After two months of daily working away at this painting, stone by stone, praying all the while that when it was finally finished I would like it, I carefully added that solitary raven and... c'est finis!
It depicts the ancient walls of Timoleague Abbey in West Cork and is the second painting I've done of the ruins of the Abbey which stand at the end of the Courtmacsherry Bay, not far from Kinsale. Originally a Franciscan Friary (1240 a.d.) built on the site of St. Molaga's cell, it was destroyed by Cromwell's army in 1642. For 800 years it's been built, destroyed, rebuilt, damaged, repaired, again and again by West Cork stone masons (most of them named McCarthy!) Upon close examination, the walls tell the story, doorways filled in, windows moved, patches of limestone next to granite next to gneiss next to whatever could be found, creating a masonary jigsaw puzzle of huge how-did-they-ever-get-that-stone-up-there slabs to rocks as small as your fist.
But with all the repairs, modifications, and re-purposing over the years, one thing has remained constant, the ravens!
You can see my 2002 painting of Timoleague here.
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