Glendalough Gold ~ dreaming of Ireland

Glendalough Gold ~ 5" x 7" oil on panel

My daily offering for you today...trying to brush up on my landscape skills...I call this a faux plein aire...I didn't paint it from life, since, alas, I am not in Ireland at the  moment. But I have been there, and stood there and looked at this scene. It is one of my favourite places on earth, and as I painted I tried to remember the smells and the breeze and imagine my self back there, to try to recreate the experience.  And I have to admit, my own photography skills aren't the greatest, so I used Steve Evans (babasteve) photograph, with permission. I'm going to go through my own picture collection soon, and hopefully share with you more of my adventures.

The auction for this goes live tomorrow (April 18th)  at 10 am

CLICK HERE TO BID

Start price  $35.00

BoldBrush Painting Competition Entry- Owl in the Mist

                                  Owl in the Mist ~ 18" X 36" oil on canvas  $1650.00

I've entered this one in the November Bold Brush Competition. If you like it, follow this link here and click on the LIKE button. (This only works if you're a facebook member) It'll help me get a bit more exposure, and possibly get in the FAV 15%...Thanks!

Owl in the Mist

"Owl in the Mist" 18" x 36" oil on canvas     $1,650.00

This was a really fun painting to do. I started out in acrylic, because I like that you can glaze lots of layers to make convincing mist, but I didn't take the size of the piece into consideration, and I couldn't get a smooth color in the background. The darn acrylic just dries too fast! I really hate painting in acrylic, but it does tend to be better for wildlife...it makes it easier to do all of the finicky detail without having to wait ten years for the paint to dry. Well, I threw up my hands in frustration and dove into this with oils...I mean, literally dove in. I mixed up about a tonne of the gray color and slammed it on with the palette knife, and then switched to big, gobby brushstrokes...it was really fun! So I switched my approach completely. The oil is quite loose instead of super detailed, and I actually love that about it...

Click on this one to make it big... it looks way better:)