Tintern Sunset
Tintern Abbey, Co. Wexford
In 1200 ad, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, set sail for Ireland on his first visit as Lord of Leinster. Threatened with shipwreck, he vowed to found an abbey wherever he could safely land. On reaching safety in Bannow Bay, he redeemed his vow bequeathing about 9000 acres of land for a Cistercian abbey. Consequently, Tintern Abbey, overlooking Tintern stream, is sometimes called Tintern de Voto – ‘Tintern of the vow.’ Once established, the abbey was colonised by monks from the Cistercian abbey at Tintern in Monmouthshire, Wales, of which Marshal was also patron.
Tintern Bridge
Not to be confused with Tintern Abbey, of Wordsworth fame, also a Cistercian Abbey, this abbey is now in ruins since the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536 ad. There is ongoing restoration work in progress and it is a lovely place to visit. I was there last year and I took this photo of this curious little bridge over the Tintern River.
Recently I’ve been watching sunsets from my back garden. This painting is an amalgamation of two images. The scene at Tintern needed drama and a sense of timelessness which a photo can’t achieve. The sunset colours needed to be applied to the scene. A photo of this scene at sunset would have produced a silhouette of the landscape, or if the exposure was based on a ground reading the sky would have been ‘burnt out’.
The colours are different from my usual. They are: Cadmium Red (red), Cadmium Yellow (yellow) and French Ultramarine (blue). Viridian Green and Raw Umber were in there also. As you will see in the video (next post) the sky has quite a lot of green. The ground has a lot of the red and yellow. This crossover helps to tie the sky and ground together to produce a natural looking landscape.
As I said I’ll have a video of the painting process for the next post. The painting took under 2 hours to complete. See you then.
PictureS 
Beautiful~ I love this!
Gorgeous painting you have created,thank you. I love the photos you took especially the Abbey. We have a cistercean abbey 4 miles from us and they have 65 monks.
Thank you Beatrix. We also have a Cistercian Abbey nearby, lovely people.
Enjoying the expanded palette.
Great! The Summer is here at last, with Summer colours.
wow, you are so prolific and it’s lovely to read about your subjects
Thanks Rosie, you’re always encouraging.
Very nice work
Thanks Michael.
Hi,
I have looked all over for your name and could not find it. There was a request for bloggers writing on art for a company newsletter. If you are interested in me suggesting you, please comment on my blog. I will send you the details.
I really think what you do is priceless.
Bettye
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Amazing painting…as is your entire blog. As a completely self-taught oil painter, I so appreciate the time and energy you have put into providing instruction and filming your painting process. Remarkable. You stopped by my blog and “liked” my most recent post, “Webbie’s Eyes”. Thank you so much for the compliment. If you would like to see more of my art, I would be honored if you checked out my recently created website: http://www.FairesFineArt.com. Thank you again for sharing your expertise. I am mesmerized by your blog and it’s expansiveness.
Warmly,
k i m b y
I’ve visited your site and what beautiful vibrant colours you use. As a ‘realist’ landscape painter, at the moment, its refreshing and enjoyable for me to see work so different from what I do. I find this fascinating, how different we all are in our pursuit of the same goal, and we can all learn from each other. Thank you for the nice comments.
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