I created Lughnasadh, also spelled Lúnasa and pronounced Loo-na-sa, at a time when the harvest was noticeable across the country. Driving back and forth from Westport to Dublin, I watched farmers cutting their crops and was struck by the contrast of colour from one field to the next. Without realising it, I was building a colour palette in my mind.

This first led me to create the miniature “Wheat Fields”, when that was complete, I wanted to broaden the idea into something more whimsical and magical, the moment that is Lughnasadh. I wanted to capture the energy of this time of year and the ancient festival that once enchanted, and in many ways still enchants, the landscape and its carers.

The scene in my mind is one the onlooker simply falls upon. A celebration deep within a dense wood, where a fire illuminates the festivities through the darkness. Who celebrates there is part of the magic. Perhaps they are the ancestors of our land, the spirits of the harvest, or figures from the mythology we read about and dream of gathering once again to celebrate the land and its harvest.