Description

Cottage Benbulben Co. Sligo Original Artwork

This painting was originally commissioned back in 1982 for a cover of a book of Irish music and lyrics.

I had a copy of the book somewhere in the piles of stuff in my attic but I cannot remember the exact title but the painting depicts a real traditional Irish whitewashed, thatched cottage.

While it depicts a lyrical take on the old Ireland depicted here mostly for the benefit of nostalgic Irish Americans it has a deeper meaning for me personally.

When I was a young lad staying with my an aunt Mary in Fountain Cross, Kilcurrish, Ennis, County Clare, I actually lived in this same cottage around 1956 with its new electricity but no running water or toilets yet. Yep, I had to fetch water from a well two fields away. And yes, I hoisted that bucket up on to the wall and over only once drenching myself when I slipped and it hit me on the head. Not sure if I ever really recovered 🙂

This cottage for me is real and painted exactly as the one I lived in with it’s stack of turf outside -except the location is different. Behind this one rears the beautiful mountain of Ben Bulben, in Yeats country, Sligo.

Behind the real cottage in Clare there was  small mountain but not quite as lyrical as the one here. Artistic licence.

Brings back a whole lot of happy memories all the same. I was so blessed to be part of an Ireland long gone and lost forever but that’s progress.

Now we have Netflix in the house that stands on the hill in Kilcurrish in front of the old cottage, while the thatched roof is gone and the cottage is a cowshed now at least it still stands and I can never see it without thinking of it’s former cosiness and earthy splendour.

NOTES ON TECHNIQUE. July 2014.

All the Celtic artworks shown here are executed in pen, ink and acrylic paint on flexible acrylic vellum drafting film.

I developed this technique, or method of work, over forty-five years ago when I worked in advertising and later as a freelance artist; it is tried and trusted. My first efforts using this method of work had minor flaws but gradually I refined the technique and tested it thoroughly on a number of rough sample artworks which I left out in extreme weather conditions in Ireland and later again when I lived in Connecticut USA.

With temperatures below freezing in the winter and above 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer in the USA I learned what paints, inks and colours held their vibrancy and remained stable to such extremes and more importantly, I also learned which paints, inks and colours not to use on this unique and flexible material.

Impervious to weather, woodworm, and insect activity this technique, the materials and drafting film are the same as used in many of my more famous works, from the simple black and white pen and ink original of the Che Guevara Poster from 1968 to the later, more sophisticated artworks: Thin Lizzy album covers like ‘Black Rose’ and ‘Johnny the Fox’ through to the paintings for ‘The Book of Conquests’ and ‘The Silver Arm’.

Right now, above my fireplace where they have been for the past 30 years, are the twin artworks ‘Diarmuid and Gráinne’ and ‘Conánn of the Fianna’, both as fresh and vibrant as the day they were painted.

Whenever I have exhibited my Celtic Art I simply remove the work from the frames, roll it up in tissue and carry it in a tube straight onto a plane -just as I did for exhibition at San Diego ComicCon back in the day and art shows in Tokyo, New York and London over the years -and more recently for my exhibition in Paris.

LIKE ALL ARTWORK, MY PAINTINGS MUST NOT BE HUNG IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT. THE SAME APPLIES TO PRINTS.

Otherwise no problems

JIM FITZPATRICK.

PS. If you purchase one of my original artworks it will be delivered via UPS or An Post in a sealed tube, registered and insured against loss or damage.