Seán Ó Brógáin

Well its that time again, another Osprey coming down the tracks. This time it aint no Roman's, instead its the "War of Spanish Succession 1701-1713"...this is the period I have always fascinated me as there were many Irish fighting for the French and for other armies. These were soldiers who left Ireland with James II in 1691 and became soldiers for Louis XVI and fought with honour and courage and earned the reputation as fierce warriors. As this is a campaign volume, it will only have 3 paintings, a few drawings and my photographs of the battle field and environs. The book will cover the battle of Ramillies 1706, between the Allies and French forces of Louis XVI. The main combat occured in the land around and icluding the hamlets of Ramillies, Autre-Eglise and Offus. Although the Allies did have to clear the hamlets of Tavier and Fronqnee of French forces earlier the same day on the main road south of the hamlets. Now, Ramillies is reputed to be flat, but actually

Aughrim 2014 Just recovering from the long drive over the weekend. I was in Aughrim, Galway (site of the battle in 1691) at the Aughrim Remembered event. I was unexpectedly invited to give an illustrated talk/lecture based on the theme "painting the Williamite War (infantry)". This was a "how to" lecture on how i create my artwork. "Painting the Williamite War (infantry)" This was a tough proposition, as it meant i had to analyse my own artwork & untangle how i actually go about creating it. Now i haven't explored my work in this way since i was at Art college in Derry, back in the early 90s, when we where obliged to keep a journal ( which i thought was  pretentious, instrusive and left your inner creative process open to criticism, ridicule and external influences, so becoming robotic (maybe youthful impatience ;¬) But i found the process actually enlightening, as meant i had to look critically at how i approach my work. Unfortunately I did