Home away from home

Eilean Doran Castle

I love this painting, Castle are my favourite memories when we visited the UK, unlike others, I never tired of visiting them, or going through them and now, it seems, painting them

My first real attempt at a portrait, working with Barb, I have started on the background which I've decided to do in an impresionistic style using bronzes and purple blacks. I've just started working on the hat, needs fine tuning, has to look like the words KEV BACKER are stamped on it, might be trickier than I thought, I guess we'll see.

A quaint little camping ground on the other side of the lake, Glenn took this photo of a humble old boat shed with a spectacular view of Eileen Dooran Castle

Well, I did this one by myself, I have tried to adapt a little impressionism, Getting the depth was a challenge, I think I'll try another scene and try a little harder to make it more impressionistic, trying to loosen up, I get caught up on a small area. This is a 16x20, maybe I'll go bigger

Final Cottage at castle

I know in my mind I've finished because I've signed it.
So here 'tis Barb. I'll tell you what I did, Those leaves at the front, I did them in stages. I left the edges of the leaves bright green to make them stand out. I didn't like them for a long time and I've probably got too many layers on it. The argument in my head is I want them to stand out, but they don't in the original photo
In the river, because it is light, I used grey and blue to give ripples and movement. Put a darker grey on a few of the rocks to help with the perception of distance

Half way there. So I've covered the board and I'm working my way around the big tree on the top right. I'm going to start with the closer folaige now. The next set of leaves will be brighter, closer and sharper, hopefully giving the tree dimension and shape.