This painting is about the sense and mood of a place, imaginary or real.

It is an image that evolved on the canvas following a walk along the Murrough, in Co.Wicklow, on a warm foggy summer’s evening. The land here is a nature reserve and is full of migratory birds. It comprises of marsh lands and saltwater lakes, which stretch along the coast from Kilcoole to Wicklow Town. The land is rough and soggy. Bitter and cold in the winter, while warm, wild and open in the summer.

If you stand alone here the full weight of the beauty of the isolation and broody solitude of the land engulfs you. A sense of calm prevails while feeling tiny in the vastness of the view. The land meets the sky in all its glory. The land is rugged, harsh and wet.

The painting captures the sea mist, silently moving across the marsh, along with the heavy low clouds. The painting is about weight, isolation and silence. The imagery is calm, beautiful but harsh.

The background of the piece is abstract and vast with its heavy foreboding sky while the foreground is more immediate and real, with the dominant but delicate uncurled Ferns.

The painting marries the mediums of oil paint, graphite and chalk.

The brush and paint allows for the freedom to make lush moody abstract landscape, while the graphite and chalk in the forefront allows for sharp, bold and realistic line.

The use of the red tones, introduces the warmth felt on a summers evening.

Mood and memory of this place is central to the imagery and overall composition. The painting strives to capture a sense of this place for the artist and the viewer. Allowing the viewer in, to decide on what they are seeing and feeling.