Glasswing Butterfly 5x7in

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This painting of a Glasswing Butterfly was the second piece as far as I can remember to be completed on my trip aboard.
The see-through wings are a defense mechanism so he's hard to see in flight.

Wild Berries 5x7in

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Hi everyone.

Have just arrived home after a brilliant two month trip in Thailand.

The shock of leaving 35degrees with blue sky's and returning to an overcast 5degrees will take a bit of getting used to! Any support e.g - meeting up for a hot whiskey welcome!

Anyway even with all the travel packed in during the trip I still managed to make a great body of work. Continued from the outset on miniatures and notebook work while revisiting and expanding on large fluid plein air style pieces on paper - it was really refreshing.

So over the next two weeks or so I hope to catch up with myself and post a selection of the works made on the trip on both this blog and my website.

This 'Wild Berries' piece above is one of the last in the collaborative painting project series.

I had just begun to work on it in early January before leaving for Thailand - it is highly detailed and took me about a week to complete.

Hope you enjoy all the new work.

- Richard

Dandelion 5x5in

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Creating and conveying the delicateness of this dandelion was a really rewarding challenge.
Hope you guys like it!

Wishing all of you the best for 2009.

- Richard

Acorns 5x7in

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'From little acorns mighty oaks do grow'.

Forest Mushroom 5x7in

Forest Mushroom - oil/panel - 7"x5" - sold

My approach to creating this piece was that I worked in a kind of 'broken colour' way. From observing the forest floor I thought about how best to lay the paint down to describe the accumulation of leaves and twigs that surround this amazing forest mushroom.

I then turned my attention to describing the three dimensional form of the mushroom using lots of thin glazes. - think it has a real look of coming to life out of the forest floor.

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas. - Richard

Red Squirrel 5x7in

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There are huge grey squirrels eating all the bird food in my back garden at the moment. They're not a bit afraid of me either!

Over the last year I have spent a lot of time walking in the Rhododendron and pine tree gardens around Deer Park in Howth and have spotted red squirrels on several occasions. They are tiny, and not bold as the grey ones.

With this piece I worked to keep the painting lose and playful and at the same time descriptive.

Mushrooms Amanita 5x5in

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Mushrooms Amanita muscaria.

Glorybee 5x7in

Really enjoyed creating this piece. Had a lot of editing and detailing to do. Describing the honey bee and Iris in paint was a great challenge - I'm delighted with the result. Hope you all like it.

-Richard

Butterfly and Dahlia 5x5in

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Spent a whole summer month planting Dahlia's in an absolutely enormous field in Holland while I was working for a farmer. Never got to see them bloom, so creating this painting has been a great consolation.

With this piece I worked to keep the beautiful female brimstone butterfly my main centre of interest.

Thanks for the beautiful photo and information Ton.

"All Art is a collaboration," - Synge

Thistles 5x7in

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Just finished this piece a couple of minute ago. This painting of a group of Thistles is the second collaborative painting I have made during this painting project. I hope to finish about 2 to 3 pieces a week during this project.

With this project my current technique is to work on mdf panels which I prime using 6 layers of grounding. Each layer is then sanded down after each coat dries. This results in a smooth, egg-shell like surface which is non-absorbent. This allows me to completely control the surface structure of the painting and to move around the paint on the surface as much as I like.
On a surface like this it is more difficult to complete a painting in one session (like the way I was creating the daily painting series). Thus, one has to paint in at least 2 or 3 layers.

The process is really time consuming but I am enjoying the results. Hope you like them.

Ladybird 5x5in

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Hi Everyone,
This Ladybird painting is the 101st post on my 'painting projects blog' and also the first of a series of 'collaborative paintings' I am embarking on.

On my last 'daily painting project' I worked mostly from direct observation - that is sitting with the actual object in my studio or outdoors and painting it.

This project involves working directly from photographs supplied by a Dutch photographer friend of mine called Ton Peters . Ton is a keen naturalist and spends a lot of time walking in nature with his camera around Holland and Ireland. His photographs of all thing natural are beautiful.

Using photography as my only reference presents many challenges.
To me photos are inherently flat and capture so much detail without really describing it.
The challenge for me is great- to create a real focal point-to describe different textures with out being actually able to interact with them - to keep things painterly and not to get lost and caught up in 'copying' detail. So for me its a case of editing and coming up with a clear concept around each piece.

With this Ladybird piece my main goal was to create a strong focal point and to describe and capture with paint the very different textures of the ladybird and the leaf. Hope you like it.

'A Quiet Light', my solo show that opened in The CongArt Gallery, Co. Mayo last week has gone brilliantly. There was a huge turn out on the opening night and I would like to thank all who came along. Special thanks to Sheila - who is a star curator and John for his kind words and encouragement.
The show continues until Friday 5th December. You can view some of the work here on there website or check out my website http://www.richardhearns.com/ Enjoy.

-Richard