This is the finished version of my last post. As you can see it is framed and mounted and is now hanging on the wall of a pub called “The Inn by the harbour” which is located on the hill just above the house on the top right. Hopefully it will lead to a few sales !
As I said in my last post , I really liked the feel of the ink, so I intend doing a series of images of Ballycotton,both past and present, in black ink.
I have used this reference, of Ballycotton Pier long ago, for paintings before, but I have just discovered the joy of using ink, with a pen and brush and I thought this would be an ideal subject to try it out on. So far I have not been disappointed, it is such fun to use and the results are amazing, I think I have just found my new best friend! As you can see by the original, some of the detail has to be guessed at a bit, the cottage behind the fishermen is still there, as are the houses behind the lifeboat station, which has subsequently been rebuilt.I am glad to say, for the sake of the fishermen, the boats now in the harbour are a major improvement.
I am working towards an exhibition in the very near future, but still can’t help myself from leaving the main work and experimenting.
I tried these peppers first with pastels (above) and then with Promarker markers, which I bought ages ago but haven’t really tried. I had trouble with them bleeding on paper and didn’t realise you could get special paper for markers, until I saw it online and got some. Any way , here is my effort, which I hope I can improve on…anyone out there using markers, I would welcome some tips.
I made a disaster of the green one, I found they all improved a bit when I outlined them with a black liner pen, the shadow is another disaster but is all a learning curve.
Thought some of you might find this interesting. Was messing with Picassa and found out you could create a collage from your photos,,, so here are some of my latest works. Makes a great screensaver!
The ref photo for this painting was taken from the back of my house. I was taken by the dark sky against the yellow of the rape field. Finished it on last Saturday evening and on Sunday morning knocked it off the easel and ended up with two large tears in the canvas. Tried to patch it up with tape on the back and painting over the rips but didn’t really work ,so started it again on another canvas. Will post that when done,…..providing it stays in one piece.
Acrylic and pen on paper.
A bit different to what I normally do. What do you think?
Acrylic on mountboard.
First time I tried acrylic on mountboard, probably not the best surface to use but it worked in the end. The paint tends to skip quite a lot.
Another coloured pencil effort, the inspiration came from a photo on “Wetcanvas”, so I set up my own pencils as well as using the photo as reference. Not sure if the background works but will keep looking at it until it tells me.
Have put up a new page on Facebook, “Downstairs in Shanagarry Design Centre” .There are 3 artists including myself with working studios, 2 of us are also running classes, so its worth a look and a visit anytime you are in the area.
“Seashells” Coloured pencil on cartridge paper.
This started off as drawing practice before a class.I started with the oyster shell and then got carried away , putting in the other shells and decided to add some colour. I do love coloured pencil, but it is very time consuming building up the layers.
“Puffins”. 7”x5” Acrylic on canvas board.
For reference I used a photo from a friend of mine, DaveEdmunds, http://www.facebook.com/dave.edmunds1
I wish I was as good a photographer as him , because then I would be able to take decent photos of my paintings.
It looks like summer has arrived in Ireland as the weather today is brilliant, sun shining all day, should have got outside painting instead of being stuck in my studio, but at least I did some work.
Why is it that the paintings in your head never seem to get onto the canvas. I conjure up all these wonderful masterpieces in my imagination, but can never remember them when I need to. Hey ho!!!!!!
“Life’s a bitch.” Acrylic on paper.
The second in the “dog walker” series.Not sure why I chose to do this one in acrylic rather than watercolour, but it’s done now so it doesn’t matter, does it? The colours aren’t so bright as this, I’m just a crap photographer.
Once again the Ballycotton 10mile road race has come and gone, it was on yesterday and it reminded me that I had not embarrassed my son by posting the painting of him that I did when he ran the race for the first time. It was on his list of things to do before he reached 40, and he achieved both last year. So there you are , I have suitably shamed him and probably ruined any chance I had of becoming a portrait painter.
Acrylic on paper.
This is Missy, my friend the Bulldog puppy. She belongs to Orla, a brilliant potter who has a studio next to mine. After a shaky start, Missy and I have become great friends , as you can see, she allowd me to paint her portrait, without a hint of embarassment. Maybe I have found another string to my bow….Pet Portraits.
Not positive that I haven’t posted this before, forgive me if I have, but my memory(and record keeping) are getting progressively worse.
This is from a series of paintings, well 4 , that I did of runners after last years Ballycotton 10 mile road race, where does the time go, its on again in two weeks! I tried to give the impression of movement in this one and I think it worked up to a point.
The weather over here is amazing for the time of year, 13c today, I hope it stays like that as I am going to Limerick on Sunday to embarrass myself ,painting En plein air with a group of fellow artists.
