Rathlin Island is a small L shaped island off the north coast of Northern Island accessible by ferry from Ballycastle.

I stayed twice in the camping barn on Rathlin Island, run by a friend’s sister, Alison McFaul, who married an islander and was at the time a warden for the RSPB seabird viewpoint. I painted there in the summer and the winter, walking all around the Island’s coast, drawing and painting the Island and the views back across to mainland Northern Island, to Donegal and across to Scotland and the Paps of Jura.

The sense of place you get from walking and the combination of small detail and wide views often forms the basis for a body of work which I’ll exhibit together and bring together as a book. The book is a more intimate way for the viewer to experience the work. In this case I have used a line of text and an accordion/concertina structure, which extends and can be folded to form a sculptural 3D form. It’s put together by hand and has a ribbon to bind it and a box to contain it.

I also did a series of paintings, some of which were later exhibited on the island.