My Cill Rialaig Diary.
Day 8, Monday 9th March 2009
Painting in the weather window.
The weather forecast was right when they said there would be a gap between fronts during Monday morning. So I am up early to avail of the weather window. I position myself on Ballinskellings pier, again, to paint the single cottage on Horse Island. It’s only accessible by boat and it looks like a very lonely place.
A man walks to the end of the pier to take in my subject matter. There’s something about his body language that says he has been here before. We chat when he comes back and the stranger tells me was born in the cottage and lived there for 14 years, and I am not surprised. In an amiable way he tells me to “paint the feckin’ house straight” before he continues to walk the headland. I am sure every step holds a memory, so I feel obliged to try.
Back at the studio I hang up the picture just as the promised rain sets in. I light the stove and attack the gannets. Later in the evening I start on a painting of the sun rising behind the inland mountains. It’s not bad so far but I am just too weary to continue. Tomorrow is another day, supposedly of sunny spells; I could use some of those all right.
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