May is around the corner...

The end of another month.  It has flown by again.  I have been quite busy in the studio overall and work has progressed well.  I will be away for half of May between my trip to Spain and my upcoming ten day fishing break. This will mean I won't get much chance to complete any more paintings as I'll need to look after other aspects of business before after and between trips. Consequently I probably won't post here much next month either.  You will know why though....

In the meantime I'll leave you with another painting,  oil on canvas, 19 by  22 cm.

Sea-Bass.

Computers down, paintings up...

I am not on my own computers at the moment so I am still unable to upload pictures. My studio desktop is not communicating with the wireless base station for some un-explained reason. My laptop's power chord is kaput, and I'm waiting for a replacement to arrive. Therefore I'm borrowing C's laptop to post. Work is progressing, I am still working on fish themed work, but I am also working on other pieces for sales/commissions. Business has picked up a little recently, which is just as well since I have a few bills coming due, van insurance, week-away-with-the-lads-fishing, a need for New brushes, some canvas, paint.....ah well! easy come easier to go as they say.....what they forget to mention is money has a habit of being more Hard to come by, easy to go.

I had a nice surprise yesterday when I learned three small works had sold. They were in a venue that while I hadn't forgotten about, were not expected to start selling for a month or two.
They now want more works, and since they are all of a standard size have said they will organise the framing of the pieces.

Another pleasant little chore for me. Consequently, this will be another short post....things to do, people to see..and painting to be done.

I have been busy enough painting recently, but I need to do a little office work this week. I have a couple of galleries to visit also. I am slowly catching up with myself this week, but I need to do a lot more before the end of the month. I need to focus a little more.

I may get finished tomorrow, because I'm otherwise occupied for Friday and the weekend I need to. Then I can get back to painting next week.

I have just finished a small study of a Browntrout's head. It is only 20 by 15 cm, but the piece is quite effective. I had been working on the larger brown trout painting and the light changed as clouds came over....it had been sunny this morning.... and the colour on the fish changed from olives to almost irredescent greens.
You can see the difference in colouring from the as yet unfinished work. It is still unfinished because the light keeps changing. It hasn't been helped by the fact that I really need fresh subjects every couple of days rather than trying to keep the one fish moist for a week. However catching identical looking fish can be difficult at times...

I think I am going to start doing a lot more smaller works from them, they are easier to set up and quicker to do anyway.

Springtime has arrived....

I am finding it hard to do work today. It is too peaceful and pleasant sitting in the sun watching the fish in my pond. Even inside the water draws me. I may give up soon and give in to the temptation of a lazy afternoon.

It's either that or go fishing. LOL. I may even do both.

Some photos from Barcelona,

I am just back from Barcelona, Spain. I will upload some photos later in the week, after I have downloaded them from my camera. We visited Park Guell to see work by Guadi, and also saw a few of his other buildings, including the Cathederal. There are some steep hills in Barcelona, my calves are suffering after the climbs. We stayed near Salou on the Costa Dourada, and commuted to Barcelona on the train. An interesting journey in itself.
Now I want to get back to painting.

More work on my Rainbow Trout

I have done more work on my Fish painting.

I started off by finishing the trout's body. When that was done I added highlights and finished off the fish's eye. Finally I scumbled in the background glaze over the dark olive under painting.

I have photographed the trout's head section in close-up also to give a better view of the detail. I am also posting a selection of the work-in-progress pics below.

Painting a Rainbow trout.

This morning I decided to paint one of the trout I caught while out fishing yesterday. It was taken on a fly, fished from a drifting boat, lough style.

It is a nice silvery fish of about 1.25 kg, a Rainbow trout, grown on from fry stocked into the lough. I kept this one because it was so sleek and beautiful. It was also late in the day, so I wasn't worried about it laying in the sun for hours.




I started off by painting a quick oil paint study, rendered in about 3 hours. Painted alla prima I was more concerned with the light and colours on the fish than with the outline. Consequently the fish is a little too narrow and long in proportion. I also am not really happy with the tail shape after a long look.



The study is painted on a 35 by 25 cm canvas.





For the second work I have used a canvas 80 cm by 60 cm. I started this canvas by being much more particular in my drawing. Although this was done in paint with a brush, the sketching in was done by measuring proportions to ensure they were correct. I then adjusted the drawing slightly, to emphasise the perspective by moving the dorsal (top) fin back a fraction.

You will notice that I have taken a different angle with the second painting. I moved the fish nearer eye level to allow more of the underside of the fish to be visible.

Today, I have blocked in the background and shadow, and painted in the tail. This was important as the tail fin has started to dry out, even with regular damping. This effects the light and reflections, I also have taken some close up photographs for reference if needed. I continued working on the head, catching the colours and light playing around the gill covers, and finally I have blocked in the body tone to allow me to reposition the subject correctly for the next day so that the same area is subject to the silvery highlights.

I am not going to be able to continue tomorrow due to other commitments, but I hope to get back to the painting on Sunday. My fish will keep in the Refridgerator, covered so it doesn't dry out.

The River Dodder

I painted a study of the river Dodder at firhouse, close to home.



There are areas of the canvas unworked, but I like the effect, and I have decided to leave them as is.

It is a beautiful area of the river, the weir itself used to have a carrier from it years ago, but it hasn't been used for as long as I've known it.

I took the photo of the weir with my phone while I was there.

The river itself is a free-stone trout stream, which runs from the Dublin Mountains above Bohernabreena reservoirs, down through the reservoirs, through Tallaght, Firhouse, Rathfarnham, and further through the suburbs at Miltown, Clonskea, and Ballsbridge until finally it runs by Landsdown road and into the sea at the mouth of the liffey by Ringsend. There are wild brown trout throughout the river, a fact the local Angling club is justly proud of, as they have protected the ecosystem for the last 50 years. The angling club have fought against pollution, culverting, piping underground of small spawning streams, and generally have protected and cleaned the river while in most other major cities the river systems and fishing has been destroyed.