eolaí the artist

Landscape format in painterly acrylics on canvas. Small white cottage with very dark roof and white chimney is nearly half way up to the right nestled into a ledge on a hill beside a small group of dark wine-coloured trees with pale orange trunks. In front of it a lime field slopes down to the bottom of the picture, as does a blue and green field over the stone wall to the right, and an olive green field to the left across a dark ditch, while behind the cottage are rounded hills of a darker olive green, and they're in front of a pale green and grey pointed rocky small mountain with blue mountains behind it on both sides. Sky is very pale pure blue. Along the bottom edge are the tops of some bright green bushes, and 3 small trees at the bottom of the stone wall, with pink trunks and branches rising into dark alizarin clumps. Signed bottom right in pale blue, Liam Daly

Time I suppose for a #painting. "Connemara Cottage II" was painted because I have a fondness for things I can't quite see properly, and even now in my chair as I look at this painting I raise myself up ever so slightly to try and see a bit more of the cottage. Mountains too though. #art #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. Under a salmon pink sky the white metal pedestrian Ha'penny Bridge arches over the turquoise River Liffey truncated on the right before it joins the south bank. The turquoise water has flat distinct horizontal strokes of purple and green. They are all short but of varying lengths which some so short they are dots, creating a morse code rippling effect. On the left quay is a line of trees depicted by just thick clumps of green foliage with the tops of the narrow mostly red-brick buildings behind them peeping over the top. In the distance in the centre of the picture rises the square skyscaper of Liberty Hall, with alternating bands of blue green windows and grey stone or concrete. It is topped with a small square pale green square hat with a zig-zagging brim and dark shadow underneath. To the right of it behind the Ha'penny bridge is the classic building of the almost white Custom House topped with its central green dome. Behind it is the dark green and blue glass blocks that comprise the relatively modern IFSC. The Loopline railway bridge and a yellow double-decker bus can both be made out through the railings of the Ha'penny Bridge. Signed bottom right in dark blue, Liam Daly.

Have a Dublin #painting from a couple of years ago. "Ha'penny Bridge, Pink Sky" was on the go for years, because, well, I would keep looking at the scene every time I was in town and then think about it some more. Plus I kept having to wait for those days of salmon skies. #art #SpeirGhorm

Portrait format in acrylics on mat board. Abstracted impressionistic very loose rendition of two men wearing caps and jackets sitting on a bench turned to each other in conversation. The men and the horizontal beams of the bench are in hues of blues and greens. There are no facial features, and in the case of the man on the right virtually no face at all as we see through to the background colour. The background is a painterly pale pink for the top two-thirds, and a loosely dry-brushed bold orange for the bottom third behind their feet, lower legs, and legs of the bench. I took the photograph of the painting before I added my signature.

A #painting called "Seated Men" which was the first I did in a series of paintings of men in conversation. It was subsequently used as the cover for a book of Irish short stories published for the benefit of the Haiti earthquake relief. #art #SpeirGhorm

Even though there are plenty of very good reasons not to, I have recently started posting on Instagram again. I'm @eolai over there, should that be your cup of tea.

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. A blue sky day. In the foreground a blue rowing boat, paint peeling, sits on a mound of lime grass. A few metres behind, running horizontally across the painting, is a stream, or narrow inlet, half full of orange seaweed with dark rocks protruding. Along its far side is a line of rocks, black and brown where they meet the seaweed and pale grey on top. Above the bank is a large area of gorse, a dense dark green bush with small yellow blossoms. The gorse reaches over half way across from the left edge. Back a few more metres in the centre of the painting is a small outbuilding in a warm grey with a blue corrugated roof and two very small dark windows. Rocky hills stretch behind it with a house behind a small orange hill on the left, and back some distance behind dry-stone walls and ruins is a larger house further back on the right also nestled behind a mound. Both houses have dark trees immediately behind them. Larger rocky brown and green hills are behind them, and behind again is the bottom of a large mountain of sage green which slopes down from the top left corner then flattens out as it goes behind the far house on the right. At the back across the painting is a line of pale blue rocky mountains with jagged peaks. Signed bottom left in red, Liam Daly

