I had the honour to work on a commission for the Chair of Fermanagh & Omagh District Council, Councillor Siobhán Currie.
Each year an artist is selected to complete a piece and this year it was me, hooray!
I painted a view of Fermanagh from under waters of the Erne at Crom that goes on a jouney all the way to the sea. It is a celebration of the natural diversity and the places we all know along the majestic Erne.
I was asked by Siobhán to recognise the fact that we live in the time of a pandemic and I thought long and hard about how to represent that. I included 16 different animals and birds, each one a recognition of a life lost to covid in the council area. I hope in a small way their spirit lives on in this piece.
There is also a recognition of Frank Ormsby the Ireland Professor of Poetry, so I will leave it up to you avid poetry fans to find it.
This is a piece bigger than I've ever painted and knowing that it is part of the council collection and will be displayed in future is another wee dream come true.
