Category Archives: Painting

Winding Down in Douglas

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This painting is taken from our Isle of Man trip. The restaurant, Wine Down, is in Douglas. We sat on the front terrace. I took this shot looking into the crowded restaurant. The window catches interior and exterior, myself and M, and others, observing and being observed. It is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle of life. There are too many pieces and not enough time to fit them all together. And we only imagine the picture on the cover of the box to guide us.

Maybe I am overinclined to sit in cafe windows watching the world going by, while  the world watches me. But there’s belonging too, and the thrill of it all. There are consolations in being a part of the crowd. Imagine the stories of the people here, some connecting with the observer, some lost in their own world. You’ll catch whispered narratives in the buzz, a song rising from the din.

I am listening to Bruce Springsteen’s 2020 album, Letter to You. House of a Thousand Guitars is specifically a hymn to live music venues. Broader than that, it celebrates the human urge to meet socially, and the togetherness of places where the music and the people play

So wake and shake off your troubles my friend

We’ll go to where the music never ends

From the stadiums to the small town bars

We’ll light up the house of a thousand guitars

Art at Limerick’s Hunt Museum

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The Hunt Museum Limerick hold their first Open Submissions Exhibition between Friday 5th December 2025 and Saturday 28th February 2026. I am delighted to have been chosen for the exhibition. My painting, Lovers on a Train, is taken from a train trip between Dublin, Cork and Limerick. I noticed the couple sitting across from me were an island unto themselves. Touring Ireland, their purchases spread between them on the table, while they were absorbed in their screens. So, the tableau involves a still life, a classical composition– like Venus and Mars, and a landscape whizzing by beyond the window. The perfect composition for me. I like to capture the moment to make a visual short story in a particular time and space. People together and all alone; in trains, bars, cafes and cars. I enjoy doing it and hope that others enjoy looking at it. I’m looking forward to heading back down to Limerick. By train, of course.

Frank Duff’s: One More for the Road

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I have been slowing down of late on the art front. The pain thing. Slowing down on all fronts, truth be told. Still, I did squeeze out this spark, in the realm of friends and family. The best place to be. As before, the location is Frank Duff’s pub at the top end of Main Street, Bray. It’s last orders at the end of a great night out; drink and conversation flowing. You’ll catch me standing in the mirror. I suppose I could be singing The Parting Glass, although that’s a tad melancholy in the contecxt. 

Songs of love and friendship have tumbled down to us since the time of Thomas Moore. And ever on into the future; here’s hoping. This night in Duff’s was recent, but takes me back to the days o the foreign telegram. So, I tunnel back to the early seventies and Mellow Candle’s only album Swaddling Songs. While the focal, and vocal, point of the group was the sparkling duo of Alison O’Donnell and Clodagh Simonds, this song was written by guitarist Dave Williams. The lyrics are cut from the same cloth though, and sung with gusto by the female leads. There’s a hint of winter and its globe of interior warmth in this verse, evoking that familiarity amongst friends and lovers caught in the moment.

Sell me heat-haze sell me rain sell me wet and dry

I’ll buy all your lazy laughter

Scatter magic to the moon

Reddened cheeks surrounding the fire and

Reflected smiles are cast in brightened eyes