Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - In County Clare

It's Day 16 of my blog "going green" for St. Patrick's Day and today's painting comes to you from County Clare.

The location pictured here is just past the main tourist area of the Cliffs of Moher. After exploring the view from the cliffs (magnificent!!) and walking along the meandering path away from the tourist area I found this country road. Road!?! Okay more like a cowpath. And there actually were cows grazing on the hills, possibly contemplating the view.

Although the Cliffs were fabulous and the view from them fabulous as well, I was really intrigued by this simple country cowpath. I loved the perspective of the path and fence line all leading down toward the sea. The views in every direction begged to be painted, and probably have been a million times. So here's one more!

I am planning to put this painting in Associated Artists 50 Shades of Green show which opens next week March 28 at the Manlius Library.

"Going Green"

Since March 1, I have been posting Irish themed paintings on my blog. If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme I'm working with you might want to look at some of the posts from previous days. All the Irish paintings will be dated March 1 - 17. You should be able to access all of the posts from any of the links below.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Love Irish Dance

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Parade Day

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Arches and Shadows From County Tipperary

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day

And it will be my last post from my "Going Green" promotion. I hope you have enjoyed these posts as much as I have enjoyed putting them together. I didn't realize how much Irish art I had! 

Tomorrow's post will feature the Queen of the Slip Jig and a bonus painting.

Slainte!

www.windyhillstudioarts.com

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Love Irish Dance

It's day 15 of my blog "going green" for St. Patrick's Day! 

Today's Irish painting is dedicated to all the Irish Dancers who have been so busy with the parades, dance-outs and other St. Patrick's Day events.

Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication, and for making each celebration a special event!

This is a watercolor featuring a pair of dancing ghillies, with straps from the dance shoes intertwining to form a heart. Shamrocks and Trinity Knots complete the design.

Going Green

Since March 1, I have been posting Irish themed art on my blog. If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme you might want to take a look at posts from previous days. You can click on any of the links and eventually get back to the posts from March 1 - 14.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Parade Day

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Arches and Shadows From County Tipperary

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Connemara Mist

Two more days to go. Tomorrow we go to County Clare and on St. Patrick's Day there will be another dedication to those hard working Irish Dancers. And maybe a bonus picture too!

Slainte!

www.windyhillstudioarts.com

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Arches and Shadows from County Tipperary

It's Day 13 of my blog "Going Green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day! 

Today's painting comes to you from County Tipperary. In fact it's the abbey just down the road from the Rock of Cashel. A few days ago my blog featured Blarney with Bridget, the Holy Cow who wanders the ruins of this abbey.

Today I am sharing a watercolor based on some of the photos I took when wandering the ruins. When I was walking around the abbey I felt like I was lead by the late afternoon sunlight drifting in and out of the arched windows and doorways. Everywhere I turned I found another group of arches,  sunlight and shadows to show me the way. Although the abbey had been deserted for years a spiritual quality remained. The memory of following the sunlight through the ruins stays with me even till this day.

Painting the Light

When it came time to paint this scene I remembered the light and shadows and the arches. I sketched the architecture based on one of the photographs but used arbitrary color to paint a textured watercolor  background. Details of the architecture were added over the background using darker value to indicate depth. The sunlight is of course apparent in the lighter, brighter values. The really bright yellow areas played against the blues and purples add drama to the scene. The architecture is only partly articulated lending an overall ghostly feel to the piece.

"Going Green"

Since March 1st I have been posting Irish themed art on my blog. If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme you might want to look at some of the posts from previous days. 

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Memory

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Connemara Mist

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Blarney with Bridget
I will be posting Irish paintings till March 17.

Slainte!

Visit my website Windy Hill Studio www,windyhillstudioarts.com for more samples of my art.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Memory

It's day 12 of my blog "Going Green" in honor of 

St. Patrick's Day!

"Memory"

Today's Irish painting comes to you from the countryside of the Dingle Peninsula. We found this crumbling old farmhouse down a country lane as we were wandering through Dingle, in October of 2013. The late autumn afternoon sunlight gave the scene a lovely golden glow.

We took several photos from many different angles, so intent on what we were doing that we never noticed the farmer who came to greet (?) us.

