Circus by the Sea

I grew up in a house with a Winslow Homer seascape reproduction hanging over the fireplace. My grandfather and great grandfather were seafarers. I like looking at the sea rather than sailing in it but now that I spend so much time close to it, it's no surprise that the sea would burst into my work.

I got lost in this painting and the stages of its progress are a record of being lost. I worked on it in a studio in Italy, in my kitchen in Ireland during a cold spell, at Ballyfin House on an arts residency, and back again in my studio. Two years of tentative, almost torturous inactivity and slight changes, only to be painted out again.

Then in January, out walking my dog in the fields, I saw the gorse yellow in the bushes and the painting came alive. It felt good to load up a big brush and splash two large yellow areas. I think the painting sensed it was nearing completion. The blues followed and I quickly finished it with a tiny brush. The title captures the feeling of what the painting wanted to be all along — joyous.