2012 Life on Beara

Sometimes in our busy world, it is good to stop thinking and start listening to our feelings instead, just for a moment.

Sometimes, just for a few seconds, hold the time, clear the battlefield of thoughts and let the senses simply invade the mind in a sweet surrender.

Taste with the eyes, listen with the skin, smell with the ears, see with the nose…

And with the emotions, capture the essence of the Now, in that place and that moment.

The Beara Peninsula is a jewel hidden in the south-west of Ireland, far away from the capital or any big city – a rural area, swept by the wild elements, bravely defying the immense Atlantic. Mountains and Ocean meet here in breathtaking landscapes, loaded with dramatic history and wild nature. Beara people live in this secluded place like they always did, connected to nature and their own small community.

People who visit the Beara Peninsula never leave it unmoved. Their feelings and emotions magically link them to the place and often bring them back.

It is one of those places where time can easily take a break.

I choose to live here, where feelings and emotions have plenty of space and time to play.

Drawing, for me, is like a meditation.

I usually start to sketch the “moment” on location, and my emotions and feelings of the “now” get somehow trapped on the paper. I take some photos and finish the drawing in my studio where I immerse myself in the memory of that “now”, as and when I recreate the scene.

In most of my pictures, I like to include a living being, human or animal, sometimes tiny but strongly present. I feel I need to have someone in there, a witness of that moment, who would have moved or left the scene the next minute.

The “Life on Beara” serie is a collection of 19 small colour pencil drawings.

They were born on the pages of a sustainable “Earthbound” sketchbook by Daler/Rowney, small enough to carry anywhere, anytime, along with a few pencils.

They have been printed as post cards and greeting cards for 4 years and were very popular in the Beara peninsula.

They are now waiting all together for their next adventure …