Amaya Rourke: Artist
@amayarourke.bsky.social
Contemporary artist on Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula + astrologer for physical art-makers. Skyscapes, studio notes, weather, and creative praxis. https://amayarourke.substack.com/
Writing these Creative Court Reports has been so rewarding. It’s pretty shocking (and thrilling) when every time I send one out, I get a response within 15-20 minutes. I love supporting artists in fully embracing their own unique methods and vision 💙
“The Moon is my mother. She is not sweet like Mary. Her blue garments unloose small bats and owls.” - Sylvia Plath Thinking about her again, as I puzzle out more charcoal nocturnes. A bruised midnight photo of Luna, creating a staccato landscape over a calm witching hour sea + the Blasket islands.
It’s pretty insane that I have unused fine art paper that has appreciated in value in the years since I bought it. I’m talking a 12 by 16 inch Arches pad of hp watercolor paper was €38 five or six years ago, and now it’s just under €70. Maybe I should just stockpile paper as a retirement plan.
Composition studies exploring tone and gesture. Doing 4 consecutively and side by side is very revealing, allowing me to explore the process in different with rapid speed. Did I arrive at the feeling I was trying to convey? Not yet...
A foggy Friday spent prepping cradled wood panels for future painting. Meticulously sanding, cleaning, taping with extreme precision, and then applying gesso to the front of the panel one layer at a time… It’s very meditative, while also back breaking. A true labor of love 💙
Drawing more inspiration from the stormy night skies here on the Dingle Peninsula, planning and beginning to sketch out my first *official* collection of paintings
The abstraction and colors in my paintings are inspired by what I observe from my life here on the Dingle Peninsula, like last night’s stormy sky rushing toward the Blasket Islands on the wind’s chariot.
My newest painting: Roimh an mBailc I tried to convey the visual equivalent of a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure—that tense, electric silence where the salt-spray hangs in the air, the coastal winds suddenly drop, and the world below simply holds its breath, waiting for the inevitable strike.
My newest painting: Ag Sú Chuige (Drawing in/Gathering). When locals here on the Dingle Peninsula look at a dark sky building on the horizon, they say “Tá sé ag sú chuige”––the sky is gathering itself, sucking in the moisture, swelling up and preparing to release.
Another breaking wave, another moody sky. I can’t seem to shake how water possesses me, mind, body, and soul. Perhaps my own tidal strangeness gives me a yearning kinship to remain forever close to the wailing crash of water against stone. I have yet to break the spell. I hope you feel it too. 🌊💙
The biggest tell I’ve spent the day down on the beach is a peek in my sketchbook later that day 🌊 trying to capture that kinetic action of the roiling foam and the heartbeat of the surf
Stormy foggy cliff mornings, the blues call me like a siren, the Blaskets hidden in distant mist
Obsessed with the atmosphere and clouds from this past stormy Sunday twilight 😍
On an almost impossible mission with a phone camera this morning. Instead I settled on photoing a beach at the bottom of some treacherous cliffs that I'd like to explore. It’s the climb back up I am unsure of 😅 so I have yet to attempt. Caspian was along for the adventure, best hiking companion 💙
Thinking about her (the ocean)… and abstracting ground planes 😂 Some of the cliffs around the Dingle Peninsula that I walk
Me going out into the absolutely madcap storm weather to photograph this sunset over the Blasket Islands, yelling over 40 mph winds trying to knock me off a rickety balcony: “Oh, come on!!!”
Watching storms roll in and out of the Dingle bay from my studio skylight, listening to the howling of the wind and the birds delighted to ride the 32 kmph currents. Perfect painting weather 😍 hooks me right into this place.
The rain is pouring down the peninsula, the sea roars, the wind is whipping 32 mph around my upstairs studio/apartment. I am warm in bed, may have finally figured out the method I am after (a many months long journey). Some in-bed sketchbook experiments/quick sketches lighting me up. Perfect day 💙
Today was medium testing day. My go-to testing color is always Anthraquinone (Indanthrone/Delft) Blue (PB60). It makes its way into every last one of my paintings, so it’s a good gauge of whether I like how a medium works, or not. Do you have a go-to color or tool?
“Learn the pain of creating something. And once you’ve learned it, resolve yourself to show lenience to others. In poetry, in literature… in everything.” -Chihayafuru (season 3, episode 2) This is another thing I love about art. We become more wholehearted through the striving. 1/3
My kind of art and creativity is always an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove, as is any other form of rebellion that I embody. It may not be loud or wearing a leather jacket, but it will effectively and slowly create the change it envisions. 1/3
This is one of the reasons I think art matters so much: art is one of the ways love becomes visible. And perhaps that is why the whole thing can feel so painful when blocked. We are not merely missing a hobby! We are missing a mode of relationship. amayarourke.substack.com/p/what-we-ca...
What we call art
On creativity, love, and the kind of participation that gives us a sense of aliveness.
amayarourke.substack.com
I wish I could get paid for my biggest talent in life, which is overthinking and therefore painting myself into a conceptual/philosophical corner Whomst amongst us will pay me to keep hitting myself thus
a stick figure with the words stop hitting yourself written below it
ALT: a stick figure with the words stop hitting yourself written below it
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Can you imagine Jeff Buckley trying to get anyone to pay attention to his absolute masterpiece, Grace, in today's world where music generally only picks up if it's 3 minutes or less? Would he have even tried to make it? Can you imagine a world without Grace in it???
a woman covering her face in front of a microwave with tv land written on the bottom right
ALT: a woman covering her face in front of a microwave with tv land written on the bottom right
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So foggy and salt water-swept that I can't see the house in front of where I live 😍 dreaaammmmyyyy
Hello, yes, I am alive! I moved to an itinerant waypost on the Dingle Peninsula where I now paint everyday... which I dreamed of for 5 years 🤯 Social media feels strange when real life feels good, so I have no idea how much I'll be around here. For now, a sunset over the distant Blasket Islands:
I love that somehow I squirreled some paint away months ago, totally forgot about it, and discovered it like lost treasure this morning while looking for something else 😅
a box of watercolors and a brush on a light blue background
ALT: a box of watercolors and a brush on a light blue background
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