My
summer series of painting workshops on Achill Island came to an end
a few weeks ago. And what a week to finish up. We had glorious sunshine for
most of it and spent the last two days painting Plein Air on the
Atlantic Drive, near Dooega.
With nothing to
disturb us except the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks
below and the shriek of the occasional sea gull this is what you might
call a relaxing working environment! Here is the group hard at work,
with Clare Island in the distance.
We painted a scene featuring the cliffs below us, with
the waves crashing around the rocks. I spent some time earlier in the
morning looking for a good place to set up base and came across this
spot just outside Dooega, close to the edge of the cliffs.
My painting workshops follow the same structure as I
follow myself when creating a new painting. So after setting up our
easels and taking out our charcoals and pencils we started to look for a
good composition for our painting and settled on the rocks and waves at
the foot of the cliffs. The next step was to make some quick sketches
to help test the composition and to see how much of the sea, rocks,
cliffs etc to include in the painting. Here is one of the sketches I
made - (complete with footprint on the bottom right corner!)
Once I'm happy with the general composition I'll start
to paint it on to the canvas. Painting demonstrations are an integral
part of my workshops, they give me a chance to talk about my own
painting process, my materials and choice of colours. They also give me
a chance to play "teacher" for a little while and demostrate some of my
technique and my thoughts on painting. Here is the early demonstration
version of the "rocks and waves" painting. All flies and midges have
been removed from the paint - all part of the joy of painting outdoors
in Achill.
So
no more workshops on Achill until next year but I will be running a
number of 1 day workshops this autumn in my studio in Delgany and in
Adrigole in West Cork. The dates are:
September 10th (Saturday) - Hungry Hill Gallery, Adrigole Arts, Beara, Cork
October 8th (Saturday) 11am to 5pm
My Studio, Delgany, Co.Wicklow
Cost: €60
November 12th (Saturday) 11am to 5pm
My Studio, Delgany, Co.Wicklow
Cost: €60
For further information or bookings please contact Padraig at 086 8801733 or email at info@padraigmccaul.com .Or visit the website at
www.padraigmccaul.com
Last weekend's demonstration for the Nutgrove Arts Fest was really enjoyable (left). It was the closest thing to being on stage again with the Harvest Ministers. But without the music and the adoring fans :)
