Thursday, April 14, 2011

Dreaming of a trip to Ireland

I recently finished an Imaginary Trip to Ireland with Laure Ferlita, and then I also had a short 3 day real visit to Ireland with my husband and middle son.

As I did my assignments for the Imaginary class, I had a sneaky suspicion that the "Cliffs of Moher" might be on my middle son's wish list for Ireland. Two years ago he sat daydreaming on our couch with a LARGE photo book of Ireland (about 12 in  by 15.5 inches) and he used green stickies to mark on a map in the book the sites he wanted to see when he could arrange a trip to Ireland. Well... half way through his study abroad year he has visited many, many countries in Europe but he still hadn't arranged with any friends to visit Ireland yet. So... when my husband and I went to visit him in Copenhagen last month .... we managed a 3 day side venture to Ireland. Unfortunately with our time constraints (only 3 days in Ireland) we weren't able to fit in a visit to the Cliffs of Moher. We'll have to leave it for a future visit. But, on this page I tried to capture a representation of my memory of my son, the big picture book of Ireland, and his green stickies as he was daydreaming at home. We had a great time in Ireland and I came home with many pictures to sketch from.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just lovely! I love the story behind this. It came out wonderful. :)

Kathy A. Johnson said...

Lucky! How fun to take Laure's class, then go see the real thing. Hopefully your new paintings and sketches will keep your happy memories alive.

Joanne said...

I've never been to Europe, but hope to make it there one day, partly to get a sense of my ancestors. I like how you're giving your son a gift of The Cliffs through your own artistic interpretation. Very special, indeed.

Unknown said...

I'm envious that you got to take a real trip and an imaginary trip to Ireland. But your beautiful artwork helps me feel like I am there too! Nice work!

Jacqueline said...

Looks like fun! Great greens :)

lori vliegen said...

i love stories like this! and when you're standing at the cliffs of moher someday, you'll probably be thinking about your memories of all those green stickies in your book! your artwork is lovely, as always, claire!! xo

Teresa said...

Oh, that's wonderful that you were able to visit Ireland with your son! So nice when dreams come true.

Lovely illustration!

ArtbyBernadette said...

Hi Claire-How exciting for you! Did you get to visit any of the places we went to on our Imaginary Trip? Did you miss the bus because you were sketching? :)

K said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time, Claire!

Dan Balosanu said...

Just flicking through random blogs, I came across your post. I can only sympathise with your desire to visit Ireland, and if my images can help you in a way, please have a look.

Claire M said...

Dan - Thanks for stopping by. I looked through some of your awesome photos on your website. I recognized many of the sites in Dublin that we were able to visit during our short 3-day stay. I enjoyed seeing your photos.