Night-time trees in a blue satin dress (Crainn oíche i ngúna gorm satin)

I’ve always had a fascination about being in the woods at night.  The trees take on a different form that seems cloaked by daylight.

When we were growing up in the 70’s, my Scottish grandmother used to send us parcels of clothes.  More than often, as we were four sisters, these involved four versions of the same skirt or dress. Being the second child I had the pleasure of wearing each outfit twice…whether my tomboy-self liked it or not.

Once there was a parcel with a different nightdress each and mine was a deep sapphire blue satin, which I loved.

Although my parents were blessed with me (obviously), they were equally stressed as sometimes I would disappear into the woods for hours without telling anyone where I was going.

One night, I ran away to the woods behind our little council estate house, or rather a ring of Hawthorn in a field I played in often.  A field I loved as a child, where every corner was a different realm and every season told a different story in each corner.

I got up in the middle of the night and took my beloved stuffed mouse Lucy, wearing my blue gown and she in her tartan apron.   I may have been 6 or 7 at the time but I felt that I needed to live with the trees and the birds, so I put on my coat and slippers, took some bread and left the house by the back door.

In the dark and with whatever light that nature gave, I walked through the fields, over stone walls and the little fairy stream.  In the dark of night we went, to be amongst trees in their glowing beauty and strange goosebumpy energy that enthralled me.  To the ‘Fairy ring’, we ducked down through the sheep-made tunnels and twisted myself through the maze until I felt I was at the centre, then hunkered down and ate my bread.

I had this feeling of complete and utter freedom, that I needed nothing else in the world.  I felt utterly happy with myself and delighted in the small sounds and flickering shapes in the night.  I remember that feeling intensely.  There was such an elemental power in it…to feel at one with that world, beneath the trees in the corner of my field in the night.

Staying there for what seemed like hours, I was getting very cold so decided to go home again.  Climbing in beside my sister like a block of ice, I realised nobody even knew I’d been gone.

This mixed media painting uses a pouring and peeling technique with acrylic and oil paint to capture the depth in the trees, the motion and sound beneath the trees at night.

• Original Irish landscape oil painting
• Donegal nighttime landscape
• Péinteáil tírdhreach oíche Dhún na nGall
• Original artwork
• Mixed media including Oil on canvas.
• Painting size 89 x 58.5 cm
• Framed size (approx.) 93 x 62.5 x 3 cm
• Natural wood frame (no glass)
• Price includes frame.