eolaí the artist

Oops. Cleaned my paintbrush in my tea. Not the first time I've done that, and not my favourite colour to drink.

Landscape format in painterly acrylics on top of red which shows through in places. Small village green on left mostly in shadow with seven or more trees in full green and blue foliage. Beyond it visible under foliage and through trunks is row of pale 2-story buildings in pale blue shadow from left edge of painting then bending into a street which fades into distance in the centre of the picture where it meets an indistinct dark clump of trees. The opposite side of that street extends to the right in sunlight where the row of 2-storey buildings faces the green with trees. Nearest building on right looks like it might be a pub, white with black windows, doors, fascias and corner stones. Past it the buildings are brown, ochre, bright pink, and then small and indistinct pale colours. Roofs are slate of a very dark blue. Green with trees has a footpath around its edge and on the near end corner are a tree stump and behind it a flower planter. Surface of street is muted dark teal in shadow and paler in sunlight. Street surface is a darker turquoise in shadow and pale teal in sunlight. Sky is a cloudy yellow, cut by overhanging street wires, and peeping through a lot of holes in foliage. Signed bottom right in red, Liam Daly

A #painting to look at. "Castlebellingham" was painted on a visit - much too short - to County Louth having cycled there from Navan. It was a magical time. #SpeirGhorm #ArtYear

Wide landscape format in acrylics on canvas panel. Smokey variable blues with the darkest ones on the bottom half, though parts of the top half are also dark if not as dark, and similarly there are lighter sections in the bottom half too - though none as bright as some of the sections in the upper half. A few tiny dots of yellow, like distant lights, with one larger than all the others are on what might be land along the horizon. Signed bottom right: Liam Daly

A #painting for youse. "Night Mist" was on the go for years, having come out of a time when I lived with a small dog in a little cottage on the northwest coast, and when mist allowed I'd spend evenings looking out across the sea to the distant island. #ColorADay" #BlueTue #ArtYear #SpeirGhorm

Thanks! Will give that a lash.

Think I've reached the stage where I'm going to mute accounts posting screenshots from Twitter in here. I'm seeing too much of it, and to be honest if I wanted to see stuff on Twitter guess where I'd be...?

Thank you very much.

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. Past a concrete slipway are two little rowing boats seen from the side, one black with a blue rim, the other white. They are resting on ground surrounded by dark rocks and orange seaweed. Past them and a 5-bar metal gate is more water, a deep burnt orange reflecting the seaweed that rings the grassy rocky outcrop or islet behind. Beyond, across a pale teal bay is a strip of land with fields, and the suggestion of stone walls among the small number of houses that are dotted there. Beyond it is a long low painterly purple hill and behind it further away is a long lilac ridge, also quite painterly, the both ends of which taper down to reveal distant blue mountains. Sky is a watery cloudy kind of pale blue. Signed bottom right in yellow, Liam Daly.

A #painting I finished and sold last year. "Connemara Boats", a view from a small but storied bridge in south Connemara, east to the Rosmuc peninsula - a stunning part of the world. I painted it because I like the organic mish-mash punctuated by human made moments. #art #stunday #ArtYear #SpeirGhorm

Thanks very much.

A narrow panorama painting in acrylics on canvas. It features a front-on view of seven 3-story retail buildings in a terrace on a gentle slope upwards from left to right. They are rendered in a lightly sketchy style in almost pastel colours like stains. The sky is a warm grey with touches of lilac and yellow, the foreground is a darker lilac grey with smokey hints of pinks and yellows, and the buildings are largely pale greys with elements and blotches of orange, pink, yellow, red, and green. Roofs step up for the 2nd, 4th, and 6th buildings, and are rendered in blues and purples, darker than the foreground, with singular chimneys every two buildings. The 5th has a dormer window. Broken fragments of outlines are in blues and reds. Each building is 2 window bays wide, except for the left end one which is 3 bays wide. The terrace is truncated at the right edge of the painting. The photograph was taken before I added my signature.

