Duke Street

Just for a change I painted this urban scene. It was a bit of a challenge not to get tied up in the regularity of rectangular shapes. Duke Street is one of the main streets in Athy, County Kildare. There is a mixture of modern and old buildings, of urban landscape in a small rural town. In Medieval times, Athy was a frontier town. The bridge here was a guarded entrance to the Pale, a fortified English area around Dublin. The expression ‘beyond the Pale’ comes from these times and referred to the ‘wild Irish’ who were beyond the control of the invading English forces.

The painting is 16″x12″ and was deliberately painted quickly (about an hour and a half) to ensure I didn’t get rapped up in the tedious details of buildings, something I am prone to do. I am still not including black on the palette, just 3 colours plus white. The restricted colour range added harmony of colour and harmony of texture was achieved by not blending the paint too much, especially in the sky.

Here is the video of the painting process. See you soon.