Joan Applebaum Art: Rock of Cashel

Friday, March 13, 2015

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.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

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.

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

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Along the Conor Pass