It’s been ages since I wrote, and to be honest I haven’t really a good enough excuse.

But I have been busy, as I continue to move from using, the very toxic, nitric acid that I etched with for almost forty years to greener processes. I was very lucky to get an Agility Award from the Arts Council to facilitate this.

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Here are five for you to enjoy!

I am working on large format drypoints, and now have seven under my belt. It doesn’t sound a lot, but believe me my hands and wrists tell a very different story. In a way I am going back to my first love, drawing. It was this love that brought me as a student to the Print Room in NCAD in 1978, where I got completely hooked on etching. The process, although centuries old, still fascinates me. The possibilities are endless and I doubt I will ever stop experimenting or learning.
The series is called “Hidden in plain sight”, and they are based on drawings and photographs I have made over the years; of places, buildings or objects that have melted into their surroundings, and which now are barely noticed. I often wonder about their histories; a stall for animals and why was it abandoned; or a pair of chairs; a bath, or a sofa dumped in the woods. 

But my favourite subjects at the moment are abandoned caravans. They seem to pop up a lot both in Ireland and Italy, sometimes in the most unlikely of places. Some have been repurposed as sheds or chicken houses, but most are simply left to rot and merge into the background. Think of all the fun people had on holiday in those often tiny spaces before they were unceremoniously dumped!