Lilly

Here is the final result of my lilly project. It took a long time to get going - In the end, I worked from a cropped photograph, in which I enhanced the blue hue, so it's not as greeny-yellow as the original

The background took a good dozen glazes, starting with vanadium yellow, and a good few layers of hooker's green, phthalo blue and neutral tint. It was hard to get the fuzzy effect I was after, but I'm pleased with the result.

My main problem after that was the base of the flower, where there is a delicate play between light and shadow, which I found very hard to capture. Again, it took many glazes to get it (more or less) right. If I was to do it again, I wouldn't go as heavy on the masking fluid.

Once I was past that stage, I actually finished the painting very quickly. Cadmium red (pale hue) and Cadmium yellow, and neutral tint (or was it Payne's grey?) were the main elements.

I painted with fairly dry brushes, except for the background, and for the front part of the flower, where I worked wet in wet.

The next project is going to be something simpler. I'm looking at a close up of water on the river in Ballynahinch (we got a lot of good pictures there!), which looks quite abstract. I'm hoping to work with just a few colours, and to catch the abstract quality of it. I'll have to be careful not to go heavy on the masking fluid, or it will look clunky.

Ballynahinch Sunset

Well, it took a long time in the making, but I've finally finished painting my Ballynahinch Sunset!

As you know, my first attempt wasn't entirely satisfactory. But I learned from my mistakes, and I am now happy to show the end result. It's still not perfect, but I'm not going to do another one. At this stage, I've had enough of that picture. Actually, I've already started work on the next project. But more about that later...


I'm very happy with the washes done with my Utrecht Squirrel brush. The paint was gliding onto the paper, creating a lovely smooth finish, with no blotches.


In terms of overall composition, the first attempt was actually nicer, with busy elements keeping the eye on the painting. This one is almost too smooth, and I find that the eye goes from the bottom left to the top right of the painting without stopping anywhere else - that's because the band of pale yellow in the diagonal attracts the eye, and there is nothing in these two corners to stop it. I could crop the picture to address that, but, for now, I'll leave well enough alone.

I've also included two details from the final product. Click on each picture to see it full size. I think the colours are glorious. Better than the actual painting!

How good resolutions take a backseat...

I was serious about going to the gym, and about drawing and painting, but I haven't done anything in the last week. Of course, I have very good excuses for this, which I'm going to go through now.

Last Sunday, we drove to Connemara (yes, I can hear the tune in my head ... "Terre brûlée au vent, Des landes de pierre..." - every time!) for a minibreak. We had decided that, after a busy family-oriented Christmas and New Year, we wanted a bit of time for ourselves. So we booked a 3-night stay in the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel in Recess. We had liked it so much in the summer, that we decided it was the perfect location for a winter minibreak.
While the weather wasn't perfect - this is the West of Ireland in the winter after all - we had enough dry weather to enjoy a walk on the beach at Dogs Bay and Gurteen Bay, near Roundstone (pictures in a previous post). And of course, the weather was glorious on the day we were heading back to Dublin. We saw some dramatic scenery in various weather conditions - mountains emerging out of the clouds for a brief moment, before disappearing again, perfect blue skies that bring out the orange colour on the ground, purple mountains in the dying light, waves on the lakes. Scenery that's not as easy to photograph as perfect blue skies of summer, unfortunately, but we took plenty of pictures all the same.

And of course the hotel was perfect. We had a river-view room. More modern than the room we had in the summer - Lovely bathroom, with a walk-through wardrobe and dressing area (with double doors leading through each - very Hollywood!); Nice big bed; Good central heating.

