A Day in Rosslare Strand

Well, that was the plan, but it remained stubbornly dull and grey until mid-afternoon, so I headed down to The Burrow instead. There's a bit more to work with there - the strand is totally featureless on a dull day. As it happened, I decided to  invent" the sunlight and I'm quite pleased with the result.

Dappled Sunlight, The Burrow, Rosslare Strand
(10" x 12" Oil on MDF Board)

Some Spring Sunshine at Last

It was great to get out to paint with my local plein air group yesterday. A very start to the morning eventually gave way to beautiful spring sunshine. But of course it didn't last - the showers started by mid afternoon! But we got some 3-4 hours of almost continuous sunshine and fairly mild too. I got two small paintings done, so I went home feeling fairly satisfied with myself.

Spring Morning, Edenvale
(12" x 10" Oil on MDF Board)

 

 

























Spring Afternoon, Edenvale
(12" x 10" Oil on MDF Board)

A Cold Day at the South Slobs

Our first group paint-out of 2013 yesterday. It was reasonably mild and sunny for February, but there was a strong and quited cold South East wind coming off the Irish Sea. Since the Slobs are very exposed, it was far from pleasant out there! Still it was great to get back out painting again (I have become a little too fond of warm studios!).

Just the one little painting then, before the cold went through me. I had to play around quite a lot with the puddles/tractor ruts to make and interesting lead-in pattern.

Winter Morning, South Slobs, Wexford
(11" x 14" Oil on MDF Board)

 

 

 

 

This is a photo of the not overly-impressive scene:-

 

 

Yesterday's Lifedrawing Long Pose

Great to get a chance to paint a live model for a almost three hours yesterday afternoon. I will get back to plein air landscape work soon, but I'm really beginning to enjoy this genre too.

Catherine at the "Swallows Nest Studio"
(20" x 15" Oil on Board)

Back Out There Again

After a few weeks break from plein air painting, I finally was persuaded to get back out there yesterday. I joined a few friends at historic Tintern Abbey for a very enjoyable morning. It was overcastr and cool but not really that cold (6-7C). I love winter scenes like this one, as I feel they are more representative of the Irish winter (at least of the ones we used to get) than those with the dreaded white stuff that we've been getting a little too aften lately!

I discovered also that the Irish midge is quite happy at temperatures of 6-7C. When I got home I discovered a line of bites along my forehead, and I assume also on other parts of my anatomy which are harder to see in a mirror!

Winter Morning, Tintern Abbey
(10" x 12" Oil on MDF Board)

 

 

 

This is a photo of the scene, taking before I started:-

 

 

 

 

When is a Painting Finished?

Well I have a smart answer to that, which goes "When it's sold"! But then again, for most painters, I suppose there's some truth in it, and, in my case, quite a lot. I've often returned to a painting months after I initially deemed it finished and gone on to make significant changes. But usually they are only fairly minor tweaks. In the case of the one below, I've fallen somewhere in the middle following some constructive critique from painting frineds.

So hopefully, I find a buyer quickly, because I think I've tweaked this one enough!

Finished - at Last!

I started working on this painting in the lobby of Cedars Hotel, Rosslare, while exhibiting there in September. I sort of lost interest in it then, but eventually returned to it yesterday and today. I think I'm finished, but I'll probably still see something that needs tweaking tomorrow!

Towards The Great Blasket, Dunquin
(20" x 24" Oil on Canvas)

 

 

 

Here are a couple of close-ups:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, this is the original plein air painting I used for reference purposes. I felt that it needed some sunlight to add sufficient impact for a larger painting, so I brightened it up quite a bit here and there:-