Have a #painting. "Irish Street IV" came out of my obsession with squares and rectangles that I can indulge by standing on streets and staring. While I gave this painting a generic title it actually came out of a happy time standing and staring in County Kerry. #art #SpeirGhorm #ArtYear

Thank you very much. I do love it there - it's full of great views and subjects.

Landscape format, loosely painted in acrylics on mat board. Street with maroon surface runs from bottom bending away to right. On left is green 4-story hotel building with yellow detailing and seven peaks in roof accommodating 4th floor windows. Five more 3-story retail buildings complete terrace to its right until it bends and is obscured by building on right side of street, a half-timbered white and black mock tudor tower with clock and weather vane. Lower parts of tower are red brick with wide arched window below a small horizontal one. Square wooden planters mark right edge of street in foregound with shadow side of bluck planks facing street, and sunshine sides facing viewer of bright green. White railings run down centre of street, with segments of blue shadow caused by planters to their right. A three-light lamp-post on left is tallest structure. Sky is unclouded blue albeit painted in a smokey style with hints of red breaking through. Signed bottom left: Liam Daly

"Portrush Station", a #painting from a time I spent on my bicycle in Ireland's Antrim coast. After starting the day in Derry I cycled by Lough Foyle and Magilligan and around Binevenagh. I was sick when I reached Portrush so conked out and the next day walked around and painted. #ArtYear #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. A large bog of various browns, ochres and oranges, punctuated by grey rocks and slashed with wine trenches, sits between two large mountain slopes - a dark blue one on the left and an alizarin crimson one on the right. Separating the mountain slopes from the bog is a band of green fields and hillocks and trees, while beyond them in the small gap between the 2 slopes beyond the horizon is a round purple hill in front of pale blue jagged mountain peaks. Along the foreground is the titular montbretia, waving from its leaf-green long blades on the right half, and mostly hidden on the left half behind a raised ditch of long pale yellow grasses. The sky is a very pale smokey aqua. Signed bottom right in red. Liam Daly.

Another west of Ireland #painting. "Connemara Montbretia" I painted because I like mountains and the spaces between them. And I really like bogs. And grasses. And wildflowers, even invasive ones. And sometimes when you're lucky they're all just there. #SpeirGhorm #art #scape #ArtYear

Cycle Across America — Part 93 Ocean

On this day 29 years ago I cycled the last leg of my cycle trip across the US. The following day I then wrote these words detailing the end of the trip. medium.com/@eolai/cycli...
(It's the longest entry in the journal, because I felt like I'd earned it - but you can click on to read the others)

Landscape format in acrylics on heavy paper. Loosely painted blotchy marks everywhere. Under a grey and white sky with red underneath breaking through, we are looking up a curving street lined with 2 and 3-story houses, all rendered in panels of oranges and yellows. The house on the right has a black skirt as do two of the houses on the left. Slate roofs on the left are rendered in red, orange and violet. Antennas are attached to most of the houses at the front from by upper story windows. The windows of all levels in the houses and the church are dark purple and blue. The street is curving to the right to the side and back of a large church similarly coloured save for two dark onion domes at the top of towers either side of the front which is facing left so we can't see it but for the tops of the towers. The street surface is a dark grey and foothpaths both sides are purple with lilac kerbs. Signed top left, LIAM '95

An old #painting for you. 31 yrs ago I did a cycle tour by myself of the newly independent Czech Republic. Březnice was a town I stayed in and when leaving I enjoyed the view looking back at the church in the square where I stayed. A few months later I painted that view. #ArtYear #Scape #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format in loose acrylics on canvas. Beyond wispy fluffy long pale, almost white, grass are several black birds, likely rooks, on a low single wire fence either side of a lone post right of centre in the bottom foreground. Brilliantly sunlit fields, crossed with a stone wall, are behind causing the wire, fence post and birds to be silhouetted. Behind the stone wall on the left edge is craggy green hillock with horizontal grass ridges with sunlit edges. A flat-ish hill of darker green fields, edged with dark green hedgerows, is further back beyond a dip and running across the full painting. It is topped with a small pale house with a narrow mass of dark green trees behind it. Beyond further, sloping down from the top right corner to the left edge halfway up where there is a pine wood of smoky purple, green and blue, is a craggy mountain of dark blues, violets and pale salmon where the sun hits mostly along the undulating sloping top. All under a pale teal sky. Signed bottom right in red, Liam Daly

