Cill Rialaig Artist Residency-End of Week One

I just walk out the door of my cottage and the sights change each hour with the weather. The cottages are perhaps 200 metres above sea level affording a spectacular view down Ballinskelligs Bay to the east and out onto the Atlantic to the west. The clouds are the main attraction. They change hourly creating patterns of light and shadow on the islands and peninsulas. Sheets of rain can be seen approaching from many kilometres away.

This has been such an exciting week. We had Hallowe'en here and although no ghosts or goblins visited the cottages, we got together with three of the other residents for a Hallowe'en party in the meeting house. We lit a huge peat fire, drank some wine and chatted until midnight. The light in the sky when I came up to the meeting house before our party, was so spectacular that I took a few photos with my camera braced on a nearby stone wall. The photos captured the heart of Hallowe'en at Cill Rialaig! it looked very spooky here.

I've been painting small works on paper using mainly black and white. I wanted to limit the colours I used to try to capture the essence of my experience here. It feels like I can capture the strength and wildness of the land and weather by using this limited palette.

The highlight of the week so far happened today. Rebecca and I decided to hike up the one-track road that goes past our residency. There is an important archeological site about 2km along. Some concrete stones help you over the sheep fence. It was a hermitage in about 600AD. Today there are only the ruins of what would have been perhaps 6 or 7 round huts and surrounding the huts are the remains of a stone wall. There are two standing stones there. Each is carved with a circle intersected by a cross. As we were wandering around the site late this afternoon, it started to rain and then we witnessed the most spectacular rainbow I have ever seen. It was breathtaking right from the beginning. I took a photo of one of the standing stones, with the rainbow behind it. As time went on the rainbow became ever more intense in colour and grew wider and wider as it moved out onto the bay. The sky darkened and the rain continued. The rainbow shone into the bay like a bolt of lightening from beneath the dark grey blue cloud and connected the sky and the water. It was intensely magical. It felt like a magnificent gift from the hermit monks who lived here, at the edge of the world, communing with God.

Meet the Owners of a Scottish Castle

Anne Tristine Nguyen, Ali Orr Ewing, their children, Ava, Atticus and their dog, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Dunskey Estate, Portpatrick, Scotland Anne Tristine Nguyen and her husband, Alistair Orr Ewing are the owners of Dunskey Estate near Portpatrick, Scotland where I will teach a painting workshop in September. Dunskey is a splendid Edwardian castle on 2000 acres of ocean-front land with miles of walking trails. As well as daily workshop sessions in the studio on the top floor of the castle, our small group of artists will enjoy breathtaking hikes, superb accommodation and fabulous meals. Not having met owners of a castle before, I asked Anne if I could interview her to hear a little of their background story and that of the castle. Can you tell me a little of your personal story and that of your husband, Alistair Orr Ewing? Anne emigrated to America when she was ten years old, but it was at an art gallery in Saigon, her birthplace, where s...

The Importance of Silence in Art

Gathering Light 60x60" Oil on canvas © 2014 Janice Mason Steeves Michael David Rosenberg, the musician known as Passenger, sings, "See all I need is a whisper in a world that only shouts." In the workshops I teach, I find that one of the most common problems with paintings is that they shout. Most have too much going on: too many small shapes, too much texture, extremes of colour, too many lines, too much, too much. One thing I say most often as I walk around the classroom working with students individually, is 'make bigger shapes'. But not only bigger shapes. Quiet shapes. Where can your eye go and rest in the painting? That isn't a consideration in much of contemporary painting or much of contemporary life. Ours is a noisy world both visually and auditorily. Ours is a world that shouts. People are afraid of silence. I wrote a blog post 3 years ago about planning a retreat in my own home, where I shut off the computer ...

Liminal Time

The word liminal comes from the Latin, limen meaning threshold. an in-between place, a place of transition, a time of waiting and not knowing. Dawn and dusk are considered liminal places. Crepuscular animals, like foxes and coyotes are most active at this time of day, a time that is considered a magical time in Celtic spirituality and to Indigenous people which is perhaps the origin of their designation as tricksters. As I write this, the northern hemisphere has just passed the vernal equinox, where day and night are of equal length.We are in a liminal space between winter and spring right now, unsure if we will have one more storm or snowfall before spring finally settles in. We're also in a liminal place as we live through this pandemic with the anxiety and discomfort of not knowing. A time of great transition for the entire world, wondering what we've learned from this and what lessons we'll carry forward. Author and Fr...

Janice Mason Steeves

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