Barbara and I have recently returned from two weeks touring Ireland and Northern Ireland.  They are absolutely beautiful and we would highly recommend adding them to your bucket list!

As you might expect, we took hundreds of pictures and several are going to be references for paintings I will be doing in the future, Many will be land/seascapes, and historic places.  I am going to try a few cityscapes, something new for me, but I have a few references I want to try.  I will also do two or three that are based on looking out the window of our hotel rooms.  They will be entitled "View From Room...."  Room 225 is the first of them.  It was taken out the window of our room in The Merchant Hotel in Belfast.  It was a grey foggy morning and the view was the back of several buildings, an apartment and off to the left this chimney with a sea gull perched on the top.  I liked the angles, the soot and grime on the masonry the antennas and, of course, the sea gull on top.  There actually is a building that runs all the way across in the reference photo behind the chimney, but artists get to delete anything they no not like/want in the painting!

Hope you enjoy it!  Be on the lookout for more "Memories of Ireland" coming soon.  I think the next one will be a seascape.

I recently received great news.  Old No. 5 has been accepted to the 2019 Watercolor Society of North Carolina 2019 Annual Juried Exhibit.  The exhibit will be at the Imperial Centre, 270 Gay Street, Rocky Mount NC from Oct. 8- Dec. 29.  Thanks to the juror, Stan Miller, for selecting Old No. 5 to be par of the show.  Stop by the exhibit to see 70 watercolors by North Carolina Artists.