The original Man-cave   This new painting is of the dungeon cells in Killmainham Gaol in Dublin.  Here the captured rebels of the 1916 Easter Rising were held before many of them were executed.  Their deaths turned Irish public opinion once and for all against the Queen and towards the rebels who had been considered extremists by many of the Irish population. Five years later Ireland had "independence" although on terms that divided the country and led to the bloody two-year Irish Civil war.  In 1936, twenty years after being locked up in Killmainham, Éamon de Valera became president of Ireland. 

A Stroudsburg Hideaway. Last Friday, Karen and I drove up to Stroudsburg, PA, "The Gateway to the Poconos," to attend the opening of a beautiful library-themed bar on whose walls were a bunch of my Irish Writers prints plus my double-tiered original oil (on loan) "I Remember Ireland." This was hung in a place of honor, the center of the handsome new paneled bar, directly above the single-malt whiskeys!  

     The pub is called Lynch's Hideaway and the owners are two charming Irishmen, Sean James, who hails from County Mayo, near Ballina, and Barry Lynch, a Galway man himself.  The place was packed, and we met many interesting people including Sean's petite wife, Paula, the mother of five, and quite a charmer herself. 

     The prints were beautifully framed, an amazing achievement in itself considering that it had only been three days earlier, Tuesday afternoon, that Barry had first called me on the phone.  About seven o'clock that very evening, a beautiful young woman named Sarah, having driven the 2-3 hours from Stroudsburg at rush hour, arrived at our house in Narberth, made a quick pit stop in our Powder Room, scooped up the unframed prints and the bubble-wrapped "I Remember Ireland" and headed back on the road North to the pub where a team of carpenters were furiously finishing the interior.  The final result was, as they say in Ireland, "Luvly! Brilliant! Grand!"

Samuel Beckett

Sean O'Casey

I Remember Ireland

Edith Kudlovic is a very talented painter and photographer from Austria.  She, like me, has been "hijacked by Ireland" and she found me on the web.  She sent me these photos of a hand-knitted blanket of the fields of Ireland she is working on, "with yellow broom, pink and lila Heather, darkbrown peat and grey stonewalls, blue coasts and ochre grounds, only for me, to remember Ireland."

     I think it is just wonderful, a real work of art, and I wanted to share the pictures with whomever I can. Edith's website is http://edith-kudlovic.at/

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." 

Ballyclare #2 - Finally finished my second painting from the May 2009 Ballyclare Horse Fair. About 30 minutes north of Belfast, the fair has been held every year since 1746!
Get a closer look on my website.