Heavy Traffic at the Salt Marsh

oil on canvas | 80 × 100 cm | 2026

"Experiences, places, surfaces, textures, encounters, they all accumulate and get stored without conscious organisation. I fill up and need to paint to allow things to flow out of this reservoir into form."

Heavy Traffic at the Salt Marsh

oil on canvas | 80 × 100 cm | 2026

The world and its objects are my tutors. My surroundings inspire what I end up painting and it can't be helped.

In cities I painted cranes from building sites and dockyards. In Berlin my studio was high up in an old Stasi building and I painted clouds. Now in West Cork I paint nature, not just what I see but the feelings it evokes. The energy of the nearby wind and sea has infused some of the brushstrokes. Certain strokes have a sense of urgency mixed with fear and excitement, like breaking the glass in a window.

This painting has elements of the salt marshes I pass on the way to a nearby beach. On a hill behind it is a small forest of strangely sculptural trees, shaped by wind and spray. I also brought it to Ballyfin House on an arts residency in 2025, which was inspiring in so many new ways that I am still processing it.