Monday, October 19, 2009

St Mullins Paint-Out

We had a paint-out yesterday in the beautiful little Co Carlow village of St Mullins. The weather was disappointingly dull and drizzly, but still OK for oil painting. I resisted painting the obvious (boats along the banks of the River Barrow), opting instead for this little stream.

Overcast Morning, St Mullins, Co Carlow
(12" x 16" Oil on Panel)




This is a photo of the scene, which looks much brighter than it was IRL:-




2 comments:

Unknown said...

Last few paintings are all great. Is it me or my monitor or have you made some changes to your palette recently. There seem to be shifts in the colours that you mix that are a lttle different to those of a few months ago? By the way did you acquire a new pochade box?

Michael McGuire said...

Thanks Mick. The only thing I've done is to reduce the number of colours somewhat for plein air work. I've been working mostly with a split primary, but will sometimes add other colours depending on the scene. I don't think it has made a huge difference to the colours in my paintings in recent months, but there is a significant difference compared to say this time last year. The main reason is simply better observation of all the coloured greys out their, but greater use of brushwork as opposed to the knife is probably also a factor.

Yes, I got an EasyL box and tripod. My Soltek finally packed it in. I considered getting another, but still have doubts about the build quality. It is still by far the most stable outdoor easel I have come across, but the EasyL is fine unless you want to work on a fairly large scale and/or in windy conditions.