November 24

Had planned to make TODAY, the first full day in the studio. Good timing! Temperature dropped to 3c ( 37degrees) and several hale "showers" hit the skylight during the day. I was the only one in the studios today so turned up Bill Evans and pulled out a few  9 x 12 gessoed panels. Well, immediately realized that shape is not going to work with these skies - so - located a saw in the closet and sawed several into squares. 

I had been working on small compositional studies for painting ideas. My first inclination was to seek familiar compositions  (like a marsh) and then thought - what am I doing? Discover something new. So how about ROCKS?... I have seen a few here. Took this photo walking on Lacken strand. Reminded me of a Philip Guston painting I just saw at the Hugh Lane in Dublin.

Enjoy doing these thumbnails at the dining table

Have a few starts ready....will see what happens.

November 25

Geez! Another amazing day with the weather! Sunshine, hale storm, sunshine. Picked up pup, DUDE at the restaurant this morning for a walk about town. Windy and cold so we stayed on the country roads. Had planned to travel down to Belderigg to practice painting more ROCKS but weather was stirring again late afternoon. Took my paints out on the enclosed porch at the building. Here are photographs I took over over a 20 minute time period as I was painting.

5:01 PM

5:20 PM

How to express the "weight" of the clouds and yet keep an atmospheric presence? And how to communicate that visual experience on a flat painting surface? This will be a challenge! Here are a few unsuccessful attempts but I will keep working on it.

Before I lost all the natural light

Painting in the dark now-

tried some graphite pencils on paper

November 26

66 years ago today I was born to a mother of Scottish descent and a father, of English. Ancestry stays on your mind here. You can feel it in the landscape and the people.

Started my day with a walk and a sketchpad. Attempted a few drawings of sheep but I am skilled at capturing moving targets.  Met a lovely woman with her dog, Sammy, on the road. Her first question was What is your sir name? I said Taylor and Lynch (on my father’s side- knowing my Mom’s family was from Scotland ), Oh, she said, of course, Taylors and, well, the Lynches live just over the hill. WHAT? Of course, there are Taylors and Lynches everywhere, but it did put a skip in my step as I headed back to town.

On the way back, I walked through the town park and walked under the shelter. Boats!

Had a lovely birthday lunch with Irish artists Ruth and Helen...at Mary's, of course! I learned about their childhood holiday traditions - a big holiday for the Irish. We shared a bottle of white wine with our meal and treated ourselves to chocolate pie.  I mentioned the conversation about Lynches on the road, commenting that my grandmother's name was Ida Lynch. Of course, that is Irish, they said!  Spend some time in the studio the rest of the afternoon, And - Guinness with friends at 8 PM. Will close with this sign I saw in the park today.

November 27-29

These three days have been like living in a picture postcard. Freddy arrived on Monday so I drove him around Ballycastle to share all my favorite spots.  Tuesday morning, we drove southwest to Connemara and spent the night. Beautiful! Wednesday, we drove through Achill Island and sketched along the way. Another gorgeous sunny day. We have been lucky with the weather and the scenery was spectacular! I was driving so missed taking pictures along the way to Connemara but here is a memorable moment:

Lowery's Pub in Connemara. Music starts at 10PM every night.

We got to Achill Island around 1PM on Wednesday and followed the Atlantic Wild Way to the end at Keam Beach. Here are a few photographs along the way.

Got to Keel Beach around 4PM. (pictures below)

Heading back to the mainland around 4:30PM.