Remembering where I put my paints and what the sky looked like

After many months staring at the wall or out of the window I finally got my paints out last week and made some marks on a canvas. It's a landscape about landscapes really, based on the image I have in my memory of looking down over the wondrous CaherMacrusheen fields in Doolin. My inspiration/motivation has probably come from the fact that I've got two paintings in an exhibition at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Haringey - my portraits of Rivelino and JFK - and hanging around with other artists is always a good way to get things moving again.

Holy well and JCB

This week I'm going to draw up a list of local people that I need to talk to and try and get hold of some archive material. A trip to the local history archive in Ennis is probably on the cards at some point. But for now I'm going to walk around the lanes with my sketchbook and attempt to fit evertything together.

As well as documentary stuff about the old pople I want to emphasise my own motivations and response to Lurraga. The general theory round here is that I probably tend to romanticise the landscape more than any of the people who actually work on the land. It brings me back to the idea of the classic travel writing tradition - there is a whiff of colonialsim about an Englishman documenting scenes of Irish rural life. That fascination with otherness. I've just got to be open about that.

The images I have in my head at the moment are of a farmer cutting the hay with a scythe, a holy well and a great big bright yellow JCB.