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I am delighted to be exhibiting my watercolour paintings in the Cafe Gallery, at the Coastguard Cultural Centre in Tramore for the month of October 2022. Why not plan a visit to Tramore for a walk on the beach (or a swim at Newtown Cove) and head up to the coastguard for a coffee afterwards. I am constantly amazed at the number of people who swim all year round. Hardy souls.

The past few weeks have been hectic in our house, but I’m finally getting to spend some time in my studio. When I am at a loss as to what to paint, I return to the sea. So I am working on some beach scenes. These ones have big breaking waves. White foam.

White presents a challenge in watercolour as there is no white watercolour paint. You can use white goache or even acrylic, but the clearest white is the white of the paper itself. There are various ways of preserving it, but for a large painting like this I use masking fluid. I paint the white coloured masking fluid onto the white paper, where the foam is to be! Thats a bit tricky, as its difficult to see what you’re doing! Once done, I then have total freedom to splash on the blues and greens, with long strokes, blending the colours to achieve the feel of flowing water. When I peel off the masking fluid I have beautiful chrisp foam (as in this image).

I’m not finished yet though. The fact is … foam is not white. The foam on the beach casts a small shadow, I will put that in, and it also reflects the colours around it (especially the sky). I’ll spend most of the day tomorrow adding these touches, and also touching up the water itself, adding ripples and swirls.

See my waves at my next exhibition, in Tramore. It runs for all of October … more on that later.

My 2022 Arts Week exhibition is 5th to 14th August at the Concert Hall, Thomastown. A lovely venue. This old historical building has great charm and character. On each of the two Saturday evenings there will be a performance of a play based on the life of one of Thomastown’s great ambassadors – Berkeley. If you come to see the play you can also view my paintings. I will be there most days from 11 to 5, but probably not when the markets are on. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings I share to the place with the normal weekly markets, so if you don’t want to buy a painting you can pick up some veg.

I am delighted to be exhibiting my new work this Arts Week coming, in the Concert Hall, Thomastown. My exhibition is titled ‘Watersides’. Thomastown is the new Kilkenny and the TCAF committee have been working very hard, with the support of the AKA to make this years art trail a great day out for everyone, who comes to visit.

Here is some blurb from the brochure – Exhibition of watercolour paintings. Constantly drawn to the subject of water, Micheál continues to create serene waterside landscapes in watercolour, guaranteed to bring a sense of peace to any home.  Themes include local rivers, familiar beaches and coastal features. New this year is a series of wave studies, large and small, created to bring the song of the sea right into your living room. The style is representational, however the wave studies provide the freedom to blend realism with a more abstract approach. Watercolour is a great medium for splashing about.

I hope you can make it. This is my third time to exhibit at TCAF, and it is, for me, the highlight of my artistic year. All of the paintings hanging on the walls will be new, mostly painted in the last years or so. A big thank you to Claire for the wonderful work in framing them. I will also have a selection of unframed paintings with me (in my haggle box) – you might find something nice in there.

The first exhibition of 2022 for me is the June Bank Holiday weekend – at the Clancy Brothers Festival in Carrick-on-Suir. The venue is the Brewery Lane Theatre, and I will be there Friday to Monday. There will be others there too, indeed the Art Trail takes you all around the town, there are many exhibitions, also concerts, plays and other activities. Fancy a day out?

My website has a small selection of unframed paintings, but I have a big selection of framed paintings, ready to go, hanging in my studio. You might consider one of my watercolours as a gift for a friend or a family member, perhaps a special occasion or house warming. If you are local or in the area, I would be pleased to show you what I have. Visits by appointment only. Please email me (booleyart@gmail.com) or phone (087 6695635) to arrange.

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Mounting your art. I decided to double mount my watercolour paintings for 2022. Why not, I thought. I’ll we exhibiting in Carrick on Suir June Bank Holiday weekend, all going well, and in Thomastown in August. More on these later.

Sometimes I like to get stuck into a detailed drawing. Pencil, then ink and finally watercolour. The benefit is the immersion in the task, which is therapeutic. It is a great exercise in mindfulness. The downside is that it takes soooo long……….

For my palette I use an old dish I found in my mother’s pantry. I don’t think she would mind. It is a roasting tray I think, it has a drain, if you like, around the inside edge. This is handy because the excess water goes in there, and sometimes I use it to create a wash. It is white, porceline probably. It comes up sparkling with a quick wash.

However I don’t often wash it, watercolours stay quite usable even if they dry. It’s due a wash about now though.

I use a limited range of colours, all Windsor and Newton. For red mostly alizarin crimson. For yellow I use raw sienna, lemon yellow and cad yellow, Green i mix usually, but I use hookers green too. For blue, I use the widest range. This is because I love to paint the sea. I have ultramarine, prussian blue, turquoise, phalo blue, cerulean blue and cobalt blue. I use burnt umber and sometimes paynes grey for darker tones.

Last week I posted that I work from photos. True, but only to and extent – I should clarify.

There are two aspects (at least) to any landscape, there’s the man-made world and there is nature. For man-made items – houses, boats, bridges etc – it is important to get the details right. I am speaking from the perspective of a representational painter, which I am. I was annoyed some time ago, when I painted a boat heading out to sea. I worked from a photograph, and I was happy that I represented the boat well. I decided to re-enforce the location by painting the Hook lighthouse in the background. I thought it all worked out well. Later- to my horror – I noticed that I had inadvertently painted an extra hoop on the iconic lighthouse. I hadn’t referred to any photo for the lighthouse itself, I painted it from memory!

Nature, and natural things are different. The sky, trees. grass and so on, I think these need to be approached in a freer manner. Some do and can, paint an absolutely perfect copy of a photograph of a wave, for instance. Photo-realism. I admire this, but its a bit like playing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ exactly like the original Led Zeppelin version. Admirable, but not as much fun as jamming, (check out the Boys from Nashville County / Tribute to Led Zeppelin- Irish trad jam session version – brill).

In watercolour, in particular, you have to let certain aspects of the painting do their own thing. You can paint a perfect watercolour sky in minutes, but you have to allow the water and the paint do their magic, and besides if you copy a cloud perfectly as it is, its gone again before the paint is even dry. I decide whether I want a clear blue sky or a stormy sky and choose my colours accordingly. I wet the paper, I apply the paint, the colours mix and blend, I create clouds by lifting off paint, and I am usually pleasantly surprised at what emerges. Its fun, just like jamming.

I paint the sea in the same way. I have a feel for the sea. I apply the paint lightly. I add darker tones to achieve waves, using gum arabic at times to keep it all fluid. I keep splashing away until it looks right to me. I might continue to add touches for days, or weeks even, as in the case of the painting above.

So, reference photographs are essential for man-made items in the landscape and for the outline of iconic scenes (like the Skelligs), gut a good feel for clouds and the sea, for trees and the countryside is imperative. This is only achieved by going out there, by observation and immersion. Only by feeling the sense of a place can you properly capture it in a painting. Photographs are useful, but they can be limiting.