More on that little cottage in Cahir, Ireland comes now but if you didn’t read my original scribbles, here it is here; https://www.studiokreat.com/post/art-spotlight-building-the-house-that-remembered When I first saw this photograph of the little cottage in Cahir where my three-times-great-grandmother Mary Martha and her husband John began their family life, I felt saddened by its derelict condition. It was difficult to see a place that had once sheltered my ancestors so wea

There is something I keep noticing as creative pieces slowly find their shape in my studio. The self portrait resting on rough pine. The stitches gathering themselves across my remembrance snippet roll. Neither of them has asked to be loud. Neither has rushed to explain itself. And yet both seem to speak. Not in sentences or certainty, but in the quiet language that only art seems to know. Art creates room for breath and lately I've been feeling that art speaks in a very spec

A broken piece of metal found upon ancestors land. Once discarded, weathered by rain, sun, and time, it carried no obvious value. Yet as I held it in my hands, I wondered what stories the land still remembered. And so after bringing it home, I have prepped it and started painting a wagon wheel upon its rusted surface, not as a picture of the past, but as a symbol of the lives that turned upon this country. This piece of metal, rubbish to some has brought thought and memory of

After the public holiday , I am sitting within the quiet moments for how much the world feels heavy, where pain and hardship seems to be weighing so many down in spirit ~ finding a gentle refuge in art seems key. And I am not just talking about any art, but repose art ~ this way is a tender, slow unfolding of shapes, colours, and textures that invite us to pause, breathe, and reflect. This is a journey of contemplation, a soft embrace for the soul. It is here and in this sp

There is a quiet magic in art. It whispers to us when words fail. It holds space for the feelings we cannot name. When life feels heavy, when pain wraps around your heart like a thick fog, art can be a gentle companion. It invites you to pause, to breathe, to look inward. In those moments, art becomes more than just colour and shape. It becomes a mirror, a sanctuary, a soft place to land. I have found that art for contemplation is not about creating masterpieces or understand

There is a moment, right here with this self portrait, where surrender becomes strength. In the creating of this piece, I wanted to show the wind on my skin reminding myself that I am still alive, and the sea whispers don’t rush healing ~ it will come when it needs too. I am standing with arms open, not in defeat, but in a brave invitation to the horizon: “I am here. I’m ready to breathe again.” The waves carry stories of what I have survived. The tide attempts to pull away

“This week’s Art Spotlight Tuesday brings a piece still in progress, a mixed media work of oil paint and oil pastels, alive with…”