Thatched Irish Cottage – 1017

A whitewashed thatched cottage stands among autumn grasses in this delicate watercolour painting of the west of Ireland. I used plenty of burnt sienna to bring warmth to the landscape, with distant hills fading into soft blue and mauve.

I placed the High Nelly bicycle against the wall to suggest that its owner was somewhere inside. I have often used smoke rising from a chimney to give that sense of life, but wanted to try something different here. My mother owned a High Nelly too — they were a familiar sight among the mothers on the road where I grew up, when most households had just one car.

Discover more countryside scenes in my Irish landscape prints collection.