Kilmoroney

This was a fast painting, one and a half hours, in spite of the relatively large size (20″x16″). The application of paint in large flooding strokes really covers the canvas fast as described in previous post. I was fairly sure of the scene, composition etc. as when I was at the site, there and then the composition presented itself. At the end of this post I have included a short video and near the end you can see the scene on which the painting was based.

I did a little more work than normal on the initial charcoal sketch. This was more of a ‘working out’ of the scene as opposed to creating a drawing which would be ‘coloured in’ later. Charcoal is good for the initial sketch. It can be corrected easily by just rubbing off the charcoal but a ‘ghost’ image is left to remind you where you went wrong initially. Any particles of charcoal which are left are enveloped by the paint without affecting the colours.

The building is covered with ivy which I did not include in this stage of the painting but I put in a few cattle to give scale and life to this sad scene. The ivy may be be added after the painting dries. A little more definition in the water’s edge and reflections in the foreground might also be needed.