Back to Sligo.

I'm travelling again.  We are about to set off to our "Cottage" in Sligo for another extended weekends work, weather permitting, leaving Dog and Child behind in Dublin.  I will take a few photographs of the cottage this weekend..    ... assuming I remember to do it ;).  Below are two 10 by 8 studies from just up the hill from the cottage over looking three of the loughs visible from the one spot. (Loughs Arrow, Key, Meelagh and skeane)  Three counties are in the view, I am painting in Sligo, looking out over Leitrim and Roscommon as well as part of Sligo itself.  This view is a two minute drive from the cottage.  It is walkable but hill climbing was never really my thing, particularly with an easel paints, boxes of panels and all the other accrutriments Plein air painting requires.

I'm back from my Plein Air trip to Kerry



Painting at Rath Cove, Kerry.

The finished painting

I am now back from Caherdaniel, Co. Kerry.  We stayed at Derrynane Hotel which is right on the shoreline overlooking Kenmare Bay on the Ring of Kerry.

As you can see from the photos we had some marvelous weather, although we did have one morning's rain.  When it rains you cannot see the other side of the bay, in fact it is hard enought to see the other side of the cove! 

We visited a number of areas to paint around the peninsula from Sneem to Kilorglin.  We also took a short break at the upper Lake, Killarney, near ladies view on the way down where I did a little painting to break the journey. 

Kerry is a beautiful place in the sunshine.  When the rain comes in from the Atlantic though it can get very dull and miserable.  Thankfully we had ideal weather for this trip, little wind and lots of sunshine which makes plein air painting much easier.

I am now in the process of planning one or two larger works from my studies...

when it stops raining and I can get into my studio without splashing through water that shouldn't be on the lawn that is... we have heavy rains in Dublin again.

I'm going for a little trip....

We are off to the Derrynane Hotel at Caherdaniel on the ring of Kerry next week.  I am hopeful that the weather may improve from the torrents of rain we had last week, and are forecast for the next week at least.  I want to do some plein air painting while we are there, if the weather is too bad, I may just have to resort to going fishing!, but I'm not sure Christine will be happy about that choice so maybe not. LOL.

I have a pop-up Gazebo to protect me from showers though if it is not too windy, and I can always just go and do the 'ring'* if all else fails.
* This means driving all the way around the very scenic coastline, in and out along every bay and promontary.

I hope to take a few photographs of it along the way.  In the interim I am travelling up to our cottage in Sligo midweek, hopefully to get a little more work done.  Last weekend I managed to sort out the chimneys, but little else other than some spring cleaning and a little grass cutting due to the appearance of rain, rain, and even more rain..... since last weekend we have had rain, rain and yes, even more rain.
A river we were expecting to have a fishing competition on this weekend actually rose by more than ten feet in two days, which meant we couldn't even find the river in the fields, never mind fish it!  Thankfully we had quite dry weather this weekend, but more rain is forecast, but according to the long range forecast Wednesday and Thursday morning are supposed to be dry so I hope to get a bit of work done to the cottage these two days.  Plans, however are likely to change if the weather does.
This is how the cottage looked  before all the clearing I did last year, though the cottage itself hasn't really changed much.  I'll find a photo of it for the next post
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Where did May fly?

Eeek!! May has gone by, without even one post!  Time is flying, but I have been busy, working on a commission, spring cleaning the Dublin garden, tackling the jungle around our cottage in Sligo and don't forget the fishing.  The Mayfly are up on the loughs. ;)

Here is the photo of my work-space and the portrait I painted at the Pop-Up event in my last post.  The event has finished now, after we were asked to extend it for a couple of weeks.
 I am continuing to take a sabattical from painting this week though, We hope to be over at the cottage next weekend doing some more renovation work for a few days.  I was up on the roof yesterday fixing the chimney from the Kitchen Range, I cut a fern root out of the flue that was nearly totally blocking the chimney altogether.  Needless to say, the draught up the chimney has much improved since the blockage has been removed.