It's a Nice time of the year..

I am heading off for our break in the south of France this week. I am looking forward to it, and I hope the break will give me an impetus to work.
I have had no interest in painting for the last few weeks, due a great deal to missing Dubh. We have her ashes back now, and she was given a nice sunny spot in the garden down by my pond and studio, visible while I work.
I will take a sketch book with me to France, and I may do some work while there but I intend to try and have a relaxing week, soaking up the spring sunshine, and come back ready to get stuck in. See you when I get back.

Springtime.

I have spent the last week catching up on the garden before the spring growth really starts. I also had to remove a large portion of the weed from my pond, the lack of frost this year meant that it hadn't died back over the winter.

Now all that has been done I can think about my invitation to take part in the 4th International Ex-Libris biennale in Serbia this coming November. The print needs to be sent early April as the deadline for receipt is April 30th. The subject for this years Biennale is Communism, so I have one or two ideas I am working on but they are still in the planning stage.

The execution of the lino-cut is relatively easy, planning the artistic side of the work can be difficult due mainly to the small size of the piece. The dimensions must be no more than 15 cm by 7 cm. This limits the amount of detail I can use, so the piece will need to be bold and strong while relying on simplicity to express the meaning behind the artwork.

I have been sidetracked a little by the antics of the Blue Tits nesting in the nestbox outside the window, and the tendency of the male to attack his reflection in every reflective surface in the area. Every time I move one, he finds another to deal with..

Some sad news...

I have not been posting recently, I have been busy looking after Dubh, who passed away last night after a short battle with a very aggressive cancer. This photo was taken only about two or three weeks ago. Dubh had a 2nd operation in November to remove a growth on her stomach, and had dental work done. Sadly in mid-January we found a growth in her mouth, which upon biopsy turned out to be the aggressive cancer which took her from us yesterday.

Dubh travelled everywhere with me, fishing, painting, walking and even driving to the shops and back. She spent hours in my studio when I was painting, she even had her own bed in my studio, happy to be where she could keep an eye on me lest I escape without her. Sadly, I'll be allowed to paint alone from now on... and all my angling friends will miss the cutest looking Ghillie, who always managed to get herself into the photo, even official group photos at the competitions.

Buncrana, Co.Donegal..

I am just back from a grey and cloudy Donegal. We stayed in Buncrana for a few days, and travelled around a bit, hoping to see the Northern Lights from Malin Head....
Sadly with the rain and cloud, and fog we were lucky to see the Head itself! Dubh enjoyed the sea air though. I was not feeling too energetic myself, still recovering from a second bout of 'Flu this year. It was touch-and-go whether I would travel or not.
I find I always have my own personal raincloud every time I go to Donegal.. but the scenery is still beautiful and worth the trip.

I was hoping to do some painting while I was up there, but unfortunately I was not well enough, but we will probably go up again later in the spring after our trip to the south of France. I'll take the paints up with me then.

A trip to St. Kevins Tower, Glendalough.

I took a trip to Glendalough yesterday. I took my camera down to take reference photos for my commission. I let Eoin drive me down and back in his car, and while we were there, he

called into the visitor centre to meet another PHD student who works there. I had never been into the interpretive center before, but it was well worth a visit, and they only charge one euro entry, which is for nothing really.

I found the light a little akward though when

walking around. It had a silvery grey look, washing out much of the colour. Allied to that, was the fact that there was a misty look to the more distant hillsides. I gave up trying to get a photo of the church and tower through the trees because the stonework was invisible behind the tree branches, or at least the tree branches were invisible in front of the stone buildings.

Either way, I have decided my painting is going to take quite a lot of planning. I have my canvas and other supplies all lined up ready for action. However it will have to wait until after tomorrow, I am getting some more root-canal work done at the Dentist in the afternoon. This will be followed by a little more travelling to meet up with a friend, and the retrieval of my left behind fishing hat. Yes, the new season is fast approaching.

Happy New Year

This is the finished painting from before Christmas, somehow it was missing from my uploaded images in my previous post. I am thinking about returning to work tomorrow. I have had a very pleasant Christmas and new year, but now it's time to work, I have another commission to start. I had intended starting last week, but the art supply shop was closed over the holidays and I need to buy a canvas for it.

Today however, I think Dubh has the right idea...

it seems like a duvet day to me too.

Wishing all my friends a happy and prosperous new year, spring is around the corner.

Winter feeding.

I have a steady stream of finches to my bird-seed feeder outside the window. Chaffinches, lots of Goldfinches and a regular flock of Redpolls.