Time for a west of Ireland #painting. "Connemara Boat" was painted a couple of years back. It came out of a day I'd been cycling around north Connemara thinking how ridiculous everything was, having been arranged for me to paint by whatever forces it is that arranges such things. #art #SpeirGhorm

That's very kind - thank you. I used to love watching that, though I was never brave enough to apply (plus tbh even if lucky enough to be selected I'd never get the time to participate). Saw a video with Tai promoting this year's and they've significantly changed the format which I think is a shame.

Landscape format is loosely painted acrylics on canvas panel. Horizon is one third way up from the bottom, with all of the foreground being lightly undulating bog in dark maroons and oranges. Past it is a strip of low green hills with a patchwork of fields separated by darker green hedgerows, and along the horizon is a long lilac mountain mass on the left half with a pale blue mass further away to its right. Top half is sunset sky of one large billowing green-grey cloud with white edges surrounded by pinks, oranges, lilacs, sky blues, and yellow into white near the mountains at the horizon. Signed bottom left in light blue, Liam Daly

Am ignoring the news to share an old #painting with you. "Donegal Cloud" came out of a time when I lived briefly in the northwest corner of Ireland and of an evening with my little dog would spend good times looking at the sky as the sky looked at us. #art #SpeirGhorm

Listening to the not-so-gentle whirring sounds from upstairs of the exercise bike as, after I applied his night-time eye-drops and we approach midnight, my 94-year-old father is cycling somewhere deep into where the internet lets him go.

Landscape format in acrylics on mat board. Between a yellow into orange sky, and a lime into green body of water, is a horizontal strip of a terrace of 10 houses (left to right: pale green, pale blue, paler blue, white, dark blue, red, mid-blue, yellow, pale blue, pink) with dark blue and purple slate roofs. Three houses have 3 stories, the rest 2. All have small dark windows. Behind are rooftops and gables, and in front is a dark blue quay wall running across the width of the painting. It has 2 small pale blue and white fishing boats docked on green and yellow seaweed at bottom of the quay wall on the right. A small round orange buoy floats in the middle of the harbour to the left. Signed bottom right in red, Liam Daly

Have a #painting. From a few years back "The Long Walk Again" is not the first time I've painted the iconic Galway scene. And knowing me it's unlikely to be the last. There are other places in the west of Ireland to paint, but something about the shapes and space draw me back here. #art #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format in acrylic on canvas panel. View down cobble slipway or ramp to bay. Water is pale blue with grey stone pier on right continuing on straight, and wave wall on left which together with pier forms channel from ramp. Cobbles rendered in blues, greens and purples have yellow markings in series of short horizontal parallel lines and two white lines guiding down towards water. On left is small white storage hut with four full-size doors in primary red, yellow, blue and green. On the far side of the bay is a narrow horizontal strip of low hills rendered in a sort of lilac blue which contrasts with the paler water and sky. The sky is painterly cloudy turquoise broken left of centre by a tall post with two lamps rising from behind a stone wall that adjoins the multi-doored huts. Signed top right in red, Liam Daly

A west of Ireland #painting now. "Enniscrone Pier" was painted as one of a set of 4 paintings of the County Sligo seaside town where every year I get to go on a magical break from my carer role. The paintings were gifts for the people who make that magic happen. #art #SpeirGhorm

We're back with the Orinoco Flow today...

