Kerry Landscapes

These are my first attempts at some new landscapes, inspired by my recent holiday to County Kerry in Ireland. The first is a view of the mountains overlooking Dingle Bay on the Dingle Peninsula. I am not quite as confident using watercolour for landscape painting, as it is very different compared to painting wildlife. I kept the image 'loose', using a wet on wet technique. I wanted the mountains to blend into the sky, to give the effect of clouds drifting over the mountain tops, so I added the mountains whilst the sky was still moist. For my first watercolour landscape in several years,
I am fairly happy with the result. It is very atmospheric and moody.
The second painting to the left are the mountains overlooking Muckross Lake in Killarney National Park. I painted this using my usual method in acrylic, using a palette knife to apply the majority of the colour. I only used a paintbrush to give the softer cloud effects, and to blend the reflections. I prefer to paint in this method, as it is far more expressive. Although, as my stepdad pointed out, I need to paint on canvas paper or board, so the acrylic flows better and does not create such harsh lines. This calls for a trip to the art shop to stock up tomorrow!