When flames and snakes are your neighbours, they can't help but be part of the story. This rough, heavy-duty cotton canvas has been in my studio for probably eight years. It was unprimed, so I spent months applying thin layers of oil paint before it went anywhere. I like the dryness that comes from all that soakage and the roughness of the surface. There were wildfires near the sea, and you could see the glow of orange at night in the distance. I was grappling with a shape similar to the one I am painting here back in Ireland. I tried it again when I got to Italy, but it wasn't until I saw the shape as a flame that it unlocked itself. On some of the smaller landscapes, these flames appeared …

Routes are created by choices, taking you to known spaces or surprises. Paintings take many paths. When I start to work on a new canvas, I have no idea where it will go, literally and figuratively. So I take any chance to travel and bring my work with me in whatever form possible, like these paintings I started in Ireland and brought to Italy. I like the (long!) drive to Italy - it’s a great time for …

I don't think you could or should explain any piece of art entirely because it cuts it off from alternative interpretations. What I want to do here is talk about the things that happened around it, the things that pushed it into what it became. It was the largest oil on canvas I painted during my time in Berlin. The video was filmed in my Berlin…

A short video discussing the inspiration for "New Year's Eve Berlin (After Whistler)", one of the large oil paintings I have been working on during my time here in Berlin.

I just walked by this large diptych in a Berlin underground station. I think it reflects that idea of art being all around us. Those gorgeous chocolate browns mixed with cappuccino greys sitting next to its silent neighbour, encased by a smoky green...

It probably sounds a bit iffy when I say that something came to me in a dream but last night something did. When I walked passed my paintings this morning an image I dreamt about came back to me. I ran over, took up a dirty oil paint brush and sketched it on the back of a canvas. Later, over coffee, I sketched the motif a ...

This is the last of the herringbone linen I got from an old mill in Germany. I first used it in this series of small oil paintings in 2010. I have been wanting to stretch it up for years but somehow never got around to it so I brought it to Italy...