Hijacked by Ireland: ireland

Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts

April 18, 2013

Driving into Ardara, County Donegal, one November day, from our cottage in Crumlin along the shores of Loughros Beg, we came across a small flock of sheep being brought down a hill to our left by a pair of sheepdogs and a farmer. I screeched to a halt at the side of the road but my vision was blocked by the hedgerow. I stood on the car door sill and held the camera high over my head as high as I could reach and fired away, shooting video, not knowing what the camera was recording. I got lucky and captured a great bit of video which became part of a larger video called Ireland in November. (You can see it on my video page on my website.)

It was a year later when I began this painting, because I was a little afraid of it, I knew it would be difficult and I really didn't know how I was going to handle the hedgerow. And it did prove to be a hard slog, but after about three times as many painting sessions as is normal, I declared it finished. Leonardo da Vinci said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned." And so it goes.

June 26, 2011

Kylemore Lough

Innocents abroad -- this painting came at the expense of some very unhappy people.

We had driven out from Oughterard last November to visit Kylemore Abbey, deep in Connemara. After an hour or so at the Abbey, we set out headed East on Rt. 59 towards Lennane, and quickly came to short queue of cars waiting at a red temporary traffic light. Road work ahead. Of course in Ireland the roads are so narrow that any construction means single lane traffic and the flow of traffic is controlled by traffic lights at each end of the construction zone. It was a Sunday and no work was being done but the system is automated -- they have some device which counts the cars that have entered the zone and communicates that to the traffic light at the other end. After the same number of cars emerge at the other end, the light turns green allowing cars to move in the opposite direction.

Fortunately the light turned green just as we pulled up behind the car in front of us and we were able to drive on, soon finding us beside the gorgeous Kylemore Lough. I was entranced by the twisted, leafless trees on the near shore and the green/orange mountain directly across the water. As is my habit I pulled well off the road, jumped out of the car and began photographing the scene, walking up and down the way to look for better views. After I had my fill, we headed off again down the road. Luckily there were no cars behind us so I was able to drive slowly and soak up the beauty. After a mile or two I came around a bend and to my horror saw a long line of cars facing me, all queued up behind a traffic light, wondering why in hell the light hadn't turned green by now! I passed them, eyes straight ahead, not glancing to see the expressions on the faces of the drivers. Thank God I would never see any of them again. But I did get a pretty nice painting out of it.

February 2, 2011

Draiocht Na Mara In the Irish language the name means, "Magic of the Sea" Or as I would put it, "Show me the Fish!" This trawler is tied up in Dingle Harbor, reportedly to be auctioned off to pay harbor fees. Battered and rusted, slathered with multiple layers of paint, it was the yellow that attracted me. I've only done one other painting that featured yellow.
I really struggled with this one, and it's been painted and re-painted and darkened and lightened and darkened again many times. I also managed to get fresh cadmium orange oil paint on two pairs of pants and one sofa arm as I carried it around, still wet, placing it in different locations to attempt to get a read on whether it was too yellow or not yellow enough or too pale or too contrasty. Finally, enough! As my old friend Steve Jackson told me, "A work of art is never finished, it is merely abandoned."