Oils on canvas
One of the quaint, old family stores in Kilrush. Hardly anything has changed over the years and this shop is absolutely fascinating – a step back into time in Ireland.
The shopkeeper, Donal O’Sullivan kindly posed for me when I told him I would love to paint his shop. I rearranged some items for artistic purposes but the painting is very close to what this fascinating old shop looks like. A definite place to visit should you ever come to Kilrush!!
This painting was quite a challenge and I could probably still work on it for many more months perfecting every little detail – but I decided that I don’t want to go down the ‘photo realism’ path as that is just not my style.
Even if I do use a photograph as reference, I leave most of the last sections and finishing touches to my imagination. To me, a painting must still look like a painting so I decided that this one is done….
maybe :)
To see a larger image... click here
And...
Why I have been such a bad blogger...
Truth is, I have been a bit ill… and very worried too. I don’t exactly know how to say this as I did not want to explain but I decided perhaps I need to tell you why I have been away for so long…
Well… besides being busy with teaching and painting – which helped to keep me sane, I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in July last year and had to have several operations, etc, back and forth to hospital and needless to say, quite worried.
When you are suddenly confronted with the big ‘C’, you realise how short life can be. I am so thankful for my wonderful family and friends and through them all I was able to keep a positive attitude and the future is hopeful.
I was lucky in many ways… I have wonderful doctors and the medical staff are brilliant. It always takes some time to ‘get into the system’ but because of my caring GP, I got the diagnosis and operations necessary. Now, I can only hope and pray that this horrible, deadly cancer will not return.
I love the sun… most of my life was spent loving the sun and being outdoors. But the sun can be deadly and I can only ask that anyone who has ever ‘loved the sun’ PLEASE take care!! No tan is worth dying for!
To my friends who knew and supported me through this time… I can only say ‘thank you’... you will never know just how much it means to me.
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3 comments:
Avril I do hope your recovery from your operations is a good one. When I heard you had the melanoma I genuinely was shocked and sorry. You are in my thoughts and prayers and I do hope we'll get a chance to meet up soon. I am looking forward to the annual exhibition in February.
The painting above is brilliant by the way. SO much detail. I love the wooden drawers and the brass companion set. It'll be great to see it at the exhibition...
Best Wishes
April
Hi April!
Thank you so much for you kind comments! I am very positive and the results of my last scans were clear so we are really happy about that. I will have to go back regularly but the future looks good so far.
I hope we will see you at the exhibition - the opening night will be on the 18th February at 8pm at the Kilrush Library, of course and I hope you will join us. It will be great to see you again and I would love to hear what you have been up to over the last year.
I so seldom get the time to blog nowadays or even spend time on the internet so I hope we will have time for a little chat at the exhibition! Looking forward to seeing you...
Love
Avril
Yes, we must meet up and have a chat. It has been too long.
See you there!!
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