Bencroy
‘There’s a mist that comes from nowhere,
that stirs the heather,
that rises from the stones.
And a misty air like water,
with no shore, no home.
There’s a light that falls after the shadows,
distant fields to ignite,
while ghost clouds go sailing,
like ships in the night.
Cold in the bones,
a message of life.’
On the Sliabh an Iarainn Mountain
Artwork: Bencroy 1 is the latest in my attempt at a series of artworks inspired by the landscape of my home and writing, the Sliabh an Iarainn mountain in Co. Leitrim, Ireland. My goal is immersion, escape, inspiration, and the work of the soul. Though I’m also just happy to see where it leads me. 🙂
This week I’m back with edits for my forthcoming novel, the prequel to Cailleach~Witch, BANSHEE. In this book we meet an earlier generation of the Cleary family. Unfortunately for them the year is 1845 and Seren Cleary has foreseen the famine and disaster for the family should they remain. But they are Bean Feasa, wise women whose ancestors made a forever deal with the Cailleach, an ancient spirt of the land…
A bit of a genre bender this one. I’ve taken actual events of the famine in Leitrim and combined them with ancient stories and superstitions to write a gothic fiction, historical fiction and adventure novel. I can’t wait for the day I can share it with you. In the meantime, writing, painting, more writing, repeat, xo Jane.
Have a great week, start a project, it’s good for you. 🙂
Miskawn 1 – A New Painting
‘I walked over the lane to my grandmother’s house, passed fields we used to play in.
A lane that used to seem so long, with fields that ran on, forever we thought.
And a house, that used to hold so many, so close against the mountain.
Only to see,
it was not the lane,
or the house or the fields that were warm and endless and deep, or that held us, so many, and close, against the mountain.
It was you.’
Hello, from verdant and sunny Leitrim. Ireland’s least populated county. We like our space. How many of you have a memory like this of a childhood place?
Miskawn 1 is the second in a series inspired by the landscape of my writing. The goal is something like peace, inspiration, the work of the soul and the soul of place…
Starting a New Creative Project

In my ongoing quest to be deeply immersed in the landscape of my writing, to deep map the familiar, to merge with the soul of this place, to bring writing and art and colour and nature together, to be always creating, and to learn to paint by painting. And bring it all back to my writing, I’m starting a new creative project.

My goal is to create a series of paintings inspired by the mountain. And perhaps I’ll add poetry too.

Mullaghgarve 1 is the starting point. A watercolour inspired by one of my photos. Incidentally, the Irish, ‘Mullach Garbh’ means ‘the rough top.’ And yes, it is rough and it is beautiful too.

This has been the most difficult year of my (almost) 49 years round the sun. Writing, nature and art continue to keep me going. They are my work, my medicine, my escape, my joy, my life. Which even while rough is also still beautiful.

What does your creativity mean to you? What are your creative plans for the week?

xo Jane

Dear Jane, What Inspired You To Write #CailleachWitch?

Question: Dear Jane, what inspired you to write Cailleach~Witch?

Answer No 73:

I took the energy of the landscape,
my sensitivity to it,
my ceaseless longing for it,
and alchemised it on the page.

I wanted to float away in it,
to be in it,
and stay there.
For a long, long time.
Complete and utter immersion,
annihilation.

That was the dream.
There are people who know what I mean.

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