Deep Valley, Deep Time     (Wonderground, Butter Factory Studios, 2023)

 

A series inspired by a walk through Glenahoo Valley on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland. Also known as Macha na Bó (plain of the cattle.) This valley was once covered in Arctic ice sheets, and the breathtaking U-shape was formed over 2.5 million years of ice advance and retreat. We passed through its steep green velvet flanks on an uplifting spring day – one golden moment in the sweep of time.

 

In the second painting you might see a flock of sheep, and in the fourth two wind stunted hawthorn trees - dwarfed by the massive landforms. At the head of the valley waterfalls converge amid the ruins of a clachan of ancient farmsteads. The last inhabitant in the mid 1970s was an elderly lady who invited walkers in for tea and cake. This was also, as legend has it, the birthplace of the magician Crom Dubh – the Dark Croucher who was baptised by St Brendan and has his own feast day, Domhnach Crom Dubh.

 

(source: Michael Fewer, The Irish Times, 1 Feb 2014)

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