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 - 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 - 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 - "Steppin' Into March"

Today's painting comes from the world of Irish Dance, again. This is a common theme for me when I am working on Celtic designs. My daughter Katie danced for many years with the Johnston Irish Dancers, so I had plenty of dance related props around the house to work with.

In this case I borrowed Katie's ghillies (soft shoes) and built a design around the shoes. They are the focal point of the picture. The shoes are positioned so that they appear to be dancing. The laces loop around and around and become part of a Celtic knot pattern.

I enjoyed working with the idea of positive and negative space as I painted the Celtic pattern and shamrocks. In some case the objects are painted, in other places the area around the object (negative space) is painted creating an interplay of light and dark values and a sense of depth.

This day 7 of my blog "going green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I hope you are enjoying the paintings. I will keep posting Irish themed paintings till March 17.

Dance Memories

I have wonderful memories of the years my daughter danced. The times Katie and I spent together traveling to competitions with dance friends are among my favorite memories. We had a lot of laughs, shed a few tears and met so many great people along the way. And enjoyed the best music and dancing ever!!!


"Steppin' Into March" is available as a 8 x 10 print. Price $40


If this is your first visit to my artist blog and you like the Irish theme I'm working with, you might want to take a look at some of the other posts from the last few days March 1 - 6.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Across the Miles
Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - The Rising of The Moon

Stop by my website too  https://www.windyhillstudioarts.com

Slainte!

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - The Rising of the Moon

It's day 5 of my blog "Going Green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day!  Today's painting is called Moon over Conemarra. It reminds me of the words to the old Irish rebel song "Rising of the Moon" which dates back to the Rebellion of 1798. 

'Tis the rising of the moon, 'tis the rising of the moon
And hurrah, me boys, for freedom, 'tis the rising of the moon.

I did this painting shortly after I returned from Ireland. No photo references were used though. This came  purely from my imagination. I was experimenting with collaging torn pieces off decorative papers over watercolor. The paper used here was almost lace-like and once it was applied over the transparent watercolor it reminded me of the misty days we spent in Conemarra.

Conemarra has a stark, barren beauty. The rocky hills (bens) rise up from a hardscrabble landscape. Mist swirls in from the sea surrounding the hills obscuring all sense of depth and detail. When the mist clears, bits of lakes, and streams appear. Sheep are everywhere, including the road…especially the road! 

I tried to keep detail to a minimum here. This painting is more about atmosphere. There is a hint of land or maybe water in the lower right corner. The torn paper mimics the shapes of the bens, but is not necessarily meant to be the hills. In this painting I prefer to leave the details up to the viewer.

If this is your first visit to my blog you might want to look at the last 4 posts. They are all Irish themed in honor of St. Patrick's Day…coming up soon!

Slainte!

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Green Beer Parade
Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Dunguaire Castle Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Beach at Dingle Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Ceili!

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green--Dunguaire Castle

This is day 2 of my St. Patrick's Day tribute on my blog. Today's image Castle Dunguaire comes from County Galway.

As Rich and I were driving from Connemara to the Cliffs of Moher, we came upon this lovely old castle perched on a small hill overlooking the water. Wow! Iconic Ireland was the first thought in my mind. We got out of the car, looked around and took several pictures. My intention of course was to later use the photo as reference for a painting.

About one year after our trip to Ireland I finally got around to painting this scene.  This painting was done with Pan Pastels as a demo piece for one of my classes at the Y Arts Studio. The softness of the pastels conveys a somewhat dreamy quality to the picture which I think is well suited to the subject matter.

I really loved painting the sky in this piece, and especially the clouds. Ireland has the most magnificent skies I have ever seen. Huge clouds roll in and roll out casting dramatic shadows all over the landscape. There always seems to be a bit of dewiness in the air.

In the next few days you will see more of Ireland's skies in my paintings.

Till then,
Slainte

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green -"The Green Beer Parade"

In honor of St. Patrick's Day I will be featuring Irish themed art on my blog page March 1 - 17. When you are Irish, St. Patrick's Day is a season rather than just one day. This is especially true here in Syracuse where the winters are long and cold and we are just looking for any sign of spring.

Our 2015 Green Beer Parade took place last weekend. I was in North Carolina, so I missed it but I was there in spirit. 

I painted this image several years ago, but always bring it "out of the archives" at this time of the year. Right now it is currently at the Winter Recipe Show at the Tech Garden in Syracuse. So if you want to see it up close and personal….head on down to the Tech Garden, 235 Harrison St. Syracuse, NY during regular business hours M - F.

When I first posted this image of the Green Beer Parade (not to to be confused with the St. Patrick's Parade!…we like to celebrate here in Syracuse!) I wrote the text below. I am including the text again for anyone who is not familiar with this much loved, rather quirky event that helps us transition from Winter to Spring.

"If the St. Patrick's Day Parade is Syracuse's official Rite of Spring, then the Green Beer Parade must be the official prelude to the Rite of Spring. Each year approximately three weeks before St. Patrick's Day, the Green Beer Truck arrives at the intersection of Tompkins St. and Milton Ave, the only place in the world where the green traffic light is above the red. Accompanied by bag pipers and Irish dancers, the truck makes its slow journey down the street to Coleman's Irish Pub, as the sons and daughters of Tipperary Hill return home to witness the grand event. Snow swirls around us, but March is just around the corner and the hope of Spring is in the air."

Slainte!

Related post http://joanapplebaumart.blogspot.com/2015/02/green-beer-parade-favorite.html

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".


Related Post No Details Today...I'm Painting Atmosphere