Landscape format in acrylic on canvas. In a field of long yellow grass a large outbuilding with rusted corrugated roof occupies left half of painting with very dark shadow side facing viewer. It extends beyond the left edge of the painting. Wooden posts holding a wire fence run diagonally through foreground. Tall yellow-flowered weeds stand out against the dark shadow side of the outbuilding while bright grey gable end with small windows is in sun. Behind into the right half of the picture is a smaller outbuilding and in the top left corner above the corrugated roof is green foliage of a tree-top. At the far end of the field, visible by the right edge, is a hedgerow of very dark green with brighter uneven top. Beyond it are pale turquoise and purple hills in front of pale blue mountains, the furthest one with a distinctive conical peak reaching up to near the top of the painting. Sky is light blue with large white soft clouds. Signed bottom right in dark blue on the long yellow grass, Liam Daly

Time for a #painting. From a few years ago, "Mayo Shed" came out of an idyllic day in the west of Ireland where I cycled from County Galway north and around the back of Croagh Patrick. This was an outbuilding I enjoyed seeing before coming in Louisburgh as I headed towards Clew Bay. #art #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. View front on from across river at a horizontal central band of 11 buildings, a mixture of modern and old, ranging from 2 stories to 4 stories, and all joined together except for a gap in the middle where there is a narrow side street beside the Ha'penny Bridge Inn. Behind the line of buildings in the centre is the large modern block with alternating horizontal stripes of concrete and dark glass topped with a glass roof on a wider strip of concrete from which dark metal arms in 2 pairs hang down each side gripping the building. Until relatively recently this building was the Central Bank of Ireland. The buildings along the quay are creams and oranges and pale grey-greens, and a couple of red-brick buildings at the right end. The river wall of granite blocks is rendered in warm greens and browns with a line of dark green seaweed hanging along near the water. The sky is a pure very pale turquoise. The whole scene is reflected only slightly rippling in the river punctuated by streaks of very pale lighted turquoise water. Signed bottom right in dark blue, Liam Daly

Have yourself a #painting. "Wellington Quay, East" was painted because I stare so much at Dublin's quays. If you're not overly familiar with the centre of Dublin, or even if you are, this particular scene is right between two of its pedestrian bridges including a rather iconic one. #art #SpeirGhorm

Portrait format photo of the cow from a distance, seen from down a slope from the cow's right side from behind so that the cow is facing away to the right up at the top of the slope. The cow is framed by the dark trunk of a tree behind it to the right, and its foliage which goes above it and drops down behind the cow such that the direct background to the cow is the pure pale blue sky.

I'll spare you more details, but I can't deny that I used to really enjoy seeing my cow from a distance.

Photo in portrait format of the right rear leg. There is a leg-shaped panel of a pale orange vellum colour which is outlined by a ribbon of red paint separating it from the rest of the yellow cow. The hoof of the far leg is also orange, as is a small empty panel in the inside of the far leg. The teats are painted gold. The design in the main panel on the leg features a Celtic design of two - very long - green and blue dogs intertwined both with each other and with a cream and orange bird with outstretched wings.

Have another leg. I think I enjoyed deciding what to paint on it and designing the whole thing much more than actually painting the thing.

Photo in portrait format of the rear of the cow where an empty red circle is painted above the udders and above that inside a larger red circle over the cow's bum and top of its tail is a Celtic design of 3 interlaced figures of bearded men on a gold background.

It was an unusual time for me sticking my long brush with gold paint into the bum of a cow. Not my typical painting activity. And painting three entangled bearded men back there seemed like a good idea.

Portrait format photo showing the right fore leg with design from the Book of Kells on a leg-shaped panel. The panel is a pale orange vellum colour with a wide red boundary. The rest of the cow is a painterly yellow. The design in the leg panel shows intertwined beasts primarily of green and cream.

I always regretted not painting on the main panel on one side "This page left intentionally blank", and also not photographing its site after it was removed and auctioned. But here, have a leg.

Photo in landscape format. Cow statue on narrow concrete base in a park with road and distant woods in background under a pure blue sky. We see the left side of the cow from the front. Horned cow is standing facing left with head downward. Painted yellow, with decorative orange panels with designs from illuminated manuscripts on legs and sides and other smaller panels. Their is a large rectangular panel on the side, with medallion panels to the left and right of it, and the panels on the legs are in shape of, well, slabs of meat. Panels are outlined in a wide ribbon of red, with other wide red lines joining the panels together. Orange hooves and udders. Other decorative elements on head and neck. Around the base of the sculpture the grass is worn away where people have walked around it.