Already, only 3 weeks into the "feeding season" (cold winter) I am already feeding a full feeder of bird-seed every day.

In the meantime the tits are happily eating sunflower seeds out the back from another feeder, and the Greenfinches seem to prefer the peanuts to the seed feeder.

At least the Redpolls eat most of the seed that the Goldfinches chuck away looking for the Niger Seed amongst the other varieties.

In the winter we usually get a wide variety of birds to our feeders, but so far this year there are very few other species yet. This is probably due to the mild weather we have had so far, when it gets colder it will force many birds further south and west to our more moderate climate.

Glenmacnass, Wicklow.

I have just finished (well almost) my last commission for Christmas. It is a view of Glenmacnass in Co. Wicklow, 1 meter square.

I have one or two little touches I wish to do, but in the main it is finished now.

I have photographed it along the way so you can see the work in progression, from the original sketch/design to the finished piece.

This is the Graphite sketch I worked from, giving me my composition and design.

The next stage was drawing and blocking in on the canvas with thin washes of oil paint.

followed swiftly by blocking in my base colours before rechecking my composition against reference photographs. Sadly it is too wintry to try to work on site at this time of year.

This was followed by further blocking in and a little re-drawing, mainly in the area of the waterfall and the larch trees to the top left.

This is a continuation of the blocking in process in the foreground, and I have been adding texture around the midground areas.

This is followed by further detail being added throughout the painting and adding more definition to the blocks of colour.

From here I have begun to finish off areas of the painting, mainly around the mid ground and the road and hedgerow leading to the cottage. I have also added life to the cottage roof.

From this stage on I have increased the detail around the Larch trees, the right hand hill and the cliff-face again. I have painted in the Birch tree over on the right hand side of the painting.

This is what unifies the whole of the right hand side of the work. The fine, strong branches, and the blockier twig areas binding the foreground to the background and a the same time taking the hard edge of the scree slope on the right and breaking it up, this is also helped by the green gorse bush growing out of it. I have started to bring the reds in by painting the fence in, with a rusty brown.

This final stage is where it has all come together. The repainting of the tree in the foreground. This has now been darkened and warmed up, and details such as the small branches added to break up the straight line again. The wire fence has been painted again, to reduce the red slightly as more purples, pinks and reds have been added to the tree itself making it a warmer grey than in the previous image, which has also brought the tree forward from the background cliff-face and the mid ground landscape.

Now the painting is finished as such the whole atmosphere has changed, and it reminds me of the weather we had the day I went up and took my reference photographs for the work.

I have managed to get light in the painting even though there was no sunlight to create highlights and shadows, and yet the work has the feel of a damp overcast November day.

Receptions and parties....

I have framed my works for the exhibition in Clontarf GAA club on the 25th, 26th and 27th of November. Along with this painting of the Pigeonhouse, I am sending the two fish paintings I spoke about earlier
and I am also sending October Light . All works will be for sale at the show, (Seafield road, Clontarf, Dublin.) opening on Friday evening with a wine reception at 8.pm and will continue on Saturday from 11am to 7pm and Sunday from 11am to 6pm.

I am really looking forward to the weekend as I have a party to go to, and I'm looking forward to meeting up with folks I haven't seen for years. It is amazing how time flies, and how you drift apart from your extended families over the years. As some family members are spread all over the world, it is not surprising though.

Clontarf, and Puppy dogs.

I think Clontarf is finished. I didn't do a lot more work to it, just some further work on the left-hand side. I have a plein-air frame left over from AITO in Wexford, which I have used. I think it suits the work. I just need to sign the painting before fixing it into the frame.

The painting will be in the Annual exhibition in Aras Cluain Tarbh, Seafield road, Clontarf, Dublin on 25th, 26th & 27th of November.

My little girl, Dubh, has just been operated on again at the vetenary surgery. The poor little dog has had two more growths removed and has two 10cm incisions, one on her back and one on her belly. The poor dog lost four teeth too, while the vet had her under anaesthetic.

We are not a happy puppy at the moment, and because of her losing the teeth she wasn't allowed a bone this evening when we had Lamb chops for dinner. The upside is that she is getting twice as many tasty treats, as she has to take five tablets a day instead of her usual three.

To the un-initiated that means bits of chicken, sausage or black-pudding with the pill hidden inside. These are called sweeties and are the highlight of the morning, and again in the evening, to the extent that I'm not allowed to forget them.