LAST PORT OF CALL IRELAND (The Angel's gather)
LAST PORT OF CALL IRELAND (The Angel’s gather) 60x50cm Acrylic on box canvas. I was asked by Linda from ‘Leaping Lizard’ Westport, co Mayo to come up with an original painting of RMS Titanic for 100 year anniversary. The Original painting is for sale please email me if your interested.
Prints and postcards are available from ‘Leaping Lizard’ and the shop page on this site.
That confirms it. Having been a chimney sweep now for 16 years i suspected that crows/Rooks recognised me and sensed a threat from my presence. Sometimes it is necessary to remove nests from chimneys. This can cause the crows to become very vocal and start circling the chimney stack. I noticed that when i returned the following year the birds would become immediately agitated from the minute i got out of my van. Last nights BBC ‘super smart animals demonstrated how crows can actually remember faces. A trap was set which resulted in crows being captured by a net which was sprung by researcher wearing a mask. Months later the female presenter demonstrated how walking past the same location attracted no response from the bird population until, she put the same mask on as when the birds were captured. The birds gave out there warning squawk and started to circle around.
Dark to light painting techinque
I want to write a little about my technique of painting. Painting dark to light is not unusual when using acrylics or oils. You can experiment with various tones of ground (the colour you paint out your canvas before starting to develope your picture) For example some portrait painters like to use various tones of grey as a ground. In the finished painting glimpses of the ground will be seen in the skin tones.Personally i favour a mixture of burnt sienna and aquamarine. These grounds can become the signature of the artist and makes there work instantly recognisable. I discovered by trial and error that working from dark to light was the way to go for me most of the time. I recently tried painting a portrait from light to dark and found it a real challenge and quickly reverted back to what i know and was satisfied with the end result. I look it like this.. When the sun comes up in the morning it slowely throws light on the earth, long shadows appear getting shorter all the time as it gets higher in the sky. Eventually everything is flooded in light. Thats basically what i’m doing . Adding sunlight to my paintings and have the excitement of seeing a world appear that once was cloaked in darkness.
I have now added range of prints priced at 38 euros each in my shop. They have a 1″ border and are signed and titled ready for mounting and framing.
This was a commission. The Angel of Mons inspired this painting. There were many versions of this incident during the 1st world war where there were witness’s on both sides who claimed to see an angel in the sky including an apparition of cavelry men charging forcing a stronger German force back thus saving the lives of British infantry men. Look close into the painting you can see the trench whilst the image of a face looms in the sky above.
i have a stall today on the mall by the river in westport. Call down and say hello.
Castlebar radio this morning to talk about the importance of having your chimney swept this time of year. Its national fire saftey week in Ireland. Mayo county council are recomending householders to check their smoke alarms and get there chimneys swept as a severe winter is predicted. Listen again at midnight tonight by going to crc community radio website and click listen live.
Fitting the new fuse board
