Sea swim at Portavoe
This limited edition print of Sea swim at Portavoe is A6 (6×4”) inside an A5 white border.
Only 100 prints made.
Printed by Media Design Belfast on 180gsm matte coated A5 paper.
All prints are packaged carefully and shipped via Royal Mail recorded delivery to ensure they are received promptly and damage-free.
About the print
The original piece is Sea swim at Portavoe acrylic on 12 x8” canvas. Sales of this print will have 20% donated to Cancer Focus Northern Ireland following on from Yvonne Alderice’s ’Dip a day’ in April to raise money for the charity.
I have joined my friend Adele and a few other folks on their daily dips and obviously, it’s great for mental wellbeing, but more importantly, we talk about the great work that Cancer Focus NI does for patients and their families as they journey cancer. Having watched my cousin Avril suffer at the hands of breast cancer, I am so thankful for the work of charities like this.
I remember during my degree a visiting artist said she was inspired by everything around her and her daily experiences. I thought she was talking nonsense. Turns out that’s exactly what I do and where my paintings derive from – my everyday.
A little about the location
When we hear the name Portavoe we think of two things, the “big house” and the reservoir, but there is so much more to this place and its history, Portavoe is a townland of 562 acres and is situated on the Co Down coast close to Donaghadee.
The first inclusion of Portavoe on a map was a Raven map of 1625 and so its history as we know it today, as a working estate, begins. A unique place that has two reservoirs, one built in the late 1700s and one built 300 years later.
A little about the charity
In 2019 Cancer Focus Northern Ireland celebrated 50 years of working to reduce the impact of cancer on local people’s lives.
They provide care and support services for cancer patients and their families; offer a range of cancer prevention programmes to help people lessen their risk of getting cancer; fund scientific research into the causes and treatment of the disease and campaign for better health policy to protect our community and its future.
Most of the work is funded through donations and fundraising.
Aly is a Northern Irish-based Artist, Writer, and Educator. She has several accolades to her name, most recently:
> Nominated 40 under 40
> Listed as top 100 / Small Business Saturday
> Finalist in the East Side Awards
Aly works from a studio near Belfast which is conducive to her family life with her husband and their three young boys.
She is passionate about placing importance on everyday moments, objects, and places in her oil paintings and pastel work.
Her practice is influenced heavily by her own childhood memories of growing up in a smallholding in the Irish countryside.
Themes of the familiar and familial can be traced back as far as her degree show in 2003 when her installation “Daddy’s bread” used 795 empty bread bags (of her father’s favourite loaf) to represent each week from when her Father passed until the opening of her final exhibition.
Aly is an artist specialising in striking, vibrant and mixed media, Aly was awarded a first-class honors degree and a distinction in her Masters in Fine Art which she completed following her degree.
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Here is a place where you can find recipes, information on physical wellbeing, travel and home ideas as well as life ramblings.
I use art in all it’s mediums to express my love for the “everyday”. Coffee cups, familiar landmarks, colour associations. All of these, I believe contribute to what is known as our “everyday”. Not only do I love drawing them, I think they are worth placing importance on.
This blog is an extension of my creativity.
I convey a realistic (the good, the bad, the funny, the sad) view into the life of a family woman, a home maker and a business woman on a journey of physical and mental wellness.
Have fun navigating the site and don’t hesitate to send me a note if you want to know more.
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All images are copyright @alyharte
Thank you for browsing my work.
