Oil on canvas

45cm x 35cm

In slip frame, ready to hang.

€745.00

I have been fortunate to undertake many artist residencies. It’s a period of time – for me, it’s been anything from a week to three months – most usually spent in solitude, contemplating new work quietly. The kind of time most parents would sell their teeth for!

The quiet gets intense in the beginning – thoughts of being an utter fraud with a wasted life, devoid of any talent get noisy – and days and nights are long. I believe  – wholeheartedly – if you are to make your own unique work, you must hear your own unique thoughts – warts and all – thus, there is nothing for it but to turn off your phone, walk in all weather and face forward the maelstrom of the mind.

Slowly, fresh grounds of a new idea, germs of connectedness with nature shoot surely  – and an enchantedness with the work begins again. Soon the silence that was solitary is now a balm – your thoughts and indeed your place on the earth seem to rhyme – or at least have a co-herence – a rhythm! It’s then, in that super sweet spot,  I have my best shots of inspiration  – sometimes it seems a simple download, a hymn to the silence.