Nobody Said it was Easy

Once a week should be enough to whet my creative appetite, so on a truly gorgeous sunny day I managed a wee walk up to the loveliest graveyard in the country. The dog was very excited but it won’t be long before he recognises what that green rucksack with the swinging paint pot signifies.

He has all the freedom he needs to sniff to his hearts content. But no - he’d rather sit in the huff and get in the way. At one point he had his nose resting on the sketch pad….

I took my concertina sketch pad which only really had left over paint which I had dobbed into the pad while I was painting at Meg’s kitchen in Ireland. The layout seemed to work quite well here.

The writing was from a crumpled up, discarded and soaking piece of a childs homework I found in the park in Ireland. Didn’t want to waste it. Hope the child didn’t get sent back to look for it - it WAS very wet and torn.

Unfortunately, my main sketch looked far better with the shadows created by the bright sunlight and the wet, cheap paper!! When I showed it to Granny (who’s family rest here) she said it looked like an orgy. I think she was confusing it with the scene from Tam O’Shanter!

Thankfully, I’m very aware of my limited sketching ability and the plan was to rip it up at home and rearrange. I did some wee sketches of shapes and images to add to the mix.

If only I could edit the pictures as easily as I can on the phone as they looked way better in black and white.

An hour or so at home was enough time to splice them up and make a lighter hearted, non orgy style pic. Cille Choirill is a very precious place and I would never seek to try and reflect it’s iconic place in peoples hearts and minds. This is me enjoying the process, inspired by the loveliness of the place.

A bit squinty, but will go in my pile of ideas.

Last week’s Moy Graveyard was a bit greyer, so I brightened it up a bit before storing away.