The fountain at Mt. Mellary

Everything seems so flat without strong directional sunlight. I'm at the fountain in the grounds of the monastery at Mount Mellary. I came out early to take some photos and create some thumbnails in the mountains.The monastery is a very special peaceful place. I always stop by when I'm working in the Knockmealdown Mountains.
I have been reaching into the landscape finding endless surfaces each one beneath the last I have been using glazing techniques to respond to this idea and explore the layers always trying for the next surface.

The Nature of reality

Early this morning I packed sandwich camera tripod sketchbooks and watercolours and drove into the Knockmealdown Mountains.Spent some time at the Vee and took some more reference photos From that vantage point you can see across the valley and the other mountain ranges including Slievenamon the Galtee mountains and the Comeragh's. I am working on a series of landscape images at the moment some quite large. I am moving quite freely between smaller watercolours on paper an larger Oil and Acrylic works on panels and canvas. This return to large landscape after two years working on small images specifically for Limited Editions is very refreshing. The process of creating small block work can become mechanical if one stays at it too long even though some good work emerged.
I have always found that when dealing with landscape that I work in layers especially using acrylic and oils. I start with soft underpainting using earth tints and using stronger colours as the painting progresses, finally using oil glazes to complete the work
The satisfaction for me is how each element connects and how I feel in rhythm with the process . As I look for balance in the work it ceases to be a particular place and even though it is a representational image certain abstract elements appear.
I have long since ceased trying to force anything as I am now sure that the most important part of the creative process for me is to allow the image to emerge and to acknowledge that all is connected.
For me Painting has become an investigation into the nature of reality.

Back in the Mountains

I have been painting on location in the mountains the Galtees, Slievenamon, Comeragh's and Knockmealdown. Doing small watercolour sketchs and very loose drawings. Collecting visual information on the landscape to create some large scale work later in the studio.I still think this is the most valuable way of reaching inside the subject matter and I find that I can deal with rapid light change by concentrating on tonal values and recording colour changes with small thumbnails

My Impressions...

Drawings and Waterc...

By Ronnie Fitzgerald

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New paintings and prints of Clonmel

For the last three weeks I have been working on images of Clonmel that people have asked about or commissioned. I have always tried to stay away from drawing the old reliable scenes that have been worked over a thousand times but in all fairness when somebody say's How can you have a Clonmel Collection without the West Gate or the Main Guard? There is no answer to that. As the Print collection expands I have received many requests from people for these areas to be included. The present West Gate was built by a Merchant called Joyce in the 1830's
The present building stands on the site of the original West Gate and formed part of the defences of the town.

Cahir Castle

I was riding through Cahir in Tipperary last week. The light was fantastic so I did some quick watercolour and ink studies of the Castle.
Cahir castle is one of the largest, best preserved castles in Ireland and is situated on a rocky island outcrop in the middle of the River Suir. Because it is on an Island it is accessable from different angles making it an interesting Subject to paint

The origins of the castle are traced back to the third century when a Dun (earthen fort) was built upon the rocky Island and gave the town Cahir Castle, Cahir, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. it's original name "Dun Iascaigh" or "town of the fish fort". The subsequent building of a stone fort (Cathair) is recorded in the town name as Cathair Dun Iascaigh.

The O'Briens of Thomond fortified the site, in the century prior to the Norman invasion of 1169. The present structure is Norman and dates to the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, with significant nineteenth century restoration of a sympathetic nature. The Butlers were granted the castle in 1375 and it remained almost continuously in there possession until 1961.

Lady Blessington's bath

A client from the U.S. asked if I had a print of Lady Blessington's Bath, a popular river scene in Clonmel I have painted this area before but because of the flood wall development going on I have tended to avoid this part of the river of late. However I took some photographs and sketched a bit and working from older images I had in my own archive I created a composition for a finished drawing.
Born Marguerite Power in Clonmel in 1789, in 1818 she married Lord Blessington. She used to swim in this part of the river in the old bridge area of Clonmel

Marguerite and her husband enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle, one they shared with such literary luminaries as Lord Byron. Indeed, Lady Blessington gave the world a great insight into the poet's character and personality in her publication Conversations with Byron. In 1822, after plunging their estates deep into debt, she and her husband moved to the continent, where they remained until Lord Blessington's death in 1829.

A liaison with Count d'Orsay then followed, which gave rise to much scandal in London, where Lady Blessington was now based. In her new career as a journalist and travel writer she edited and contributed to many publications, such as the gossip centred Idler books. She also penned the novels Grace Cassidy and The Two Friends.

Lady Blessington's writings, however, were not enough to save her from bankruptcy, and she fled to Paris, where she died in 1849. Lady Blessington's Bath today commemorates the fame of one of the most colourful and vivacious figures from Clonmel's past.