Saturday, October 15, 2011

Strongbow and Aoife

The painting Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife (Daniel Maclise in1854) has recently undergone restoration by the National Gallery of Ireland.
This large picture depicts the marriage of Strongbow (a Norman lord, Strongbow cider is named after him) to Aoife the daughter of an Irish chieftian and took part in Waterford. It captures the start of Norman rule in Ireland and a period of foreign rule which continued until the early 20th centuary. The wedding was arranged in return for militatry assistance. In some respects foreign rule has returned to Ireland in the form of the Troika due to financial cataclysm that has occurred here and freedoms have been exchanged for loans.
A representation of Reginalds tower is visible behind the couple. You can visit Reginalds tower. The galleries website has a lot of information available on the background and restoration of the painting.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

biscuit - custard cream alla prima

custard cream biscuit as painting
Custard Cream   18 x 12 cm
Could not help myself from doing this one! Now if I could just find a nice cup of tea. Ah go on.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Shot Glass alla prima

Shot Glass
A quick study of a shot glass.  I think it suffered as I probably rushed it a bit too much.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

New Mexican Black Bear

brown or black bear teddy painting
Bear (Oils  18 x 12 cm)
This little character I picked up in New Mexico a while back.  It suffered some attacks by a puppy but survived and still resides on my desk reminds me of sunnier times. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Sweet Pea alla prima

sweet pea in a glass painting
Sweet Pea (oil 12 x 18 cm)
Sweet pea in a glass.  About 1 hour. Glass could have been better!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Gmini 402 alla prima

mp3 player gmini painting
Gmini 402 in oils
This is the next in the series of small oil studies.  This was a blast to do. It may be because I am Quite attached to this little mp3 player. It is an Archos Gmini 402 which also has a camcorder.  Archos were out there working on mp3 players before the ipod launched.
It has been overtaken by newer models but this one does what I want it to do really well which is play mp3s. It is robust easy to use and I principally use it when I am cycling.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Autumn leaf alla prima

Autumn leaf   (oil on oil painting paper 18 x 12 cm)
The smaller size made this achievable in about 1 h.  I think I will stick to this kind of size for these practice studies.

Big Bear Game Art

  I started creating a series of promotional art for a ficticious game.  This was to practice going through the design process.  I have foun...