A west of Ireland #painting. "Sligo Mountains" was finished and sold last year. It came out of cycle trips along the Sligo coast when I enjoyed being escorted by the Ox Mountains towards Ballysadare and Sligo town. I've also been up into them by those woods yonder. Beautiful. #SpeirGhorm #ArtYear

Landscape format loosely painted in acrylics on mat board. Small stone lighthouse at centre of circular paved walled-in ending of pier. Sunny day. Sky mostly blue with white wispy clouds mostly to right where sky breaks through in parts in a pale teal. Pier and light house stones are in yellows and oranges with some red in shadow of curved wall on right. Line details are in blue, red, and white. Lighthouse has green railing around base, a green narrow door on the left up 3 or 4 steps from base, and a green lantern on top. Shadow is on left edge of curved lighthouse and left sides of circular steps at base. The cast blue shadow of lighthouse itself extends out to the left from base of lighthouse. Signed top left, Liam Daly

A #painting for you. "West Pier, Dún Laoghaire" came out of multiple cycles and walks to the end of the lesser walked of Dún Laoghaire harbour's two main - and magnificent - piers. I like stonework. #SpeirGhorm #ArtYear #Scape

Thanks very much

That's a lovely thing to say - thank you very much.

Landscape format on mixed media paper in ink lines and water media. View front on from across street of 4 buildings. 2 on the left are 2 stories high; other 2 have 3 stories. Leftmost building is brown, with red brick corner stones and also around windows and a side door on exposed gable. Roof has tudor front gable, grey slate, and 2 red brick chimneys. Lower windows arched; black railing in front. Next building is orange brick with green door, fascia over large window, and frames around 3 upper narrow sash windows. Roof hidden bar peaked triangular cap. Long grey flower box sits on top of fascia. Door and upper windows lightly arched. 3rd building from left is large grey stone building with eating place at street level under striped blue and white canopy coming out from below a blue fascia over area behind railings. Building on right is red brick and cropped on right edge. In front of buildings in centre is dark thick-trunked tree of no foliage but heavy ivy at base, another thick dark trunk with ivy around its base is on the left edge and by the right edge is a cream and green phone box. Cars in pale grey line with no colour are on both sides of the street. The street surface and sky also are left blank white. Signed bottom right, Liam Daly

A #painting. "Chapelizod", a mixed media piece I did during a long weekend a couple of years back where I traveled all over County Dublin doing sketches on location. For this neigbourhood next door I steered my bike downhill then stood sketching between vehicles and showers. #ArtYear #Speirghorm

This pot of tea, it's even better than the last pot. #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format. On white paper with the sky left blank. A three-storey square large colourful building is in the centre forming the corner of two streets. It is painted in bold graphic shapes completely covering the building in diamond and triangular shapes of red, orange, maroon, royal blue, pale grey-green, wine, sky blue, lemon yellow, pink and white. Along its top on both edges is a wooden trellis fence with vegegation growing. In front on the street surface of very pale watery grey is the edge of yellow box markings. Poolbeg St is to the left with the triple-pub front of the 3-storey Mulligans next door, then 3 more narrow 3-storey buildings with shop fronts at street level before a couple of higher very modern blocks of pale grey and green glass at the left edge. To the right is Tara St with about half a dozen shops and cafes, all 2-storeys with brown brick upper floor, before the balustrades of a quay are seen and across the river the tall square tower of Liberty Hall with each strip of blue and green windows separated by a strip of grey concrete. On its top is a pale green little square hat with a zig-zag brim. Signed bottom right in black ink, Liam Daly

A mixed media #painting. "Poolbeg Steet & Tara Street" shows a little street that houses one of my favourite pubs, a broad street I often stumble across from a train station, and the little skyscraper of Liberty Hall in its last pre-makeover days. Because I love my Dublin. #SpeirGorm #ArtYear

Thank you very much. I'm sure there would be - there are still some corners of the country I've yet to paint. While I'm not as free for movement these years, due to domestic commitments, I'm always planning to be.