Now for those of you who don't know, Dingle is a Gaeltacht, which means Gaelic, not English is spoken there. Many people in Dingle speak both languages, but some of the "old-timers" do not. Of course we were in the presence of an old-timer who had no idea of what we were saying...and vice versa.

To make things even more interesting he seemed to be hard of hearing. Our conversation consisted mainly of smiles and nods. We had no idea of whether or not we were allowed on the property (which we thought was deserted) but at least the farmer was smiling! We can only guess at what he was thinking.

There are so many crumbling old houses and castles dotting the countryside in Ireland. I wonder who lived here, when they left, and where they went.

Capturing the Golden Glow

When painting this scene I limited my palette to just a few colors. In trying to capture the golden glow, I mixed a bit of yellow into each color. In the end the golden tones lent a nostalgic feel to the scene which was just what I had hoped for.

"Going Green"

Every day since March 1, I have been posting Irish themed art on my blog in honor of St. Patrick's Day. If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme you might want to look at some posts from previous days.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Connemara Mist

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Blarney with Bridget

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Dingle: Land, Sky and Water

Slainte!

www.windyhillstudioarts.com

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Connemara Mist

Well I hope you all enjoyed yesterday's bit of blarney with Bridget, the Holy Cow. This is the season for blarney isn't it?  And Bridget is really one to spin a good yarn. She talked my ears off!

Connemara Mist (sounds like an Irish whiskey)

I'm back on a more serious note for today's Irish painting which comes from misty, moody Connemara. I love the rugged beauty of Connemara; the barren mountains (bens) which appear when the mist clears, and then disappear again when the next mist blows in from the sea. Lakes and streams wind their way through the bens becoming almost silver in the misty glow.

The backroads in Connemara are as narrow as cow paths with high hedgerows on either side. We were lucky to find a few places to pull the car over and get out to enjoy the views.

Painting Connemara's Mist

On a misty day in Connemara the clouds hang so low it feels like you can touch them. Trying to capture this feeling on a 2-dimensional surface proved to be a challenge. I needed to find a way to add a little dimension and texture to the piece. 

After I had painted in the sky, land and water, I added some Golden Pumice Medium to the surface of the painting. After the pumice medium dried, I scumbled and dry brushed some light values (whites, light violets, blues and greens) across the roughed-up surface. It did the trick, adding an extra layer of texture and depth to the piece.

"Going Green" It's Day 11 !!!

Everyday since March 1, I have been posting Irish themed art on my blog in honor of St. Patrick's Day. If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme, you might want to look at some posts from the past few days. I will keep posting Irish art till March 17!

Slainte!

Related posts

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Blarney With Bridget

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Dingle: Land, Sky and Water

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Along the Conor Pass

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Blarney With Bridget

Today is day 10 of my blog "going green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day, and it's time for 

Blarney With Bridget. 

A bit of the Blarney

Just down the road from the Rock of Cashel, sits the remains of an ancient abbey. Cows wander about munching on Ireland's green, green grass and poking their heads through the arches of the silent tomb-like building. 

I met Bridget while I was taking photos of the ruins. She came up behind me, silent as a submarine and scared the hell out of me. After the initial scare we discovered that we got along just fine. She kept me company for a while and told me her life (so far) story. She was actually born in England and was named LuLu. But she grew tired of England's incessant rain. Evidently she didn't know that it rains in Ireland too…hence the green, green grass. 

LuLu journeyed to Ireland, taking the ferry from Guernsey to Dublin. She then walked to Cashel, found a lovely spot to call home and changed her name to Bridget. She has adapted well to her adopted home and has even been known to moo with an Irish brogue.

Bridget loves long strolls in the fields, fiery sunsets and a wee bit of the Baileys every now and then.

Bridget…the painting

Bridget was painted as an experimental piece using Pan Pastels on LeCarte pastel paper. The Pan Pastels lend a soft dreamy quality, but are really not the best choice for the rough LeCarte paper. The sponge applicator was ripped to shreds by the time I finished but my students enjoyed the demo. Or perhaps they enjoyed watching their teacher do something really dumb. I finished the piece using strokes of color with traditional stick pastels to define lines and shapes, adding a bit more depth to the piece.

