This Is Why I Love To Paint!

During my recent watercolor workshop on the beautiful unspoiled Beara Peninsula of Ireland, I found myself standing by this old ruin, just a few steps from the main street of Eyeries. I thought that a demonstration of how I might paint old rock walls and stones would be valuable to the class and so I set up my easel and began.

Behind me was a hedge filled with wild fuchsia, back lit by the sun. Birds swept overhead; the temperature was perfect - I was overcome by a sense of well-being and I think I could safely say - "euphoria".

That night I had barely gotten into bed when I just had to get up and write this in my journal:

 

Standing in the tall grass under a bush laden with cascading fuchsia blossoms - birds are singing, swifts too numerous to count darting overhead. The sun is shining. Paint going down on paper, merging, meeting, blending colors - the lovely meeting of grey-blue, cerulean and bronze- friends nearby - I was struck by such a powerful feeling:

My Unfinished Plein Air Painting

"THIS is why I love painting".

Wild Fuchsias