Hello Everyone,  I hope this letter finds you in good spirits.  I think that is what we must all strive for to keep our spirits up.  I have been on the road or should I say in the air again, recently returning from Ireland.  I accompanied my daughter and her family to help out with the children while they perform.  Most of you probably know that we have a family band, The Martin Family Band.  It was a great source of pleasure for me and now that I am retired from playing music professionally I still enjoy my daughters playing.  I still get choked up hearing familiar tunes that our dear son Claude used to play with them but life must go on.

Emily was asked to play in a little town of Glin, Co. Limerick for the Glin Trad Week.  https://www.glintradweek.com/ and it was in honor of her mentor Brendan Mulvihill and his father Martin Mulvihill.  It was a bittersweet trip.  The people in this little town were so welcoming and loved the “American Old-time music”.  The place seemed unchanging.  There were no signs of modernization or strip malls, condos, just small little cottages, rolling hills, charming pubs and through the town ran the River shannon.  I was enamored by the quiet splendor of the place.  We stayed in a lovely B & B, which is now only a “B”.  No big Irish breakfast in the morning which was a great dissapointment.  The owner, Jack Dunn is a recent widower and does not want to cook.  Despite the lack of food served ,the ambiance of the great house was “grand” as the Irish say.  I could have stayed there for a month and never leave the place for ideas to paint.  

On the property was the ruins of an ancient Castle where a fierce war was fought between the Irish countrymen and the Knight of Glin.  The lads fought gallantly but were overun by the British.  Legion has it that the young son of one of the rebels was tied to a canon and warned if there was no surrender he would be blown to bits.   ” When royal troops threatened to blow him up unless the knight surrendered, he replied that he was virile and his wife was strong and that they could have more”  This is a nice story about the Siege of Glin on youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8pM8KWmpRs. 

I hope we can be brave like the rebellious Irish country folk and their Knights of Glin. They lost the battle of the siege of Glin but they outlasted the tyrants and live a peaceful happy life now. 

The Glin Castle . I decided that I liked this view from the side better than a frontal view. The trick is to use the plein air sketch, photograph and your memory to create something new. I also wanted to include the little river that served as a moat surrounding the castle and some of the vegetation and trees. they all support the image of the ancient ruin.

This was the other little study I managed to eek out. It was a very cold and windy day that day so most of this painting was done from inside the B & B. I hope to go back to the town of Glin someday and explore the ancient places and paint the beautiful landscapes.

Take care,

Jeanean