A Day in Kells

[Michaelmcg]

We had a group paint-out yesterday in the little village of Kells, Co Kilkenny. There's not much to paint in the village itself but there's an interesting river nearby, some former grain mills and the ruins of an old priory. It was a cold but sunny start, so I made sure to stay in the sunlight and settled for this view of the river beside the priory.


A Sunny Morning, Near Kells
(12" x 10" Oil on Board)




It had become mostly cloudy by afternoon and I found it difficult to see anything interesting to paint. Inevitably, I found myself drawn towards the rushing water in the nearby mill race. However, getting the most interesting view involved making my way out onto the weir (the rive level was low enough so that the top of the weir was above water). Despite almost falling in twice while stepping back from my easel, I managed to comlete the painting and get something close to what I wanted. Hopefully, it was worth the risk!


On the Weir, Near Kells
(12" x 10" Oil on Board)





I have photos of both scenes on my blog, if anyone wants a look.

Michael

[DECiNERGY]

Wonderful Color-Harmony ... !!!

SuperB PleinAir - i can't believe that this is it ;-)

[WebCat]

Such beautiful paintings! I love them both. They have vitality and are soothing at the same time. I wouldn't have you all soggy wet on a cold day but I'm glad you took the risk!

[Michaelmcg]

Originally Posted by gfgfgfgfgf

Wonderful Color-Harmony ... !!!

SuperB PleinAir - i can't believe that this is it ;-)

Thanks DECiNERGY.

Michael

[Michaelmcg]

Originally Posted by WebCat

Such beautiful paintings! I love them both. They have vitality and are soothing at the same time. I wouldn't have you all soggy wet on a cold day but I'm glad you took the risk!

Thanks WebCat. I'm used to getting "soggy wet" in this damp little country of ours, but falling in would have certainly taken it to a new level!

Michael

[Aires]

The word that popped into my mind when I saw your first painting was "Scintillating" because you've caught the sparkle and movement of sunshine hitting moving water. It just makes the viewer feel good to see it

[acadianartist]

They both just glow Micheal, but I find that first one particularly compelling. Fantastic! I am interested in making colours pop a little more lately so I'm observing these paintings closely. I checked your blog, but no WIP photos. Any chance you'll show us your method or is it a closely guarded secret?

[Michaelmcg]

Originally Posted by Aires

The word that popped into my mind when I saw your first painting was "Scintillating" because you've caught the sparkle and movement of sunshine hitting moving water. It just makes the viewer feel good to see it

Thanks Aires.

Michael

[Michaelmcg]

Originally Posted by acadianartist

They both just glow Micheal, but I find that first one particularly compelling. Fantastic! I am interested in making colours pop a little more lately so I'm observing these paintings closely. I checked your blog, but no WIP photos. Any chance you'll show us your method or is it a closely guarded secret?

Thanks Chantal. I'm doing my first ever demo/workshop as part of "Art in the Open" (www.artintheopen.com), Ireland's annual plein air painting festival, on 30th July.

But, since that's a bit too far to travel for you, I'll share some "secrets" here. If you feel your colours don't "pop" enough, it usually down to one or two things. The most common mistake is to overdo it, i.e. too much high chroma colour (when everyone shouts together, no one gets heard), so use restrained colour for most of the painting, reserving your punch for the
area(s) of focal interest. Also using adjacent muted comlimentary colours as a backdrop to your intense colours helps. Finally, you may just be inadvertently disturbing the underpainting and "muddying" your colours. Correcting the last one is down to developing a good painting technique, but if you're struggling, using a flexible painting knife for those clean strokes helps. If you want to paint them with a brush, use a long filbert loaded with plenty of paint, and use a "lateral" stroke (not how you hold a pen) and a light touch. Hope that is of some help.

Michael

[acadianartist]

Thanks Micheal! Yes, it all helps. I am guilty of all of those things I think. And though I'd love to take a workshop with you, indeed, it is a bit far away for me to travel . I am, however, hoping to do a workshop later this summer with a local artist who also has a great knack with colour. One of the things she goes on about a lot (she does art critiques at my local art club) is soft edges. I notice you have a lot of those as well, especially off in the distance. I think that also contributes to the glowing effect. But in the end, I think my problem is that I can't seem to judge value and colour at the same time. I can judge value in a greyscale underpainting or charcoal drawing, but when I apply colour, it starts to go sideways... So then I try to fix it which is when everything gets muddied... grrrrr... But I will make a conscious effort to keep everything muted until the end, trying to stick to the right values, and then add touches of saturated colour. Thanks for generously sharing your thoughts on this! I will try the knife/filbert technique.

Chantal

[Michaelmcg]

Originally Posted by acadianartist

One of the things she goes on about a lot (she does art critiques at my local art club) is soft edges. I notice you have a lot of those as well, especially off in the distance.
Chantal

I use soft edges, and also little or no value variation within masses in the distance, to make these masses recede. I also use soft edges and looser brushwork in those areas of the painting which are secondary to the main focal area(s). If you want to make something appear to glow, you have to make what's around it dull and much darker in value. Nine times out of ten, when you can't make something appear bright enough, the problem is that the rest of the painting is too bright.

Michael