Linda Carey Virginia, USA

My Ballinglen residency took place in the Fall of 2010.  I am a landscape painter, but the weather necessitated working indoors from the glassed-in porch. Nearly all of my work was done there, and the turbulent weather, the ruins, the twisted trees, and the nearness of the wild Atlantic became my mental and physical world. Mostly I did tonal drawings, which, like black & white film and photography, often feel more dream-like and suggestive of time past than color work. I remember when I did this drawing the sensation that it almost drew itself, as though I was overtaken by the poetry, history, and melancholy of this place. Ironically, I have never been happier than when I was working on that porch, no doubt because of the generosity of spirit of the foundation and the people of Ireland. Still today, 10 years later, I get sustenance as an artist from that remembered experience of being there and feeling so supported and connected to a place and it's inhabitants, particularly in this time of pandemic isolation.                      - Linda Carey