The Ring of Kerry...

Well I'm back from Belgium...I enjoyed my lunch..but it was a little too cold for doing much walking etc. around the city. We generally wandered around a few shops, had a few cups of coffee, indulged in Chocolate and had a pleasant if rather long day. (A 4.00am start for the airport) I didn't get up too early yesterday needless to say. I didn't go to the studio until the afternoon. I was at an Angling Club AGM. last night, and then had a couple of drinks, so that is why I didn't update you yesterday. However yesterday I started the work that I 'finished' today.
I decided to rework a study of the Dingle peninsula in Kerry, It was an interesting view with the patchwork of fields, painted in one sitting. The original study was quite pleasant except for the rather muddy gorse flowers added onto wet green paint in the foreground, but as usual with quick plien-air works the idea is to execute the work there and then, so niceties like allowing the base to dry for a day or two go out of the window...

The first step I took was to simplify the patchwork of the fields. I did this by reducing the number and increasing the size of the fields. I then added in a copse of trees to re-create the


scale for the middle ground. I left out one of the houses, I had left out lots of them in the original study anyway as they were dotted here and there amongst the fields but I found they cluttered the painting. I then started work with more muted cooler colours, creating an almost ethereal air about the work. The bushes in the foreground are quite stylised, although the photograph is too dark in this area to show the work very well.
Both paintings incedently are 18 inches by 14. Todays is painted on a piece of unstretched canvas as I intended using it as a work-up rather than a finished painting. This situation may change though as I find a lot of interest in the work and I may decide to keep it as a completed work, if so I'll have to mount or stretch it later.
I have also stepped in and out of the Large Castri painting, but the work I have done would not show in a photo as such since it is just minor work here and there. This will go on for a few weeks yet...