 After promising my family that some year, we would take a vacation longer than 1 week in a tent or cabin, we finally did it this year (2009), and travelled to Ireland, with quick side trips to Paris and London, Leicester, York and Nottingham (Carol's family roots).
The 4 week trip was mid July-mid August, the majority of which was driving the entire country of Ireland. My initial designs on Plein-aire painting gave way to the more practical taking of pictures, in deference to family members. It was a great family time,and very interesting to explore some of my family tree, with my mom's side comimg from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
With an unpredicted week spent in VGH between landing back in Vancouver, and eventually back home to Abbotsford, sorting through photos and looking for painting ideas came along slower than usual. Having had a cancerous brain tumor removed, with a bit of uncertainty as to functional impact, I was perhaps a bit tentative in squeezing out some paint.
I owe the producing of this painting to one of my closest friends, himself a painter in his high school years, but like most of us, work, family, other interests, etc, tend to push things like painting off the agenda (unless it happens to be the fence or the interior of your home). He challenged us both to do our own version of the same image, and having only the previous evening looked at some of our Ireland pictures, and had commented on one shot, taken just outside the B&B we stayed in, along a main street in the city of Dublin. So the painting was born, and was the required nudge to get back into the studio. Thank you, Graham. |
SFCA