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.

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...

Lessons that Stone Walls Teach

Dry stone wall in the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland I've just returned from teaching a Workshop in Wild Places class in the Burren in County Clare, Ireland. Writing this post, I'm reminded of another post I wrote after visiting Inishmaan, the middle of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland several years ago. Stone walls crisscrossed the island in tight webs like a fisherman's net. I wrote then that the web of stone walls made me think of the idea of putting limitations on our painting as a way of exploring more deeply and how walls give limits against the limitless. You can read that article here. As our group hiked in the Burren with our guide, Marie McGauran we learned that the walls are stronger because of the holes in them. The wind can pass through. The oldest stone walls, estimated to be 3500 years old are at Skara Brae, a Neolithic site in Orkney. Most walls were built in the 18th and 19th century, marking areas of private ownership and resultin...

I Can't Wait to Travel Again

I miss travelling! I’ve always loved to travel especially to wild and remote places but living on an artist’s unsteady salary, I’ve learned to find inexpensive ways to travel. Several years ago, I discovered artist residencies, which provide accommodation and small studio spaces. These are available to artists all over the world, some of which are free depending on acceptance of your application, others cost a small amount. I prefer ones that are remote but provide accommodation to a small group of artists rather than just one person. The interaction with artists from other countries is a stimulating, enlightening and enriching experience. St. John's Newfoundland 2019 After I’d been teaching painting classes for several years in various parts of Canada, the US, as well as in Sweden and Iceland, I had the idea to combine m...

Janice Mason Steeves

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