Twenty years in a shed

When I was a kid my mum renovated an old cottage. The slates came off the roof, and then they just sat there — for about twenty years.

During lockdown I started painting on them. I experimented with a lot of different things first, and what I found was that the thing that looked best on the dark slate was natural items. Flowers, animals, things like that. They always stood out.

I think it's because they're imperfect and the slates are imperfect too, so they complement each other. It looks natural rather than arranged.

So I find my inspiration in the natural things around me, and a lot of those are in Laois.