My new look website is operational

I have re-launched my website.  It was in need of updating, and had been in situ for 10 years in it's current format.  I have my suspicions that the amount of java that was in the template I had been using was detrimental to the ease of use with smartphones too, but I can't complain it served me well for the decade at a cost of about $60 when I bought the license to use it.  

I decided to keep the new (improved, I hope) site simple.  It is just a basic html and css setup with little to download other than the images to facilitate smart phone accessibility.  Hopefully it will bring a level of sales similar to the old site when  I was actually updating it.  I'd messed up my shopping cart for about the last two years without realising it by changing my email address and forgetting to update the paypal shopping cart- even though the new email is on the same account the paypal cart was only operating - or not operating as the case was- on the now defunct email.
Thankfully a buyer contacted me to let me know there was a problem, hence the rush to update without fully testing.  I still need to finish off my alt tags and keywords etc. but the site is fully operational (as far as I know until someone actually buys from it again ;)) I added a link to here on the site to add to the functionality.

Springtime, and the painting is Plein air...

 Four Plein air knife paintings on 10 by 8 inch panels.

 

Glenasmole and the Dublin City Golf Club, from Bohernabreena

 

Howth head and Dublin City from Bohernabreena

 

 

The Upper Liffey Valley Manor Kilbride

 

 

The Upper Liffey Valley Manor Kilbride

Springtime has arrived...  at least for now, we have had a couple of warm sunny days.  The 17th of the month was almost balmy, and I put the warmth to good use by doing some plein air studies down the road, and in Wicklow.   It was great to be able to go out and work after the winter, and I am considering setting off back to the Liffey Valley in the morning if the weather holds for tomorrow.  There is a view I want to work on in a larger format.  It will need a lot more detail than these four did, and will probably take a couple of plein air trips before I come back to the studio to finish it.  The latter two images will help me recall the co,lours and conditions when working on the proposed larger work.
The light had softened by the time I got to Kilbride, the fields looking greener and the trees turned more grey than brown on the shaded side of the mountain.  But looking east from Bohernabreena the sunshine  had the trees looking much brighter and brown, yet the golf club in the first painting also showed signs of a cool light in the shaded greens and fairways of the course.  The fresh greens of new growth in the grass fields has a deep green and silver look at this time of the year.  Later on in the year the greens will become much warmer, even in the shade.  The fresh shoots of the grass give an almost magical light in the early spring sunshine, much more silvery than the early growth of the leaves in the trees and hedges later on in the spring which seem to just warm the browns and greys of the twigs before really turning green. 

A work in progress.. Clontarf

These first two images are photos of the sea-front in Clontarf. They are in effect part of my referrences. The first painted image can be seen to follow the first photograph quite closely. (this is because the photo was framed to follow my main plan for the work) The second image is of the Cordyline foliage in beds along the front, and the third image is of other beds with palms, which suffered badly last winter.

The next three images are of the work in progress. I started by blocking in the old power station, and the foliage, along with a lamp-post. The background has been built up with layers of thick oil paint, and the white rings have been painted over the red of the chimneys. I added spirals into the foliage of the tree on the left. After ruminating for a while, mainly when the paint was curing, I decided the foliage needed to be less heavy. I made it much more stylised, allowing the sky to come through. I continued the same effect in the lower foliage, and brought the low sea-front wall into the painting. The third image has more work done both in the foreground, and on the lampost.

I don't think I am nearly finished yet, but the newer layers need to dry. While this happens I will study the work further and re-work it my imagination.

Finn Eces' salmon revisited.

I have used this theme before in my work, relatively recently in both paint (both in 2008) and a lino-cut print

still available. This newest creation is more abstracted. It is a painting following on from my two recent works, with use of thick impasto planes. I have used the prehistoric symbol for water across the top, (as in my award winning "Danube" Ex-Libris, and the most recent trout painting) and the background plane is built up within spirals and chevrons, all decorative elements of prehistoric artifacts. This built up layer is then carved with slashes in the paint naming the piece (for the true scholars out there, I know the ogham should read in the opposite direction.) Bradán Feasa, the Salmon of Knowledge. The Salmon itself originally was blocked in using similar colours to the background, silver/blue/green. I changed my mind however after considering the image for a while. As an angler I know that salmon turn dark red and brown after a period in the river. This salmon had eaten nine hazel-nuts from the tree of knowledge, therefor it would be autumn and the salmon would be dark red. I have left my thumb-print in the paint on the fishes gill-plate in reference to Fionn Mac Cumhaill's burn thumb. The colour of the fish can also be representative of the cooking process so a thumbprint would not be out of place in the narative.

Irish landscape paintings

I am still working away in the studio. I am hoping to finish the commissions next week which will give me more time to start on some landscapes. I am determined to paint a few irish landscapes this year, and hopefully I can build up enough to organise a show. The few I do manage to paint tend to sell in the meantime.

It is surprising how hard it can be to do something that simple!!!
Oh well, c'est la vie.

Finn Eces (Finnegas) Salmon of Knowledge, final stages.

Here is the finished painting of Finn Eces' salmon. I added two more hazelnuts, mainly to help break the horizontal across the back of the painting. I had considered putting the nine nuts the salmon was said to have eaten in the myth but I don't really see a need to be a slave to the legend.


I am considering doing a series based on the Irish legends and have started another work, the hound of Culainn the Blacksmith, reputed to have been slain by the boy Setanta, thereafter known as Cuchulainn.

More paintings..

I have been working away yesterday and today, I also picked up some more supplies this morning. The work is going well, but I am not sure I really want to continue with it. My lack of colour in them is making me uneasy. They are of the western loughs, irish landscapes with lots of water and quite atmospheric, but not my usual work.

I will evaluate some of it over the next few days, and decide if it is worth continuing with.

Two recent Irish landscape paintings.

Here are two recent works, the first is a view of Connemara. Acrylic on canvas, 18 by 14 inches.

The dry dead foliage gives the landscape a warm feel with any sunshine. The light picks up the reds and ochres of the dormant foliage, while the pools of water amongst the bog sparkle with light. The reflections in the puddles and pools give a contrasing coolness to the warmth of the landscape.



More details of the paintings can be found on my website .
The second painting is an oil on canvas, of the same dimensions and is a painting of Lough Carra in County Mayo. I like the oil painting particularly, as it gives the feeling of calm that this particular lough gives. Lough Carra is the smallest of the western lakes at 4000 acres. It is an intricate Lough with many bays and points. A clear lake it is the safest of the western lakes, and rarely gets the rough waves the others can experience. The light limestone marl gives the shorelines the characteristic 'white' shallows, dropping off into deep dark water. It is along these edges the best of the trout fishing is found. This second painting is also on my website and is available to buy direct.