“Connemara”

From the Images of Ireland Collection (Post 2 of 15).

The story behind the painting…

This painting was inspired by some brilliant summer holidays in Galway City, and west of the city in the little towns of Spiddal, and even further west, Carraroe. This is an area known as Connemara and is part of Ireland’s rugged Atlantic coast.

Connemara is an area of Ireland where the Gaelic language is still spoken to this day. A quiet day in a small Connemara town might see only a farmer walking his bicycle, a dog trying to make sense of that strange activity and the odd passerby. Thatched roof cottages with weathered stone walls, set against emerald colored hills and sunny skies provide a glimpse of what it was like to live in Ireland not so long ago. A couple of empty milk urns stand outside a cottage, waiting to be picked up by a local farmer. He’ll replace them with two others, filled with milk fresh from his own cows earlier that same morning. Nearby, farmers work hard ploughing the fields and herding the sheep till the cows come home.

The painting shows the beautiful contrasting colours seen in the thatched roofs and white stone walls of cottages in the many small towns and villages throughout Ireland. As with all of the artworks in the collection, the colours and contours of the fields and mountains combine to render the beautiful shades of green the…