I painted this large scale work of Inishlacken island in 2004 at the Atlantic Artists Collective in 2004. I was attempting to bring my skills from painting community murals in Belfast to a different level. The island is viewed as if from the air, taking in every field and house. The work took ten months to prepare and eventually paint in the gallery, it was shown as part of the Tulca festival of visual arts in Galway and was acquired by N.U.I. Galway in 2005 where it can be seen in the Orbson building.

I held a few weekend portrait workshops over the winter, the first was in the lower hall here in Roundstone and the next at my studio. More workshops will be available over the summer months, if you would like to take part in a workshop please contact me at rmcgurran@hotmail.com.

The gallery here in Roundstone opened again at Easter and closed at Halloween. I saw many familiar faces throughout the season and met lots of new people. The highlight of the summer was the Gallery’s 10th Anniversary opening on the August Bank Holiday. The opening was oficiated by Minister Ruairi Quinn and curator Maeve Mulrennan. We didn’t get the weather but we did have the loan of a nice canopy where everyone stood and shivered in our lovely Irish Summer.

In September I presented a commissioned piece of work to President McAleese at the Gerard Dillon Gallery in Belfast. The new gallery is a stunning purpose built space and was opened by the President with a retrospective exhibition of Dillon’s work. In November The Inishlacken Project was invited to exhibit, this was a great opportunity to follow the Dillon show with representations of the island he lived on by contemporary Irish artists. The exhibition finished this week and has had great attendance and local publicity.

I was elevated to full R.U.A, membership this year after being an associate member for nine years. I was also asked to give a talk about my work at the Ulster Museum, I don’t find it easy to talk about or even explain my work so I just opened my mouth and rambled on. I hope the audience enjoyed it. It was interesting for me to show some more unusual works that had never been shown in Belfast and to show the different aspects of my work.

The studio is open and has been busy over Easter, I have created a more cosy space with lots on offer from art cards, handmade cards, prints and posters to paintings. I am thrilled to have two works accepted for the R.H.A Annual Exhibition, so a trip to Dublin is coming soon. The most exciting thing on the horizon is the impending Inishlacken Project residency in June, I have started preparations already and have consulted predictweather.com for the forecast, fingers crossed! There is little to report today, Roundstone is quiet now, the weather has turned and this morning I was greeted by an-unsupervised horse running past the house.

The Inishlacken project was founded in 2001 by Rosie McGurran as a response to James MacIntyre’s book, “Three men on an island”, (Blackstaff Press 1996). In the book James MacIntyre recalls the summer of 1951 which he spent on Inishlacken island on the invitation of the artistGerard Dillon. The story conjures up a glimpse of life on an island ten years before it became uninhabited. Rosie McGurran decided to honour these artists form the past by inviting contemporary visual artists, composers, writers and poets to visit the island and respond. in the 1950s Gerard Dillon invited many of his contemporaries to visit him on Inishlacken thus inadvertantly creating a visual arts archive of Inishlacken. The Inishlacken project now aims to continue this archive in to the twenty first century buy embracing tradition and skill alongside facilitating artists to work in new media and collaboration. There is no application process to attend the annual Inishlacken Project residency, artists are invited by the curator on merit of the high standard of their work. The Inishlacken Project has exhibited as a group at The Linenhall Library, Belfast, The Galway Arts Centre, The Joan Lukas Rothenberg Gallery, Syracuse, New York and Clifden Arts Week. Over the past ten years the project has been supportedby, Galway County Council, Norwich University, Syracuse University, The Galway Arts Centre, The Redhouse Arts Centre, Culture Ireland and the Goethe Institut.

Invited artists since 2001 include

Gavin Lavelle, Pearl Kinnear, Susan McKeever, Mick O’Dea R.H.A., John Behan R.H.A, Joseph McWilliams P.P.R.U.A, Catherine McWilliams R.U.A.,Simon McWilliams R.U.A., Dolores Lyne, Rosemary Carr, Margaret Irwin, Micheal Longley, Tim Robinson, Ursula Rani Sarma, Mary Donnelly, Geraldine O’Reilly, Brian Bourke R.H.A, Aideen Barry, Jay Murphy, Debbie Watkins, Kate Moore, Caroline Wright, Una Sealy, Eamon Colman, Sean O’Flaithearta, Kathleen Furey, Sioban Piercy, Louise Manifold, Jonathan Porter, Mirja Schellbach, Moya Cannon, Dorothy Smith, Jennifer Cunningham and Colin Mc Gookin.

Invited artists for the 2011 residency are,

Donald Teskey, Mick O’Dea, Katherine West, Margaret Irwin, John Behan, Majella Dowdican, Denise Ferran, Eamonn O’Doherty, Lisa O’Donnell, Carolin