Some Background
A little bit about me and a little bit more about why I paint.
I am an Irish artist now based in Sligo in the Northwest of Ireland following more than thirty-five years living and working in England. I have always enjoyed 'making and doing things', whether woodworking and cabinet making, illustration, sketching and painting.
I currently work predominantly in oils and much of my work is done Plein Air but I also like to sketch in watercolour and ink, particularly when travelling. These sketches will often form the basis of my oil paintings back in the Studio.
Whilst I love the open countryside, the sea, hills and mountains and could spend all day watching a sunset (clearly not literally, you know what I mean!), it is generally the built environment that currently attracts me in painting terms, particularly some of the more mundane aspects of life.
'Where the Cricket Sings' - Whats in a Name?
Why the name for the site? Well, it's a line from the Irish poet W B Yates' poem, The Lake Isle of Innisfree and it has a particular resonance for me.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
– W. B. Yeats
It’s an iconic Irish poem that is emblematic of Yeats' early style but for me it’s particular resonance is in the way the inspiration for it came to Yeats, while watching a water fountain in a London shop window, reminding him of the lake and his youth back in Ireland. For me, whilst nowhere near as profound and dramatic as Yeats' sudden inspiration as he watched the water in London, a very quiet and peaceful moment in Birmingham's Victoria Square as I listened to the sounds of the water cascading down the fountain, as I stood 'on the pavements grey', brought similar memories and thoughts.