A Homecoming in Ink and Oil Pastel

Hello! I popped on to share some background on the pieces which have been sitting on my home page and socials forever and day. I gave barely any context about them (maybe a good thing?) Anyway, I felt like enough time has passed now for me to delve into them.

My latest series, Where Birds Cast Shadows is inspired by the pull of home. That strong, instinct to return to the people and places that shape us.

There is something deeply comforting about the annual return of swifts, swallows and house martins. Watching them around my home made me think about my own relationship with place.

I have always been a homebird. I like familiar roads and sounds. I like knowing where the cups are lol. I like the comfort of every season (even the rain!).

Familiarity is not a small thing

I think familiarity can get a bad name sometimes, as if wanting it means you are not adventurous enough, but there is strength in knowing where you belong.

The birds return because something in them remembers. I return, in my own way, for much the same reason.

Three of the six pieces together, carrying the feeling of return and familiar skies.

The first marks began on paper

I began making line sketches of bird wings on paper, but the smooth surface felt a bit too safe. Some materials took the ink well but left the pieces feeling flat. I needed something with more resistance and burlap seemed like an obvious choice.

Sketches and paper and linen.

Burlap made me slow down

Burlap is a challenging material, the weave catches ink and then it doesn't. It soaks up paint and then it doesn't. The ridiculous push and pull was exhausting. I cannot tell you the number of times I gave up, but there is something comforting about this raggedy material... as if it has memory woven into it; the barns, gardens and old stored things; all the rural corners of Ireland and home.

The weave of the burlap became part of the drawing.

Ink and oil pastel brought two different voices

If you are familiar with my work, you'll know I'm obsessed with drawing lines and for this project, ink would provide the right mark making to capture wings and flight.

Oil pastels, on the other hand often pushed against the raised threads, leaving broken colour that felt alive rather than overly finished. They have an embroidered quality to them which I love.

The pieces are not glossy or overly smooth; they have rough edges, caught threads and marks that resist perfection, but are full of small histories.

A glimpse of the materials behind the finished pieces.

The birds are leaving for South Africa, but they will come back again and when they do, I will stand there looking at the sky, feeling very glad to be home.

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