Group Paint-Out at Woodstock Gardens

No, not the legendary Woodstock of rock and roll fame, but instead magnificent formal gardens near Inistiogue in Co Kilkenny. It turned out to be a fairly bleak cold day, with frequent passing hail showers. Even so, the light was really quite brilliant between the showers, and if you want to paint plein-air in Ireland, you have to accept what Mother Nature throws at you and just get on with it.

I took on a very difficult subect for my first one, and I would have made it a bit easier on myself, if I had brought a larger panel. As a result, after a lot of scraping off and re-painting, this one took me just over two and a half hours, a full hour or more than I usually spend on a plein-air piece.

The Tea Room, Woodstock Gardens
(12" x 10" Oil on MDF Board)

It had become even more showery by mid-afternoon, so I found a large tree to get under and just painted this bare tree in front of me, which sort of stood out from the others. I tried to be a bit more expressive with this, hoping to convey the rythmical almost dance-like feel of the tree.

The Last Bare Tree, Woodstock Gardens
(12" x 12" Oil on MDF Board)

Here are a couple of photos of the scenes:-