Friday, August 14, 2009

A Perfect Day

Well, a perfect morning anyway. Yesterday was one of those typical Irish summer days. I awoke to a clear blue sky and a crisp, slightly cool morning. Knowing that time was limited, I drove up the road to the forest on the Southern slopes of Forth Mountain and painted this in about two hours. Sure enough, it clouded over by mid-day as I expected. While painting I was joined by an elderly gentleman out walking his three beautiful dogs, English springer spaniels I think. They were as interested in my painting as he was. Turned out he was a mine of information about other trails in the area.


The painting is 11" x 14" oil on board, and for anyone familiar with the area, it's the track that leads down to the Regal Lodge on the Duncannon Road.


Here is my initial block-in, after about twenty minutes painting:-

















And here is a photo I took before I started:-



7 comments:

Unknown said...

I like the way that you have taken a simple view and made it special with the style of your rendition. You do realise that this site is going to be my laboratory with your pictures of block ins and photographs. Now that you have changed the site and it is possible to blow up the images it is far easier to see your process. It helps make your very helpful comments that much more meaningful. Thanks.

Michael McGuire said...

Glad to be of help, Mick. Hopefully, a few others make their way here and we can get a bit of discussion going.

Jo Castillo said...

This came out so beautiful. Thanks for the WIP. Love your work.

Michael McGuire said...

Thanks Jo. I usually take a couple of WIP shots, unless I'm under time pressure and forget!

René PleinAir said...

Hey Michael has a blog?!

And a good start along with it, ...
welcome to blog-world Micheal.

Thanks for the nice W.I.P.

Michael McGuire said...

Hi Rene. I've had a blog for ages, but it's been hiding very successfully within my website!

René PleinAir said...

Successfully indeed, glad you surfaced, ... hehehe