2024 so far and it’s the end of May
Earlier this year I was chosen as a finalist for the Hambly and Hambly French Residency!
I was so chuffed! So chuffed Nick….long suffering hubby/gardner and I went to the award ceremony where the winners were announced. Unfortunately I was not a winner but I had the best time and it was a beautiful experience.
last year I was invited to be involved in a project run by The Acorn Project in Kilkenny.
The project was called Let the long grass grow. It was the brainchild of Maura Brennan, a renowned eco activist. She asked 4 artists, Kasia Kaminska, Michell McMahon, Ross Stewart and myself to respond to a poem she wrote about what happens if you leave the long grass grow……..
she asked each of us to choose a plant that was on the endangered list or certainly wild. I choose the Nettle Leaf Bellfower, which only grows in the Nore and Barrow valleys. It grows in my garden!
last week, 18th-26th May was Biodiversity week in Kilkenny so our works were put on posters and hung around Kilkenny……my mam and dad would have been chuffed and proud….finally all that money spent on my education was recognised! lol
We also ran workshops in various places and I had a group out at my studio for a beautiful day of sharing and sketching and forest bathing! I can only say thank you to Maura thank you for the opportunity!
Then I was chosen to be part of an amazing Exhibition about Sustainability and art in An Chéad Tine gallery, in Kilkenny! Thank you Mary Doyle-Burke for curating this show in such an eco friendly and inspiring manner.
no pressure at all lol
The group selected by Curator Mary Doye-Bourke
Jennie Castle, Marco De Santa, Mary Doyle Burke and Mairead Holohan
my sketchbooks from the fields displayed in a beautiful manner
Then I went to France to paint!!!
13 of us from the Wexford Plein air group headed off to La Salle Painting holiday close to the not so little village of Saint Puy about an hour and a half from Toulouse. I highly recommend it and am considering taking a student group there myself!
a beautiful French garden
A beautiful spot in the quaint protected village of Terraube.
I must say in the area we were in they do not make any adjustments for tourists or any minorities. They understand that the reason we go is because of the way it is. They also do not care whether we like it or not! They want their beautiful villages preserved and build nothing that contrasts with them. I guess they are not ashamed of their past……
