Is this my last hurrah?
Is this my last large scale Celtic work?
Probably, who knows, I am not getting any younger and my eyesight, while fine with decent glasses, makes weeks and weeks of concentrated drawing and painting in such fine detail pretty difficult and tiring on the eyes.
The spirit is as strong as ever but the aul eyes tire after a long 10 hour day.
Yep, I still work those mad hours and love when I’m left alone to just work and get on with it.
If there was one single subject I wanted to finally do real justice to before I call it quits it was this one of CúChulainn, The Champion of Ulster, the most youthful and most renowned warrior of them all.
Over the years I have drawn and painted this extraordinary boy warrior and here are a few of the more important works:
My very first painting of CúChulainn. Titled ‘CúChulainn. Hound of Ulster. 1984. This was commissioned by my friend the late Ian Adamson for the cover of his seminal book on the origins of the Ulster Protestant people titled ‘The Cruitin’.
My painting depicts the young warrior as he arms himself and stands by his battle -pillar ready to defend Ulster and repel the invasion of Queen Maeve and her allied armies. With him is Láeg, his faithful charioteer. Who died with him in that last battle.
The Boyhood of CúChulainn.
This was commissioned for the 1991 Bank of Ireland calendar and the original was purchased by GAA headquarters in Croke Park where it hangs today. No idea where
The painting depicts the story of ‘The Hurling Game’ where a very young boy named Setanta, later called CúChulainn, took on the older boy hurlers and inflicted a humiliating defeat on them.
This image was commissioned by CityJet for banners in Croke Park for the All-Ireland hurling final of 2006. Never saw one but I’m sure they were impressive.
The image was loosely based on the famous logo for the Abbey Theatre by Jack B.
I intend painting this one digitally in 2019 once I master the art of computer
This is a multi-part blog post so stay tuned to get the full making of the artwork, and do you know what links CúChulainn and Philip Lynott? You will soon 😉