The Road West

Extract from the artist's journal of October 2003 ' ... arriving at Cork after some absence, the road sign says simply "West Cork" and I feel the usual anticipation and excitment. We travel through the towns which mark the stations on the route: Bandon, Clonakilty, Leap, Rosscarbery, and finally, Skibbereen, where we finally turn left beyond the West Cork Hotel. After this I know every field and tree. I have painted these shadows, that land reclaimed, that bend in the Ilen, the sunset that drops from Mt Gabriel, and then, Kilcoe, the small paradise that has swamped my heart and I stand in its black darkness under trillions of stars'.