Bachelors' Walk

When researching my paintings in Doolin I used to walk around the lanes with my sketchbook, attempting to fit everything together. I also wanted to emphasise my own motivations and response to Lurraga, the townland where we lived for a year and a half. The general theory round there is that I probably tend to romanticise the landscape more than any of the people who actually work on the land. It brings me back to the idea of the classic travel writing tradition - there is a whiff of colonialism about an Englishman documenting scenes of Irish rural life. That fascination with otherness. I just had to be open about that.

And yet the images I had in my head were of a farmer cutting the hay with a scythe, a holy well and a great big bright yellow JCB.

2007 © Tim Bradford