On February Friday 10th I'm inviting people to come and join me for a Jewellery Walking Weekend in Carna, Connemara, Co. Galway.

You will be staying at the family run Ostán Cuan Chárna (Carna Bay Hotel) in Carna which is located off the R340 80km from Galway city.

We leave the hotel at 11.00 am on Saturday morning for a 3 mile walk to one of the local beaches. At the beach you have the option to join me in a stroll in the cool but so invigorating waters of the Atlantic Ocean, it is magical for the mind and body!

Whether you decide to take the stroll in the sea or not a hot cup of spiced apple juice will be offered to warm you up.

We will then wander the shore to collect shells, which we will turn into jewellery on our return to the hotel.

Lunch at the hotel will be at 2.00pm.

Jewellery making class will commence at 3.00pm and finish around 6.00pm.

The cost of the weekend is €165.00 and includes 2 nights B&B, dinner on Saturday night and all materials for the jewellery class.

I will be updating the blog with more pictures and other Jewellery Walking Weekend coming shortly.

I hope to see you on the 10th. of February.

Kelp Heart, is a picture that I took a few weeks ago near my local beach in Conamara. I have a few more of Kelp, future models for sculptures and paintings.

Sunshine Lady

Sunshine Lady came from a meeting this woman that seemed to shine whenever she walked into the Dog Gone Café/Gallery ( my creation for the summer of 2008). I painted this one evening at the Café in semi darkness, the evening went into the early hours of the morning. I interupted the painting to have a few pints of Guinness at Mullarkey's across the road. There was great Funk band playing and they had everyone jumping that night, getting really funked up!
When the painting was finished I hung it in a place so it would be the first thing I would see when I came down in the morning, a surprise present to myself!

Nurture

The painting Nuture is about the comfort of woman, a gentle moment, a loving touch, an intimate moment shared, it is about childhood, a dream, falling stars, outer and inner space, the sea, our world, peace and happiness. I painted it in the summer of 2007.

Light in Darkness

This was created over many days, it went through a few changes before emerging as one of my favorites. I was stuck in limbo with it, left it alone this particular evening and went to the opening of a Clive Bright exhibition at the Clifden Art and Antiques Gallery, Clive was using a lot of black in his paintings so I thought, 'Why not!' back I went and finished the painting!
Many people think that a dark painting suggests a dark mood in the painter, the opposite is true. A friend of mine recalled words from her teacher " Those that can paint in Darkness already have a lot of colour in their lives, those that paint in Bright colours have the darkness the most."

Oisrí Grande

This is a picture I took of a ring I made last year. A friend had found an Oisrí shell and brought it in to me, it had this incredible shape, so I used it as a template to make this ring. I work from sheet silver and everything is cut out and then hammered into shape.
I manipulated the colour of the photograph later on with the computer.