Portrait painting

Sometimes I like to paint portraits with oil paints and big brushes. It makes a change from painting teeny flowers with tiny brushes ;)


One of my favourite portraits is The Fisherman's Mother (1893) by Irish Artist, Helen Mabel Trevor.
It hangs in the National Gallery in Dublin.

Wedding bouquet

Flowers for a friend's wedding. Her favourite flowers, she told me, are Peonies and Daffodils. They do not bloom together in July - but on my painting desk they grow at the same time ;) Oak tree leaves (the tree for July, (13th June-10th July in Irish folklore), symbolises protection, keeper of the woods and all that dwell therein like deer). Ginny-joes: blow and make a wish. Many Ginny-joes: blow to make many happy wishes for her and her husband.

She "introduced" me to cloudberries

July sunshine and Morning were smiling to each other this morning and I went out and made a third. Sitting on a wooden bench under the dappled shade of two apple trees. With a coffee. And my camera and a letter to read.  The leafy trees put on a show, thrilling blissfully as the breezes rushed through them.

Above, a painting for a girl who introduced me to cloudberries (they are the little flowers painted around her feet). She is a talented knitter and a tea connoisseur!