I arrived at Shannon Airport on Tuesday morning. While I didn't get my bags until Thursday, I believe I'm finally settled and can reflect upon my first week here.

The Burren is an incredible place. Ecologically, it is quite unique. There are flowers and plants that grow and live and grow only here, and others that are only else found in the arctic or the south of France. The village of Ballyvaughn, which is just outside the Burren, has a population of about 280...that's people, not thousand. Life is very quiet here. There are a few lights in the village, but when I leave the pub to walk 30 minutes back to my rented flat, most of my walk is in darkness. On clear nights, I am able to walk home in starlight. The moon is so bright for the lack city lights, that when it is full, it actually casts a shadow on the path I walk.

This quiet walk I take to the studios and to town is my meditation and my prayer. It is in that time I feel the potential in myself and the waiting wisdom in the earth below my feet. I am surrounded and coated in the Spirit at these times. It is so close, I can feel that holy breath in my own heartbeat, in my own rhythmic footsteps.

I live, work, and eat simply. I find I very much like the lifestyle. The freedom from many distractions has allowed me space to clear my head and opened me to subtler nuances in the land and in myself. The songs of Ben Taylor have been repeating themselves in my mind:

"Love, surround me with all your reach
Now while we're here alone
Now our bodies are ocean and beach
Blessings of waves and stones

Floating a lonely sound
You found me
And now that the tide is finally down

Surround me

Surround me."

The college is a very small community of undergraduate students, MFA students, administative folks, a few resident artists, and professors. The studios are quiet, and though all the artists here seem to thrive on communal discussion and an open workspace, they are all individual workers, and contribute to an environment that encourages focus and creativity. There is an air of both production and freedom here... It is a combination that in my experience, is hard to find. I was less productive in the studio than I would have been, due to my delayed luggage, but I was able to finally begin work on a few paintings, and also complete a few sketches.

Yesterday, I was able to go into Galway with a few of the MFA students and did a watercolor study at the Bay. It was wondeful to be back at some of my old favorite spots again. It was perhaps painfully nostalgic too, but also romantic to sit down at the dock once again.

I have much to do this next week, and find myself with a very Irish attitude towards it all: I am neither anxious nor excited. Rather, I am content, and open, and present. I am home with every step I take, whether it be in my studio or through the Burren wild. I feel the Spirit, the great wisdom and creator heart pulsing in every act.

It was my first time with this process, and this is how it went. I used my friend Emily as a model for a portrait, and used Old Holland Zinc White (a little less transparent than Titanium White) and Ivory Black for my underpainting. I also made sure my underpainting was thick enough to offer the glazes something to stick to for later on. It couldn't be too smooth.

After that, I used a reduced French triad palette to glaze--Old Holland Indian Red/Flesh Ochre and Yellow Ochre. This gave the flesh an flat and fake-tan look, but I had to be patient and trust the process. The background was first thinly covered with OH Green Oxide, then I added some OH King's Blue Light, OH Yellow Ochre Light, a small amount of OH Pthalo Green and Schvenigan Warm Grey for some of the darker areas on the right side. Then I layered it up with Liquin and prepped for the next layer, hence the glare in the photo.

After that, I added some Williamsburg Cad Red Light and OH Yellow Ochre Light, adding in some OH Naples Yellow Deep for bringing up highlights.

At this point, I began to use some higher key values in my highlights with colors like OH Nikel Yellow and Wmsbg Brilliant Yellow Pale. They helped considerably in showing the protuberant areas of the chin, cheekbones and forehead. I liquined, as I had been doing between all the layers. I also went back in to correct a few drawing problems and go over the hair with copious amounts of OH Ivory Black, OH Sepia Extra and a little OH Raw Umber. Added some other finishing details, like the highlights on the pupils and the sclera, the highlights on small spots like the eyelid and fingernails, and the glazed shadow beneath the lips.

The past three months have been overflowing with change for me: I've moved twice, started working three new jobs, left one job to pick up another, and have been attempting to paint in between all of them. Amongst it all, I've been painting in an almost-set up studio, and finished a portrait in an ancient process that is new to me: grisaille. Grisaille (pronounced gra-SIGH) is a French technique in which the entire subject is laid down in black and white at full value (making the under painting entirely monochromatic) and the colors are thinly layered in glazes until they fully cover it and bring it up to full color range.

After adding those highlights to the face to test the waters, I continued into the hands. After doing that, I realized that I had lost some important contrast and added some Schminke Translucent Brown Oxide, along with some OH Sepia Extra to go back in on top of those darker areas, and even added some more OH Flesh Ochre to warm it up. I also chose to add some OH Schvenigan Warm Grey to darken and warm the background corner, and threw some of it into the creases on the shirt to heighten the contrast there as well.

After oiling it out with Liquin a few more times, it was finally ready for the frame. And voila! A finished portrait, grisaille style. Maybe in a few months it might get a nice varnish. But for now, it's getting prepped to hang in the group invitational show at Mary Ran Gallery.