Bog beauty unearthed in touring exhibition

Bob Speers' latest exhibit looks to the Irish landscape for inspiration

"There's a world of stuff in there."

For most of Bob Speers' artistic life, he has looked to his County Antrim home for inspiration, and then the land took him back in time.

"It really comes back to childhood, where the bog was a favourite haunt of me and a neighbour," he said.

"We would go to this particular bog and play there, walk through it, watch the wildlife - it taught us a lot of things about wildlife."

The canvases include bog material from across Ireland

His latest exhibition, Thin Place, immortalises peat bogs from all over Ireland.

The name comes from the belief that bogs are spiritual places where worlds can meet.

And each painting in the collection physically embodies the location it portrays.

• Why are peatlands important for the environment?

"While I was walking the bog, I lifted some of the bog material," he explained.

"I put it on canvas, so each one refers to the name of the bog it was taken from and this is the way it turned out."

Bob Speers says it is important to remind people of their connection to the land

Peat bogs are a front line in the fight against climate change.

The unique flora of bogs trap carbon and lock it away.

Over time, those plants form peat and the carbon they have sequestered can date back millennia.

But many peatlands in Northern Ireland are in a degraded state, meaning they emit carbon rather than keep it trapped in their depths.

Work is being carried out in various locations to restore bogs, and a bill to ban the sale of peat compost in the UK is being debated in Parliament.

A peatland strategy has been consulted on in Northern Ireland but not yet put in place.

Thin Places is currently on display at Queen Street studios in Belfast

For Bob Speers, reminding people of their connection to the land is important.

"Have another look at what you're disregarding.

"Bogs, they're 'thin places', I find there's a certain difference in vibration.

"It's up to the individual, it's that idea of hard surface but fluid, at the same time."

The Thin Space exhibition is on tour over the next year.