I sat in the back garden this morning on another glorious summers day. The garden was so beautiful with a Mediterranean blue sky behind the Birch tree down the back that I decided to collect my paints etc in the studio and come back home to paint.


I decided to paint part of the patio area and shed with the birch tree behind. This allows me to spend time with the family soaking up the sun while working away...I was starting to feel guilty about not working...Below is the first stages of the painting... I was working from a slightly different angle than the photograph..much closer to the shed and small pond in front of it, which cannot be seen in the 2nd photo. I was detained up at the studio, organizing work for the display on Sunday and it was afternoon before I got to paint, therefore I have only really sketched in the basics and blocked in greens and darks apart from painting the second coat of the sky.


I also have a basic foundation on the shed. You will notice the sun has moved around in the painting compared to the earlier photos.

You may have noticed I didn't mention last yesterdays fishing....least said the better...I did catch roach and perch (we fished Blessington/Poulaphouca hoping some rainbows would be moving in the sunshine) but no sign of trout anywhere...we should have fished the river.. we gave up early as both myself and Noel are fishing in the Leinster lake qualifiers on sunday and a long hard fruitless evening (which was on the cards) would not have been a good idea

at least a short fruitless afternoon leaves you wanting to fish..