Cill Rialaig

Eleven days at Cill Rialaig on the south-western edge of Ireland, exploring the landscape and creating work with friends from the "le Chéile" collaborative print-making project.
Lasting impressions of the unstoppable sound and power of the sea, the wind and the joy of sudden sunshine.... the desolation of ruined houses, the grief in the abandoned fields, the lines in the grass that mark the old rows of potatoes.... peat-reek and candle light.... the companionship of friends from across the world... the incongruity of modern bungalows and commercial sites in an ancient landscape.... long walks, old stones, monastic cells on the clifftop... choughs and hooded crows,ravens and wagtails, gannets and cormorants... sheep and cows on the path above the studio window... the deep darkness of the unlit night.
Concentrating deliberately on a simpler, monochrome approach to work; stripping the images to the bone and bleaching them of colour; trying to avoid the scribbled line and strong greens, which threaten to become clichés in my work.