It’s been quite different here for the last couple of days, having last years artist and some friends around has made for a real party atmosphere and really limited my time to work in the studio. But it has been very good to have a much-needed break. Now people are starting to head off so the party is effectively over so tomorrow I will be back to work again. This afternoon has been fun, the weather was really fins so a group of us have walked up  Blackstairs Mountain, I have been threatening to do it since I arrived but with the good weather and an enthusiastic party we actually did it and it was great. Really peaceful, loads of fresh air and brilliant views for miles in each direction. The image above is out over Kilkenny and Carlow which are the counties on the other side of the mountains from where we are staying, I think in the next couple of weeks I may try walking right over the mountain and down to one of the towns on the other side. It looks like there are several burial mounds and dolmen, or portal tombs as they call them here, over on that side of the mountain which I would like to visit and draw. I have taken quite a lot over photo from up on the mountain, I have an idea for some new work; it is a similar kind of drawing to some I have done over the last couple of years, or a least it has a similar starting point. But I think the new direction will fit in very well with the views over and of the mountains. I will post more about these as the work progresses.