It is not difficult to see where Amber Broughton’s love of nature comes from. Her home is just yards from the sea, a short distance from Castletownbere on the Beara peninsula. Apart from the four years she spent studying for her degree at the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork, it’s where she has lived all her life, and where she now works at her gallery cum studio, An Bhroinn.
Broughton is currently showing work in the group exhibition, Groundwork, at the Glucksman Gallery in Cork, as well as in a solo exhibition, Beautiful Blow-ins, at the Allihies Mine Museum. Both feature her incredibly detailed coloured pencil drawings of wildlife.
Beautiful Blow-ins focuses on wildlife specific to Allihies. “When I did some research, I discovered there was a bird – the European bee-eater – that sometimes arrives in the area in summer,” she says. “It’s about the same size as a blackbird, but it’s got the colours of a parrot. It’s yellow and green and blue, and it’s really, really very beautiful.
“The European bee-eater is migratory; it winters in Africa and is actually on its way to Spain to nest, but sometimes it gets blown off course and ends up on Dursey Island, off the end of the Beara peninsula. I was inspired by that, because it reminds me of how, in Allihies and throughout West Cork, all these unusual people arrive to brighten up the place in the summertime. They bring a bit of excitement, and then they go away again.”
Beautiful Blow-ins also features her drawings of jellyfish. “I do a lot of snorkelling, and I love watching the jellyfish move,” she says. “They’re so alien-like and ethereal. People run a mile when they see a jellyfish, but they couldn’t be more delicate or vulnerable. Like, they have tassels, for goodness sake, but they still terrify people. I really enjoyed including them because they turn up in the summertime, or at random times of the year, and it just makes the place a bit more interesting.”
Broughton swims all through the year. “I love it in the winter time. I even think that sometimes in the summertime it gets too warm. I have a lot of muscle inflammation, and the cold sea is so rejuvenating, it’s a life-giving experience. Where I live, you can just run down into the sea, even for a couple of minutes, and then come back up, put all your clothes on and have tea and warm up. It’s great.”
Broughton has been drawing as long as she can remember. “It seems to suit my personality,” she says. “I’ve spoken to lots of other artists, and they’ll say they don’t have the patience for pencils and drawing, so they paint. But I don’t have the patience to paint. I find it messy, and I don’t quite have the right control over it. Drawing is what comes most naturally to me.”
While studying at the Crawford, she made monochromatic pencil drawings of trees. “I still think of those as cityscapes. One was called Grand Parade, and another was called Patrick Street. I chose to focus in on the trees, and you can imagine all the buildings and streets, if you choose.
“I was living in the city for the first time, and I found it really noisy. There was such a lot going on. I was very overstimulated and overwhelmed all the time. I was used to the mountains and the sea and the peace and quiet, and I suppose in the city I had to create that for myself. That’s where all the white space in my drawings came from. That was my way of kind of making space for myself, a bit of breathing room. I was making a blank area for me to be in. And I do really still enjoy that white space. I think it’s a very meditative place to be.”
Most of her current drawings are based on photographs. “I try to take images where the birds, for instance, are looking in a certain way, so there’s a kind of connection. But for the detail, I sometimes find images online. There’s a few websites that have copyright-free photography or, in the instance of the jellyfish, there was a photographer on Facebook that I was following. I asked his permission to base my drawings on his images, and he was fine with it.”
Making a living as an artist is never easy, and Broughton is grateful to have been accepted on the Basic Income for Artists Scheme in 2022. “It meant I could quit my part-time job, and focus my energy on creative work. I have a ton of projects on the go. At the moment, I’m working with Nora Ward, a lecturer in environmental philosophy at the University of Galway.
“Nora saw that I was doing this project, an alternative to the Gregorian calendar, which is the one we all use. The Gregorian calendar measures the days and the weeks and so on, and I’m working on an alternative that focuses attention on the natural world. Nora and I have started writing an article about time, looking at how it can be recorded in non-human ways. We’ve been discussing how time might have a taste, like the taste of blackberry crumble in the autumn, for instance. Imagine you can taste what time of year it is. The work I’m doing with Nora will be a publication, and then I hope to do an exhibition around the calendar itself.”
Broughton is also working on projects in and around An Bhroinn, where she hosts group exhibitions in the summer. One of the highlights of the past year was a visit by the seven-piece Serpentine Choir from New Orleans, who performed in front of a roaring fire at the edge of the sea.
“I’m actually hoping to set up a performance area outside the gallery,” says Broughton. “I spend time at the Circus Factory in Cork, and we’re planning to make an A-frame for aerial performances. It might go out on the ground, but we’re also talked about putting it on a raft at sea, so everyone could sit on the beach and watch.”
She’s also planting trees. “There’s oaks, hawthorn, alder, birch and ash. The oaks are doing really well, but sometimes the deer come down and gobble up the ash. But I’ll do more, I’m going to fill the place with woodland and wildlife.”
- Amber Broughton, Beautiful Blow-ins is at Allihies Mine Museum until October 31. Further information: acmm.ie instagram.com/amber_broughton_artist
