An Illustrated Journey Through Ireland

Ireland is famous for two colors, green and black. Green because year long, the hills are covered in thick green grass, and everything is so vibrant. Black because of its Guinness, which is in every pub around, and there are a lot of pubs. I read that there is one pub for every 4 people in Ireland. I’m not sure if that is true but there certainly are a lot of them. It truly is a beautiful country, from its rugged coast lines and rolling mountain ranges. There is always something to look at here.

So when my wife decided to go back to her job in Ireland, I was thrilled at the chance to move there with our daughter and experience the culture first hand. So we packed up from Philadelphia and moved into a small village called Leighlinbridge. The population of Leighlinbridge is 914 people, compared to 1.56 million in Philadelphia itself. That is quite a change for us. Perfect for raising a small toddler and getting back to nature, and even better for working on my art.

Even though Leighlinbridge is a small village, some pretty famous people have come from it. One of my favorites is John Tyndall. His house is the size of a shoebox, but he went on to become a famous mountaineer and scientist. It was inspiring knowing that I was walking the same paths as such a man.

I am a huge fan of en plein sketching or the urban sketching movement. En plein sketches are drawings done on location. They are usually rough and done on the fly, trying to capture the heart of the moment, but not all the details. I wanted to do this, but step it up. I had done a show of en plein sketch’s from Asia three years ago. This time I wanted to concentrate on doing completely finished pieces but all drawn on location. Living in Ireland meant that I could take the time to do this. Each one of these pieces incorporates many hours over many days; on rock ledges, sandy beaches, or in stinging nettles. Some of the pieces were finished over a period of a few months.

I chose pen and ink as my medium because I really enjoy the look and feel of it. Plus, a few good pens are easy to carry with you where every you go.