Irish Relief Block Prints (Part I)

This summer we’ll be going to Ireland - I’m so excited!   To get in the spirit I’ve collected some block prints of Irish scenes.  (I’m very much hoping to get material for some  future Irish block prints of my own, of course.)  I’ll begin today with scenes from the western side of Ireland.  First, two by Gail Kelly, who works in County Down in Northern Ireland, but who has prints depicting many places in Ireland.  First, a scene of Connemara, which is roughly the western part of County Galway.  I especially like the texture of the sky and water.  This piece has lovely light.

        The second of Kelly’s pieces shows a dolmen in County Donegal.  We won’t be making it to Donegal, but we will be seeing plenty of dolmens and other archaeology.  The juxtaposition of the prehistoric monument right across from the modern village is one of the things that makes Ireland so special: it wears its thousands of years of history on its sleeve, and everywhere you go the past rises up in stone.

        I found another block print of a Dolmen, this one by Paula Pohli, whom I take to be working out of Dublin.  Her dolmen is clearly in the Burren, an area in County Clare that’s just peppered with neolithic sites.  The ground composed of slabs of limestone is the Burren’s geological trademark.  I’m not sure how I feel about the dolmen being in red.  It certainly gives it a dramatic punch, and without it the grey stones of the dolmen would blend in with the grey stones of the Burren.  But it also reminds me of the paperback cover of a cheap shocker!  I do like the darker grey sky, though, and the vertical format is an interesting choice.

[Pictures: Sky Road, Connemara, wood cut by Gail Kelly;

Kilclooney Dolmen, wood cut by Kelly (Images from Gail Kelly’s web site);

Remember Us, linocut by Paula Pohli (Image from Graphic Studio Dublin).]