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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!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!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!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 (SOLD) 94cm x 69cm In slip frame, ready to hang. €2250.00 Inspired by the imagined longings of historical inhabitants of Spike Island. The tranquility and beauty of their setting, with the far shore still in site, must have been jarring to say the least. A constant taunt for liberty denied and life going on at pace just beyond them. For all the beauty of our surroundings, having peace in our hearts and minds is the prize. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm Ready to hang in slip frame Another of my happy places! This was painted in my studio but harks back to happy times close to the boglands in Ciarraí. It is, in recent years, a contentment to me to take inspiration out in the landscape before incorporating it into the rhythm of a studio schedule. For a long time, I felt perpetually on residency - out in some landscape or other, it was enchanting but often unsettling. Now a new studio rhythm feels an enhancement, an orderly way to tap into influences and mine memories. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm Ready to hang in slip frame There is a motion in the ocean that helps - I think - to move forwards out of 'stuckness' and onwards. The constancy of the sea and holding on and letting go are a constant theme for me. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40" x 30" (i.e. 102cm x 76cm) Ready to hang in slip frame The sea adjoining Ciarraí can often catch colours of the tropics - turquoise and fizzy greens that don't quite match our inky skies. I have been greatly infleunced by Sorolla this past year - visiting his studio in Madrid and seeing his shows in London and Dublin. I wonder how he might have painted our sea - with all the drama but not so much sun, I imagine the Spaniard may have had much to say in paint. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 45cm x 35cm Ready to hang in slip frame While on a fellowship at The Ballinglen Arts Foundation at the beginning of this year, I used to walk the shoreline at sunset. Most usually I was alone on the beach with my thoughts and it was a lovely opportunity to exercise my mind and body. It occurred to me late on one of those evenings how the sea is so soothing - inhaling and exhaling in a rhythm as it does. Funny to get to my age before realising how the sea shows us how to breathe. -
Oil on canvas 180cm x 120cm In slip frame ready to hang These larger paintings have been stirring inside me for the past few years. It has been a pleasure to see them finally come to fruition in the studio. I am forever saying my work is ‘holding on and letting go’ . There may be more robust, verbose words for my process but the practice of turning up, letting go of all my notions and hang ups and holding on for inspiration, flow and the good stuff (that feels to my mind like fire) is essentially how I find and harness inspiration. Begin to Hope feels like a line I am making by walking, beyond the fertile void, it is of itself spilling out into the world at large
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SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 76cm x 51cm Ready to hang in slip frame Mayo has some magic places, DownPatrick Head being a case in point. It's the edge of Ireland and not for the faint-hearted. The sea lashes it for much of the time - making for dramatic sea spray and the foamiest, thundering current but then at other times it is all calm - like at day break when the sun steals its way in silence into the sky. The stormy times are not forgotten, but behind us now as we begin again. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40" x 30" (i.e. 102cm x 76cm) Ready to hang in slip frame I am a fan of islands but despite having spent much of my painting time in Ciarraí, I have only recently started to document Valentia island. I love the sea-crossing - short as it is - and Bray Head, and the lapping water at ever side. I love too that you can go way, way high up and low down again into the sea. This is one of my first paintings from this place - it was made following a stormy Summers crossing. -
SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 100cm x 70cm Ready to hang in slip frame -
SOLD OUT!A Turn For Grace
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SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 40cm x 40cm Ready to hang in slip frame This painting is another song of praise, an ode to the sea as it renews, invigorates and keeps us buoyant - leading us homewards. -
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!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 canvas 45cm x 35cm Ready to hang in slip frame The back strand at Lacken in North Mayo is one of the most breath-taking places I have ever been. It's wide and long and surrounded by huge, high dunes. In the early part of the year, a breeze blows directly across the beach creating gentle gusts of sand - it feels otherworldly and a bit magical - as if for a few moments you are suspended between worlds, neither holding on or letting go. -
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!‘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 40cm x 40cm In slip frame, ready to hang. €795.00 -
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!'In West Clare' (We are Eternal)
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SOLD OUT!Oil on canvas 100cm x 120cm Ready to hang in slip frame
Contemporary Irish Landscape Painting
