painting, I am not looking for likeness but sensation – the feeling of coming home or being home. Place is important but not in a geo map specific way. I am creating sense of place.
Just as happiness is never truly a thing but more a feeling. I am endeavouring to evoke that feeling when you round the Irish coastline and the views, as Seamus Heaney so beautifully set the scene in his poem Postscript “.. catch the heart off guard and blow it open”.
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SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 25cm x 25cm Ready to hang in slip frame Sometimes the littlest paintings have more than their fair share of magic. This one was painted in about 50 layers and I was just about to give up when it presented itself, like a secret kingdom - just beyond our imagination. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 25cm x 25cm Ready to hang in slip frame This painting was made in many layers and took me on a bit of a journey. It was inspired by Bic Runga's song - of the same title - Everything is beautiful and new. Listen to it HERE. The song was inspired by Bic's first-time motherhood - the enchantment, fragility and wonder of the new. It's appropriate to any journey - that is challenging, a personal stretch but ultimately a happy song. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 25cm x 25cm Ready to hang in slip frame Another painting made in many, many layers - often the smaller ones have that way about them. This painting was in itself an enchantment. I loved making it - as it seemed to form itself over many layers. It puts me in mind of salmon skies and Summer nights, striding homewards through high grasses not far from the sea. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 20cm x 20cm Ready to hang in slip frame -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 20cm x 20cm Ready to hang in slip frame -
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
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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!Oil on board 25cm x 20cm In slip frame ready to hang Spinning out to the beach – straight from the studio – is one of my greatest pleasures. In under an hour I can be in the sea – it is nothing short of glorious. And there are two pristine beaches to choose from. This painting is a throwback to a lovely evening on the beach earlier this Summer and a lovely reminder of that sunny state of mind – regardless of the weather. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on board 25cm x 20cm In slip frame ready to hang Over the years, I have always felt comfortable living on islands – which is no surprise given our Island home. Reading Tim Winton’s book of the same title brought home (ha!) to me the pure and tender qualities of island life. It frames our life and gives it context (on same and for context Winton’s Island home is Australia!) Most recently, I found myself on small islands in the middle of Lough Mask while fishing with my Dad. At ‘lunchtime’ we moor at one of the small islands - the sounds of the shore lapping, bird life, oars on water, reels spinning and yarns being spun by fishermen is a lovely backdrop to memories of that place and time. It is a place I feel very inspired by and at home. -
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!'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!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!Oil on Board 35cm x 30cm In slip frame ready to hang
Contemporary Irish Landscape Painting
