Landscapes of ireland - a love affair

11 Dec

Greetings from Ireland – and as you can see from the images below, this blog is about, well, Ireland. These are landscapes I’ve drawn and/or painted of my favourite places in my country.

You might be aware how popular Ireland is as a tourist destination, and might even have visited it yourself. When I go for hikes I bring art materials with me, but I don’t always get to use them because, well, weather. There’s a reason there are forty shades of green here. But I do take photos and often video as well. So even if I don’t get the opportunity to make work ‘en plein air’, I can always use the photos to make the composition.

I grew up in the south-east, but feel more at home in the west of Ireland. Where I live in County Limerick is a little bit off the beaten track, but I have noticed people from foreign parts finding their way to the nearby lost village of Knockfierna on the hilltop not far from my house. The main road that goes to Kerry is vastly improved now, so I can be in either Killarney or Tralee in under 90 minutes – ish. And I love going into County Clare to the Burren National Park, we’ve gone on a couple of great walks there.

The landscape tells a story older than time. When I’m out in it, I’m very aware of how it constantly changes under the light, through the rain, wind, sun, snow, and how it has changed since I was a child. I was 14 the first time I visited the Burren, on a school trip, the Geography teacher brought us up to the Cliffs of Moher via a muddy old cow trail and between us and the cliff edge was a half-fallen barb wire fence with tufts of raw sheep wool on it – I wouldn’t have recognised the place now. One of the really special things about the Burren is the number of ancient monuments in it – several stone circles and ancient forts, wedge tombs and of course the Poulnabrone Dolmen, as well as monastic and castle ruins. If only the stones could talk, right?

Here are three soft pastel drawings of landscape scenes, one of the Knockfierna famine-era cottages near my home, a scene of the coast of County Galway looking out to Galway Bay, and the strange Karst landscape of the Burren between Fanore and Doolin, County Clare.

Which one do you like best?

Do you have any special memories of Ireland, either as resident or a visitor?

Where did you go?