Bray - summer

A few weeks ago I took this picture of Killiney Bay on my way home from Dublin. That is Bray Head jutting into the Irish Sea in the middle of the image. Bray nestles below and around the Head -- my home these past few decades. 

We have had an amazing summer, blue skies, lots of sun and warmth. It is a wonderful reminder of why I have been here for so long -- I love the place! Foxgloves are out and they are wild and extremely tall here in Ireland.

Bray is ideal: it is close to the countyside, the sea, and Dublin. Everything is at your doorstep. This cliff down to the sea is on the side of Bray Head.

One of my neighbours has a brilliant collection of irises growing in her side garden. I have to pass them walking towards the park on the way out of the estate.

Especially when on a mission to pick elderflowers on the edge of the park -- elderflowers bloom in June and make a fantastic cordial and wine.

The grass on the edge of the estate is full of tiny, pink-tipped daisies.

Looking through tree branches the sky is blue.

The sun is shining and the leaves are lush. Can it get any better than this?

Grey Box Archive 2

 I mentioned a few posts ago that I discovered a box of drawings and sketches while looking for some paperwork. So I thought I would post a few more. The pencil sketch below is from the early 1980s, of the basement bar at the house where I grew up in Toronto. My parents returned to Ireland in 1983, so I was probably getting maudlin or nervous about the impending doom!

The wind is absolutely howling outside my window so this charcoal sketch seems appropriate. It is of the Irish Sea on a stormy day in either 1989 or 1990 when I had my earlier (second bout?) of living in this country.

In the summer of 1990 I returned to Toronto, and participated in a group show "Me & 9 Others" at the Orient Building at Queen & Bathurst. This is a sketch of the piece I later put together as part of an installation. It is an elongated house on a trellis. My Dad helped me build the house and the trellis (which in the final piece I painted yellow). In the final piece, you could peer in the window to see a figure surrounded by floating stars (made of fimo) and I wove live roses into the trellis, rather than scattering them; over the course of the exhibition they wilted and dried. Behind the sculpture was a large piece of paper, half left blank and the other half with an oilstick drawing of two waterspouts over a stormy sea. This piece is not documented very well -- I have a couple of polaroid details (somewhere...), The sculptural element was bought by poet Janette Platana, but that was 25 years ago, so I don't know if she still has it!

 This watercolour is from 1990 and was created in Ireland, but I don't remember exactly where -- Bray or Howth perhaps?