25 years ago I painted a cow. "The Cow of Kells" was covered in elements and motifs from our most celebrated illuminated manuscript. A couple of times during lunch I visited the park in Kansas where it was on display, and overheard people describe it as Egyptian and Aztec.

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. Sunny day. Hay field of pale yellows loosely painted in lines, with round bales scatted, dark orange on shadow end, hot pale yellow the other end, lilac and purple on the curved shadow side, casting very dark shadows. Behind is a dark hedgerow running horizontally across the middle of the picture, and at an entrance to another yellow field behind, a large tree in full green foliage with a few small sky holes. Low hills on the left of green and purple and trees extend to horizon where a pale blue peaked mountain sits on the left side beside a lower peaked mountain. Sky is a paler blue with a small amount of white misty cloud mostly in upper right. Signed bottom right in dark blue, Liam Daly

An Irish #painting. "Kilkenny Field" came out of a day where much of it was spent cycling along by the River Barrow. There was sunshine. There was scenery. There was happiness. #art #SpeirGhorm

Thank you very much!

Thanks very much.

Very beautiful. I do like how they cheer up so much at this time of year.

I haven't - but only today did I make significant progress in possibly coming up with something. It's been a lot of work and research - not straightforward at all. We'll see.
Our daffodils are later than others in the neighbourhood because they're so sheltered - and thank you very much!

Thanks very much

Landscape format in acrylics on mat board. Most of the picture is green, depicting a grassy slope going up to the top right corner, dropping to a high dip three quarters of the way up the painting near the left edge from which it begins rising again to the left. The green grassy slope is dotted with yellow and white flowers. In the foreground the flowers are clearly daffodils with yellow centres and pale yellow, almost white, outer sharply angular petals. Further back higher up the slope the flowers are a mixtures of different yellows from almost white through canary to orange. In mostly blues but some dark reds and dark green are flower stalks or individual blades of grass. The sky is white to very pale blue with a touch of yellow, and it's visible as a small wedge at the top between maybe ten spaced out tree trunks, that are mostly thin and predominantly blue. Peeping up from the far side of the hill are about half a dozen tops of pine trees. The painting was photographed before I added my signature.

Have a #painting. "Daffodils" was painted during one of my 24-hour live video streaming multi-painting things I did over 10 years ago. Right now it's the time of year where early in the mornings I get to watch the daffodils in the back garden wake up as I'm making tea. #art #SpeirGhorm

Landscape format in acrylics on canvas. Under a very pale aqua sky we are looking up a wide street of a small town which slopes up as it recedes. Buildings are two and three stories, with cars parked on both sides of the street perpendicular to the footpaths. Street surface is a dark blue-green mixed with blue and some purple. In the foreground are loosely painted road markings of yellow boxes while beyond that the road has a dividing dashed white line and at both edges dashed yellow lines. Small narrow trees are along left side on footpath. Footpaths are pale greeny yellow. The near corner building on the left is red brick upper story and grey lower where it has a door right on the corner under a black fascia. The top of the building has a lime band with a raised triangle on the corner. Other buildings adjoining it going up the street are in glimpses of visible slivers between the trees, while in the foreground adjoining on the street to the left is a building with lime upper story, orange lower, narrow windows and a round black pub sign jutting out. Nearest building on right is a pale, almost white, cold green with a double gable front and green details around windows and elsewhere. Other buildings on the right adjoining that are in shades of yellow with dark shop fronts at street level and blue slate roofs. At the top of the street in the distance is a grey statue in front of a cream building facing down. Signed bottom right, Liam Daly

"Tullow" Back to highlighting the few paintings I have that are still available. This came out of cycling in County Carlow where I had a love affair with its villages and towns. The original painting is available with details incl price here: liamdaly.com/2023/12/23/p... #ArtYear #SpeirGorm

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Oh it was generic, or recurring if you like, so yes, Skellig, but also Deenish, Scariff, and the Blaskets.

It's never too far for a cup of tea - but the sentence was a list of 3 items.