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. A white single-story cottage with grey slate roof, white chimneys, and an extended out porch, is viewed from a green field through a gap between a grey and blue stone gable-end of an outbuilding on the right and a maroon hedge with a fence and dry stone wall on the left. Behind the cottage is a low ridge of greens and greys and blues with touches of purple. On the left behind the hedge is the grey trunk and branches of a tree topped with maroon and purple foliage. Sky is a painterly yellow. Foreground has scuffed white and yellow details on green grass. Cottage door and narrow windows are blue framed. The right end of the cottage has an extra piece appended.

An older #painting. "Cottage from Sheep Field" came from when I lived with a little dog in a cottage in the northwestern corner of Ireland, in north County Donegal, when we would walk into the sheep field and look back to enjoy the view the sheep had of our idyllic cottage. #ArtYear #SpeirGhorm

Thanks very much. The original sold instantly when first posted online, and at the moment I've no print shop but I'm hoping to get another one next year.

Landscape format on mixed media paper. Ink and various water media painting of Dublin's Gate Theatre as viewed diagonally from the front portico entrance with four columns above it - which is on the right, with a simple narrow modern rectangular block attached further to the right. On the left is directly across the road and it has a small fountain and a leafless tree outside the curved wall with many arches. Colours are yellows and rusty oranges and green-blues, all added in spots to highlight shadows and details rather than be literal colours of the building which also has its stone work outlined in the bottom half and some grey colouring. Railings and lamp posts are black. Footpath in front is white and very pale blue. Road surface is blue-grey. Sky is left blank white. Signed bottom right, Liam Daly

#painting "The Gate Theatre, Dublin" I'm never entirely sure where the Rotunda, the Ambassador and the Gate all meet, but I love this view on Cavendish Row. Because of the shapes. Arches, curves, columns, a portico, a fountain, and a big roundy bit, as well as a modern squarish add-on. #SpeirGhorm

The circle of people I mixed with were all very disappointed with it too - especially after being greatly enthused by its predecessor - though being confused with the start I didn't mind as much and didn't feel it dragged and jumped as they did, but that's sleep for you.

Watched it on the box years ago, but compared to when I'd watched it in the cinema I didn't recognise the pre-title sequence or quite a bit more of the start. Eventually I realised I'd fallen asleep in the cinema before it had started and I'd woke up, shall we say, in media res.

Wide landscape format in loosely painted acrylics on canvas panel. Mountain slopes from top right to bottom left hosting a patchwork of bright green fields with a white two-story house on right edge halfway up slope from which black line of curving road extends on and around out of sight. Door is front and centre with a window either side, with 3 windows on the front upper story, one on the upper gable and one on the lower story extension at the rear of the gable. Door and all windows are black. A white chimney is on either end of a blue slate roof. Sea is very pale blue. Two green irregular-shaped islands, close together and each with a small hill, break the horizon. Sky is a watery blue-green in soft horizontal strokes with hints of an under-painting of red showing through closer to the horizon. Fields are of different greens, with some being a yellow green, some an orange-green, and several being blue-green. Hedgerows are single dark strokes alongside a field. Across the road from the house the slope drops sharply with black lines between the greens indicating the drop. Behind and above the house are two large fields and the tops of two further hills. Below the house and to the left are dozens of fields in the patchwork. The mountain slope, the house, the islands, and the horizon, are all outlined in solid black lines of varying thickness. The photo was taken before I signed the painting.

A #painting from the southwest of Ireland. "Iveragh Peninsula" came out of good times in County Kerry. That's all I'm prepared to say at this point. #ArtYear #SpeirGhorm

Thanks very much

I can imagine. Aside from cameo appearances they've been a main feature in my paintings maybe 4 times - and the appetite for them always seems insatiable.