Title: Birr Castle Demesne through the artist's eye

Medium: Oil on hand-primed linen

Size: 120cm x 100cm

Year: 2020

Description: Art in the Gardens is a biennial project conceived by the outstanding plantsman Seamus O’Brien of the National Botanic
Gardens in Kilmacurragh. Six artists were initially invited to record and paint various aspects of Kilmacurragh, for
an exhibition at Glasnevin. The exhibition is moved every two years to other well-known gardens throughout Ireland with more
artists being added to celebrate these wonderful spaces.
Lord and Lady Rosse invited me to create work for a Group exhibition in celebration of the Gardens and the
Parsons Family 400 years at Birr Castle Demesne. Giving in their experience and knowledge, Lady Rosse showed me how
to grow bluebells from seed and Lord Rosse was particularly interested in my interpretation of the leviathan.
Grainne O’ Malley, the Birr Castle Team, Birr people and visitors were welcoming and kind, making me feel at home whilst
painting directly from life on the Demesne.
Completing this work in my studio and working large to create a sense of history and scale,
I arranged my composition so that the little local dog and visiting child are watching the viewer.

Title: Jim Fenelon from Ballytarsna Co. Carlow

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 15.5cm x 25cm

Description: My cousin Kenneth from London asked me to paint a portrait of our Uncle Jim. Kenneth spent many summers in
Ireland on the farm with Jim. Here, Jim stands by the Carroad Field with the Wicklow hills visible in the far distance. Our much
loved Uncle died in peace at home in 2009 with family around him.

Title: Cyclist and a Dog

Medium: Oil on hand-primed Canvas

Size: 119 x 171.45cm

Description: Lugnaquille in Co. Wicklow majestically appears and disappears on the horizon depending on the day's weather…in
autumn and winter, when the hedges are cut and bare, the highest mountain in Leinster at 925 metres is visible from fields near my home.
Paddy Sullivan, a resident of the Royal Hospital in Dublin and student in my painting class once dreamed of returning to the local
mountains where he'd cut turf as a child. Our conversation about the mountains and simultaneously my experience of climbing Lugnaquille
for the first time inspired this large work.
Including as many mountains as possible with evocative names like Scarr, Djouce, Mullaghcleevaun,
Crogan Moira and the much loved Sugar loaf, my painting is a condensed view of some 60km, flattening in reality
an 180 degree view. Dublin is out of sight and the wind farm in Arklow is barely visible. Scarr is a little deep in colour as it is in real life.
Turlough hill is a distinctive shape and has a crimson colour.
Photographing various viewpoints from Lugnaquille and the surrounding Wicklow mountains helped me create a strong composition.
Making colour studies with watercolour en plein air was essential to my work. Returning to the studio I made three small scaled
paintings in preparation for my painting. People appeared and disappeared, two hikers remain and a cyclist for compositional, directional
and narrative purposes. I mixed a lot of paint to match my watercolour studies and set to work drawing lines and fields on a large
hand-primed, personally-stretched and hand-made canvas.
Colm O’ Briain and Dr. Mary Deane, both long associated with Donnybrook Hospital, are included in my painting. Sheep and a dog are also
clearly visible, the sky and view are vast. I hope my painting gives many hours of pleasure and wonder, especially to the Residents of
Donnybrook Hospital where it now lives, thinking of the conversation with Paddy about the lure of the mountains, I trust that it is our
connection with each other, to nature and each to our own dreams that help us live our lives.
Many thanks to Rita Maloney for originally showing me the trek to Leinster's summit and later
to Liamy Matthews for his mountaineering expertise, great cooking skills and warm tent !

Title: Gormanstown Strand, Co. Louth

Medium: Oil on hand-primed Canvas

Size: 23x20cm

Description: My sea paintings are painted directly on site, en plein air.

Title: Waterways at Kilmorony

Medium: Oil on hand-primed Canvas

Size: 20x14cm

Description: A glimpse of the river river Barrow is visible in the distance, this is the Grand Canal painted from Kilmorony bridge about five
miles outside Athy town in Co. Kildare

Title: Canal from Kilmorony

Medium: Oil on hand-primed Canvas

Size: 23x20cm

Description: I live very close to the waterways outside Athy in Co. Kildare. I painted this work from the old stone Kilmorony bridge.