I think it's good for students to see the teacher occasionally make a mistake, and then figure out how to "save" a piece. 

"Going Green" 

For the last 10 days I have been posting Irish themed art on my blog. 

If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme I am working with you might want to take a look at my posts from the last dew days.

Related posts

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Dingle: Land, Sky and Water

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Along the Conor Pass

www.windyhillstudioarts.com

  

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Dingle: Land, Sky and Water

Today's Irish painting comes to you from Dingle, and it's another beach scene. I had never considered Ireland a beach destination, until I got to the Dingle Peninsula. 10 miles wide, it runs 40 miles from one end to the other, and is the westernmost part of Ireland. As the saying goes, "the next parish over is Boston".

Some of Dingle's beaches are ringed by rocky cliffs, but this beach happened to be wide open. It was just down the road from our B&B. We had arrived in Dingle at night and had no idea what type of scenery would greet us in the morning. We were pleasantly surprised to find this beautiful beach. The tide was going out but there was still plenty of water on the sand to catch the reflections of the magnificent clouds above. The beach seemed to stretch on for quite a distance and behind us were the mountains. Amazing.

This scene was painted with Pan Pastels. You can read more about Pan Pastels on the related link below.

Lovin' the Pan Pastels

This is day 9 of my artist blog "going green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme I am working with here you might be interested in some of the posts from the last few days, March 1 - 8. You should be able to access those posts from the links below.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Along the Conor Pass

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Steppin' Into March

I will be posting Irish themed paintings till March 17.

Slainte!

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Along the Conor Pass

Today's Irish themed painting comes from Dingle...such a beautiful place! It's the Conor Pass, the highest mountain pass in Ireland. The narrow, twisting road provides some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen, and some of the most harrowing experiences I have ever had in a car!

Ireland's country roads are narrow to say the least. On the Conor Pass it's hard to concentrate on driving when the scenery around you is so magnificent.  Oncoming cars and the odd sheep, or 2 or 20, are always obstacles to be on the lookout for.

This scene is based on a photo I took from part way up a mountain. We had parked the car and found a spot to hike to: a small pond situated on a flat area of the mountain. The mountain was all rocks, and rather slippery from a recent rain shower, but we made our way up to the level area. The pond was a huge disappointment. Boring. Then I turned around and saw this magnificent sight in front of me: sharp jagged peaks against the sky and huge clouds casting dramatic shadows across the mountains. The mountains stretched in front of us for what looked like miles. Small lakes dotted the landscape, and beyond that, the sea. I must have taken 2 dozen photos with my trusty iPhone (couldn't wrestle the camera away from Rich).

The painting wasn't done till about a year later. I was preparing to teach a pastel class and needed to get my skills up to par before my session started. I did most of the painting in the course of 2 or 3 hours. Found myself falling in love with pastel again. There is something about the immediate, intense dramatic colors which you are able to achieve with pastel that really excites me. And because the process is fast, you tend to stay fresh and loose.

I have a few other pastel paintings from the Conor Pass, but this is my favorite. And the Conor Pass and Dingle Peninsula were some of my favorite days in Ireland.

If this is your first visit to my artist blog and you like the Irish theme I am working with, you might want to take a look at some of the other posts from the last few days March 1 - 7. I have included links to 3 of the posts; you can access the others from any of the links below.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Steppin' Into March
Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Across the Miles
Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - The Rising of the Moon

Today is day 8 of my blog "Going Green". I will be posting Irish themed paintings till March 17!

Stay tuned and
Slainte!

Joan Applebaum's Art Going Green for St. Patrick's Day

In honor of the upcoming holiday season (yes, St. Patrick's Day is a season when you are Irish) I will be posting Irish and Celtic themed paintings on my blog.

I had thought about re-naming my blog 50 Shades of Green, but Associated Artists of Syracuse had already selected that name for their show at the end of March. So I will just refer to this as Going Green or maybe getting My Green On.

So beginning March 1, my blog will be populated with watercolor, pastels and acrylic paintings featuring Ireland's dramatic scenery, Irish dance and Irish parade scenes.

Stay tuned…Joan Applebaum's Art Going Green begins March 1.
Above is a preview of Going Green, a watercolor titled "Hint of Spring in the Air".


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