Five Artists, 1 View

Late last year, a group of artist friends on Facebook took on the challenge of each painting their version of a photograph by Irish artist/photographer, Clive Hughes. The image, a magical, misty dawn on The Cloghbrack, Connemara in County Galway, Ireland, gave all of us a thrill and we each completed our interpretations fairly quickly. Of the six of us (Clive also painted a version of his photograph), 3 live in Ireland, 1 in Vermont, 1 in Florida, and 1 in Virginia. I thought it would be fun to display all the paintings together for viewers to see how each artist, using their preferred medium, interpreted The Cloghbrack.

To view more work by each of these fine artists, click on their name. I invite you to comment.

The Cloghbrack, Connemara, Galway, photographed by Clive Hughes.

Laura Butler, The Cloghbrack, oil over an acrylic underpainting.

Clive Hughes, The Cloghbrack, oil

Sharyn Larkin Lightfoot, Far Away in Ireland, pastel

Jim McGrath, The Cloghbrack, oil

Deborah O’Keeffe, Are Ewe Sure this is the Way Home?, oil

Diane Artz Furlong, An Irish Morning, pastel

 

 

 

Painting Challenge

Last month, my Facebook friend, Clive Hughes, who takes wondrous photos of the Irish countryside, posted an image of a road, mountains and lake that was suffused with such an unearthly light that there was an audible gasp heard round the Facebook world. Several of us asked Clive’s permission to render the image in our preferred medium. Here is the progression of my effort with the finished pastel painting.

The original photograph, The Cloghbrack, Connemara, by Clive Hughes

Step 1, the sketch

Step 2, the underpainting

Step 3, blending the underpainting and adding color to the sky

Steps 4-9, continuing to lay in color and form shapes, working predominantly in a clockwise manner, from the top down. The final section done was the rain puddles on the road.

This next image is blurred but I wanted to show how I put in the undercolor for the hedges beside the road.

The finished painting, Irish Morning, pastel, 9×12, from an original photograph by Clive Hughes.