Ceo agus solas na grèine, gob an choire, máighiú.

Veiled Sunshine, Achill Sound, County Mayo. Oil on canvas 14 x 10 inches, framed size 20 x 16 inches.

Frame colour “Charleston Grey”, Slip colour “Dimity” both by Farrow and Ball.

From Derreen on Achill Island, the houses and fields of Glassillaun are seen across the Sound. The strip fields were created from the reorganisation of traditional Rundale. Rundale refers to unfenced plots of improved common land drawn by lots each year by the tenant farmers, a traditional Medieval system of land use. As populations grew, the Irish Congestion Board by agreement with the tenants converted the Rundale into strips, each allocated to an individual tenant. The common land beyond was used as Summer grazing. This is now an important cultural and conservation landscape, shown here in the green after warm and wet late Summer weather.

Artist’s notes: some of my favourite days are those with soft pearly light that just seems to emerge from the landscape. This is a particular favourite work.