IRELAND INSPIRED

Ireland is one of my favorite places and I began painting its landscapes in 2019. Before I visited Ireland, I thought only about the idyllic rolling green hills. After my first time traveling the island, I realized how varied the landscape is and how the rapidly changing and often dramatic weather impacts the land and the sea. There are so many colors aside from those 40 shades of green we’ve all heard about. There are the deep blues and rich turquoises of the ocean, vast fields of purple heather spotted with golden flowers (furze) and the color of the light as the damp air travels over a hill. Other impressive landscapes that have made an appearance in my work are the Cliffs of Moher and other rocky terrain.

For more information about these paintings, please click on the image.

“places light forgives”

NEW OIL PAINTINGS

These three oil paintings of the Cliffs of Moher are part of another series of landscape paintings from 2020. The series is named “Paths“.

oil painting of the path that leads along the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland

Ireland’s West Coast

semi abstract landscape painting inspired by the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

“poured in a dusty beam”

mixed media landscape painting inspired by the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland

“silence to its edge”

“rising out of the mist (Cliffs of Moher)”

The Irish Cliffs of Moher

by Wallace Stevens

Who is my father in this world, in this house,
At the spirit’s base?

My father’s father, his father’s father, his—
Shadows like winds

Go back to a parent before thought, before speech,
At the head of the past.

They go to the cliffs of Moher rising out of the mist,
Above the real,

Rising out of present time and place, above
The wet, green grass.

This is not landscape, full of the somnambulations
Of poetry

And the sea. This is my father or, maybe,
It is as he was,

A likeness, one of the race of fathers: earth
And sea and air.

panoramic painting of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland

“Cliffs of Moher towards Moher Tower”

panoramic painting of the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland

“Cliffs of Moher from Hag’s Head”

FINDING INSPIRATION

It was one of those “pull the car over, I have to take a picture” moments.

We were driving on the west coast of Ireland and there were two completely different scenes happening over the ocean. We were coming from the light side, the ocean was inky blue but there was almost a visible line in the sky where it changed… The heavy clouds looming over silver water.

I love seeing that kind of contrast – places where the weather changes so rapidly.

abstracted mixed media seascape painting (on yupo paper) inspired by the coast of Ireland

“light in supreme darkness”

Semi-Abstracted Landscapes

“Wicklow Walk”

“ecchoing green”

abstract landscape painting inspired ireland

“sloping green”

mixed media acrylic semi abstract landscape inspired by Ireland

“sudden light”

“idle mist”

mixed media landscape painting inspired by the moonlight illuminating a lake in Ireland

“in the faint moonlight”

Poetry

I titled this painting, “slant of light”, after an Emily Dickinson poem.

I haven’t read much poetry in my life, but lately I’ve found a lot of inspiration for titles in the words of various poets. I feel like these titles are a final brush stroke that offer a gentle suggestion to the viewer – one that surely is interpreted differently by each person who reads it, just as each person will have their own interpretation of a painting.

small mixed media landscape painting inspired by County Kerry, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland

“slant of light”