The food was excellent (the 3-night deal included 2 evening meals in their main Restaurant - well worth a visit). I had lobster one of the nights - I love food I can play with, and Brendan enjoys watching me wrestle with the claws. I had pan-fried scallops the other night. I can't remember what starters and soups were but all were good. Brendan enjoyed his lamb (cooked to perfection) and monkfish. And desserts, of course, were to die for - I had panacotta the first night (this is the only place I know that does panacotta - I'll have to go back to that recipe I found in the summer!). It was Baileys panacotta (but just a very subtle hint) with - wait for this - lavender coulis (well probably not a coulis - but Lavender! You would not have found this kind of food in Ireland 20 years ago!). Brendan had a simple but scrumptious flan one night and the special chocolate dessert on our last night, whereas I opted for a simpler, but nonetheless delicious, rice pudding with stewed plums.

And I had pan-fried liver for my breakfasts. I love liver, but Brendan doesn't. As he is the designated cook and I never think of asking for it, I don't get to eat liver at home! So, I enjoyed it all the more.

If you like good food, just book yourself a few days there. You won't be disappointed. Note that they are doing some refurbishment work in rooms on the 2nd floor. It's well managed and wasn't a problem while we were there. That's supposed to be finished by April I think. They're also talking about setting up a spa (though one of the duty managers said that she had been told to say "treatment rooms" rather than "spa". I guess they don't want to talk it up too much.) Well, I'll have to go back to check it out and report...

And we bumped into Alexis, who was there on her honeymoon. So I finally got to meet Pat, her husband. When I saw her first in the lounge, I just saw her in profile, and I wasn't sure it was her. But when we walked into the restaurant later that evening, I had to go over to their table and say hi (and thank God it was her).

So, I've only accounted for 3 days. What was I doing for the rest of the time? Well, I was sick. That's not very exciting so I won't go into the boring details of sitting up in bed all night to try and stop the coughing fits (and failing). Throat and chest infection - I don't know why I always think I'll be able to fight it off without antibiotics. I always end up needing antibiotics. Just as well I don't get sick very often.

I feel I have a lot of catching up to do. Plenty of things to paint and draw, and write about.

And of course, it will be back to the gym in the next few days, and back to yoga classes next Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it all (that and doing my P35s and P60s!)

PS: Pictures from Connemara to follow - I still need to sort through all the pictures we took.

Ballynahinch Castle Hotel, Recess, Connemara

We spent the weekend at the Ballynahinch Castle Hotel, in Connemara. We were in Connemara at the end of April (see my post of 30 April for the full words of the Michel Sardou song!) with Amex points, and, this time again, our weekend was courtesy of American Express.

Ballynahinch Castle Hotel was very nice - very quiet setting, lovely walks through the grounds, its own river and lake, excellent food, and very professional, friendly but discreet, service. We got a standard room. It was a little bit old-fashioned, but was very spacious and quiet, and had a perfect view of the mountains. And it even had wireless connectivity. There are lovely rooms downstairs where you can sit down and read a book by the fire in peace and quiet. Perfect if the weather is not.

My best food memories from the weekend were the seafood platter from the bar menu on Friday evening, and a special dessert plate for my birthday on Saturday night, with vanilla ice-cream, panacotta, nectarines, mocha vacherin and meringue (and a candle and Happy Birthday MHBD written in chocolate on the side of the plate!). Thank You, Brendan, for organising my special dessert! My eyes lit up when I saw the waitress walking across the room with her hand in front of the candle!

By the way, I didn't know what panacotta was before this weekend, so here is a link to a recipe. For any of you interested in food, I've also found a link to this blog which seems pretty good. (Not that I'd know - I don't cook much! I'll check with Brendan what he thinks of this blog.)

We didn't tour as much this time - we decided to stick close to the hotel. We walked around the grounds, by the river and by the lake, and we drove down to Roundstone and discovered a fabulous white-sand beach at Dogs' Bay. It was a little bit overcast, but the colour of the sea was wonderful all the same - subtle pale turquoisy-greens. I'm sure that with a bit of sunshine, we'd get the Maldivian blue! And temperatures were about 17 degrees (with a cold breeze yesterday, and perfectly calm today)