Saltmills Paint-Out

I painted with a few friends in Saltmills on Sunday last (18/3/12). A very cold, but bright, sunny day, so a painter couldn't really ask for more in mid-March! The village itself didn't have much to offer in the way of painting material and the mud-flats were a bit uninspiring too. So I had to use a bit of creativity to make an interesting painting. This was my first of the day, and I couldn't wait to finish and get a hot cup of coffee!

Low Tide, Saltmills
(11" x 14" Oil on Board)

Some of us decided to check out an old boat-wreck a couple of miles up the road from Saltmills, if for no other reason than to get out of the cold wind. Apparently, the last working steamboat in Ireland, it may be an eyesore to some nowadays, but not to us artists! I was going to do a conventional "portrait" of the boat, but found the combination of cast shadow, reflections and shallow water irrestible, so this painting is really about what's going on in the water:-

The Old Steamboat, Bannow Bay

(14" x 11 Oil on Board)

These are photos of both scenes, taken before I started. Apologies for the poor quality of the first one, which was taken facing the light with the camera in auto mode:-