Virtual Paintout - County Clare, Éire.

Shannon Estuary. Pen & ink 245x160mm

After drawings for the Muscat exhibition I want to do more pen and ink work. However, I want to experiment and try a looser style ~ a mix between the controlled finished pieces and my sketching style. This is the result from yesterday's attempt for Virtual Paintout.

The main purpose of Virtual Paintout is "to gather in one area of the world, virtually, once a month with other artists. To paint or draw a scene and composition of your choosing, within a predetermined area."  My previous VP entry was in April, you can see it here.

While the main rule is that "the artist must use a view found through Google Street View as the reference for the painting or drawing". Here is the map where I found my view, to the west of Limerick, in the Shannon Estuary.

© Google Maps

Check out the other County Clare pictures over at Virtual Paintout.

Virtual Paintout - Canary Islands April 2010

I was getting ready for work this morning when I got a phone call telling me the day had been declared a holiday. It was given in order for people to have opportunity to vote in the first Sudanese elections in 24 years. So, inspired by Terry, check out his pictures here, I thought I would do a quick painting.

Virtual paintout is an idea hosted by Bill Guffey and aims to use:

"Google Street View as a resource for traveling the world to find interesting locations and subjects to paint."

Having seen cyber buddies posting interesting paintings, I thought this would be where I would start today. One of the most difficult things was finding the view I wanted to paint. The other thing was that my watercolour pad is quiet old and it seems as if the paper has deteriorated and does not take the water well anymore (soaks it up etc). Oh, and I managed to dunk my brushes in my tea more than once ugh. 

Left  Is the google map I used, the link is here.
My original painting is 200x125mm on old  W&N Cotman 140lb paper.

Checkout other pictures at virtualpaintout.