A drawing of Rembrandt's, "Man in Armour"

This was done last night at the second birthday of the Cork Drink and Draw group 

using minen leads HB and 6B on 150gm cartridge.

 Thanks for looking :)

Painting the River Blackwater Lismore Waterford

Oil on oilboard 30 x 40 cm.

This is the river Blackwater at Lismore Co. Waterford.
It is the scenery from a popular walk that starts in the town and loops
back again as it passes the river.

Thanks for looking :) 

Oil painting of the beach walkers..

Oil on oil board 12 x 16 inches.

This was painted from a scene I saw at
Mulranny beach Co.Mayo.


Thanks for looking :)

Pencil portrait video demonstartion

This is a video demo of a portrait drawing using a variety of pencil types.
oli pitt, pitt graphite, derwent and minen leads. I hope you enjoy it.


Thanks for looking :)

Pencil Sketch of a Rembrandt portrait..

Sketched in pencil from the painting

 "Rembrandt's self portrait as Saint Paul"
Size 12 x 8 inches on acid free cartridge paper.
For this work I used Derwent pencils, minen leads and Pitt graphite
on 150gm acid free cartridge pad.

Thanks for looking :)

A couple of plein air sketches..

I got involved this week with the Plein Eire group's, seven day drawing challenge. 

Complete a plein air drawing each day for one week. 

Of the  drawings I managed to fit in, these I think, are my favorites.

Both were completed using Derwent pencils, and a medium oil pitt

on 160lb acid free cartridge.

Thanks for looking :)

Oil study of detail from a Guido Reni.

oil on oilboard 34 x 18 cm

This is a study of the face of Deineara from a Guido Reni
Oil on oilboard 6 x 4 inches. This started as an exercise that I wasn't
really taking seriously. I had a very small canvas and just figured I'd scribble a bit and
very quickly I became caught up in the work. Its easy of course when you have a picture of the original work by Reni to study from, so I can't actually take any credit for this. However it was alla prima and I was surprised to get some resemblance of the original without going to any great lengths. Mostly I used raw umber, burnt sienna and cadmium yellow. A very slight touch of rose madder to heighten the reds.

Thanks for looking :)

Watching the rain fall on Glantaneatnagh

Oil on Gallery wrap canvas 10 x 12 inches. Another work painted from the Boggeragh Mountains.

Thanks for looking :)

Painting plein air in the Boggeragh Mountains..

This is a plein air I was fortunate to get in this week, in the Boggeragh Mountains.

I have been painting around the same area for three days as the scenery is so marvelous 

and the weather so mild.

Thanks for looking :)

Sennelier oil landscape painting

Another  piece using the sennelier oil pastels,
as I have mentioned earlier the colors available in this medium
are just fantastic, once you have a small range of them you find it
impossible not to use them. They are a little messy though so I recommend
using something to move them around the board. A palette knife or rubber
tipped mover should do the trick.

Thanks for looking :)

Pencil Study of Caravaggio's "Taking of Christ"

Here is a sketch I have done of detail from Caravaggio's "the taking of Christ".

I have found the darks values of the original quite difficult to achieve with pencil.

I think I may have to look for anothe medium to compliment the Derwent pencils

to achieve this.

Pencil study of Caravaggio's "Death of the Virgin"

My latest  Caravaggio study is taken from," The Death of The Virgin".

Right now I'm thinking the art of drawing is mostly about making a series of mistakes that are adjusted to eventually form a complete picture. You lay your marks on the page and leave them for a while until you need to adjust them, then you correct them with new marks and continue again until you need to adjust them again, on and on, mark adjust, mark adjust, until eventually the picture begins to emerge... It seems that no matter how bad it is in the beginning its still possible to drive the work towards where you want it to go by being willing to accept each mistake and rectify it..

This is good I think, because even a pencil mangler like me can hope to improve if all my drawings can be the result of corrected mistakes.

Plein air at Achill sound

..another quick plein air, this time, the entrance to Achill Sound.
The channel here is quite narrow and so the racing tide whips
along with considerable fury. It is quite a dramatic spot

Plein air painting on a sunny day at the beach..

A plein air of a sunny day at Dugort, Achill
What a difference a day makes, the day before when I painted here
it was really showery and a little cold, but today its a nice warm
clear day. :)

Graphite study of Caravaggio's " Raising of Lazarus"

This is the second Caravaggio graphite study

this is detail taken from "The Raising of Lazarus" 

The work was completed using Derwent Pencils

on 150 gm cartridge.

Study of a work by Helene Schjerfbeck

This is a study of a work by Helene Schjerfbeck called Portrait of a man. The medium is Sennelier oil pastel on oil canson paper. Schjerfbeck was a Finnish painter who died in 1946 known mostly for portraits and less for landscape. I really liked this painting when I saw it so I had to reproduce it as an exercise. 

Sketch of the water gardens at Doneraile

... a quick charcoal sketch

of the pond at Doneraile Court 

outside Mallow Co.Cork....

The bridge at Puente Nuevo..

This is a drawing I did of the bridge at Puente Nuevo with a disposable pen.

This incredible bridge is just begging to be drawn.

Its surprising the tone and textures you can create with

cheap plastic disposable pens.