Ireland has basked in not one but two heatwaves this summer, and I've been making the most of every degree.
Most weeks, twice at least, I swim in the Atlantic at Flaggy Shore in New Quay, in the company of a wonderful shoal of fellow Mermaids and Mermen. It's no coincidence that so much of my work starts there: the seascapes, the bright fish, the Rockscapes of the Burren. The routine never varies. Swim, home, shower, then straight into the studio to get it all down on canvas before the colours and the ideas fade.
Flaggy Shore, also known as Mermaid Bay
I rarely work alone. Finn and Evie, our two ginger cats (known in this house as The Ginger Ninjas), are self-styled art critics and studio muses, and they curl up beside the easel to supervise. Since we converted part of the big shed into a studio, having a space of my own has been such a gift. It lets me work at a pace I wouldn't have found easy before, and the long bright days and shifting light of an Irish summer have made it a joy.
The Ginger Ninjas
The result is the most productive few months I've had: a whole body of work, which I'll be showing at a collaborative exhibition with Fabiano Mulas and Leonie McEvoy at the end of August. More on that in the next post.
So this summer has been the Burren, swimming at Flaggy, walks in Coole Park, and a trip to Connemara to photograph Diamond Hill for a large cold wax piece of the same name. And working as hard as I can to earn two weeks off, some of it with my San Francisco family, the rest with my Irish one.
If you'd like to see the work that came out of this summer, you'll find the original paintings in my Original Paintings collection, and prints in the Prints collection.
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