Connemara


In June of 2018 I got to Ireland for the first time in my life.  I was travelling with my wife Siobhan and her aunt and uncle, Breda and Colin.  We stayed three nights in Dublin and then headed west to Galway for another three nights.  From there, we struck out on day trips to explore west Ireland. 
And on one misty, drizzly day we drove a circuit through Connemara National Park. 

I had been to the Lake District in England previously, and also to Scotland all the way up to Inverness...but none of that prepared me for the haunting beauty that was Connemara.  It seemed each bend in the road revealed fresh wonders: white-washed cottages, centuries-old churches and graveyards, countless inlets and bays, and all of it presided over by those rugged green hills whose tops at times disappeared into the fog. 

I opined to Siobhan that I thought it was a 'terrible beauty', because for all the green and the sparkling waters it was a very remote and lonely place.  One could only imagine how the endless cold and grey of winter would seep into the very soul of the few residents that were there. 

I took many pictures that day, often forcing poor Colin to pull over at times on the spur of the moment.  But no digital capture, no matter how carefully composed, was going to ever do proper justice to the emotional response this land prompted in me.  And so I resolved that I would do a painting of it when I got back to Canada.



My sketch for "Connemara"


The painting that resulted is not of any one particular place.  It's more of an amalgamation of all the elements that make this land so magical.  Since I've shown it at art shows I've had people who have traveled there who recognized it immediately.  So I hope I've managed to give the viewer some sense of the place...but no painting or picture will ever completely convey the mystery and majesty of this land.  I therefore encourage anyone vacationing in the area to go see it for themselves. 







If you would like a print of "Connemara", please visit the following link:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/connemara-dave-rheaume.html

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