In 2021 I was invited to attend the Burren College of Art for a residency. This small art college was founded by a local couple on the outskirts of Ballyvaughan, a tiny village and port on the wild west coast of Ireland and nestled in a valley below the Burren, a massive rock formation that dominates that part of the coastline.

Walking towards the Burren College of Art

I spent a month there and greatly enjoyed working on drawings. Initially I based my work on the local stone walls and tombs built as long as 5000 years ago by ancient Irish settlers. I then started working on a series of mostly charcoal drawings based on the fast moving clouds in the area.

The college itself was most generous in their welcome, leaving resident artists to work on our own and to show our work at the conclusion of the residency. It’s an amazing college, in a beautiful rural setting, yet offering a broad range of courses including art and ecology.

I initially did not realize this, but Ballyvaughan, the home of the Vaughans may well be part of my own ancestry, certainly there are a lot of Vaughans around there.