Poetry Maps

Oil and 24 Carat Gold Leaf on Canvas
50cm x 50cm (each canvas)
105cm x 105cm (4 canvases installed together)

Poetry Maps is a four-part oil painting series exploring the emotional and cultural landscape of Ireland through place, poem, and memory. Each canvas draws inspiration from a specific Irish poem and features the textured outline of a real Irish location referenced in the poem. Bordered in 24-carat gold leaf, the geography of each poem is elevated to sacred status.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Arise and Go to County Sligo (Inspired by ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by W. B. Yeats)

This work outlines Innisfree, Lough Gill County Sligo – the small island at the heart of Yeats’ famous poem, where the poet longs to live alone in harmony with nature.

2. Light on the Island Shoreline (Inspired by ‘An tEarrach Thiar’ by Máirtín Ó Direáin)

Depicting Inis Mór and the Aran Islands in Galway, this painting reflects the poet’s memory in An tEarrach Thiar of quiet, golden scenes from the islands, radiant with peace and belonging.

3. The Wind and Light of Clare (Inspired by the poem ‘Postscript’ by Seamus Heaney)

This canvas outlines the Flaggy Shore, County Clare, described in Heaney’s poem ‘Postscript’ as a place where wind, light, and sea deliver a moment of awe.

4. Dreaming of Dawn (Inspired by the poem ‘Cavehill’ by Alice Milligan)

This canvas maps the Cavehill in Belfast, the setting of Milligan’s poem in which the mountain stands as a quiet guardian of Ireland’s history and national spirit.