I work from my studio in Kilcock. It is a small room with shelves all around to put my finished and unfinished work onto. I like to give each work a few days to 'rest' before I completely finalise them and email my clients their portrait scans. On this page, you will find more information on how I work together with some progress photos and videos of my process. I discuss the materials I use and how I go about completing each piece of work. Because I work from photographs, I like to share them here too for comparison. You can subscribe to the blog and receive updates 3 to 4 times a month.
This is a portrait drawing of Alfie, a black cocker spaniel, and Oscar, a king charles cavalier dog. It was commissioned by their owner as a keepsake. The drawing is in coloured pencils. I worked from a couple of photographs to create one portrait. The drawing was 25 x 30…
This painting was commissioned as a birthday present for the client’s wife. Tom asked me to recreate a photograph of his wife’s favourite spot, Rossnowlagh Beach in county Donegal. The painting was 40 x 60 cm in size and painted with acrylics on fine grade stretched cotton canvas. There was…
This painting was a present for the client’s partner. He provided me with a really detailed photograph so my most challenging job was to make it into a unique portrait. The painting was 30 x 40 cm in size painted with acrylics on stretched canvas. I layered colours to make…
This is a wedding portrait painting commissioned as an anniversary present for the bride in the image. The client, her husband, wanted to keep the same background as in the reference photo. It was a lovely photograph to work from with some strong lighting and wonderful colours in the background.…
This drawing was completed a couple of months ago. It was the forth portrait I completed for the client. The lady pictured is his daughter who is a professional musician. The photograph was taken in the eighties and the portrait was given to her as a birthday present in August.…
This was an unusual commission I worked on a couple of months ago. The client asked me to create a drawing of her sister and her husband on their wedding day. She wanted me to capture them walking away specially to show the back of her sister’s wedding dress because…
I was commissioned to draw this building as a keepsake for the client and his wife. The drawing was drawn with graphite pencils on paper to the size of 30 x 40 cm. I removed some elements from around the building. I took some photographs of the finished drawing before…
I completed this painting at the end of May. The photograph is of the couple at their engagement party. The clients, the couple’s children, commissioned the painting as a 50th anniversary present. The photo was only available in black and white, and we decided to transform it into a monochrome…
My days have been so busy in the studio over the last three months. I have completed a number of commissions and prepared a series of six drawings for a group exhibition at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. I am exhibiting with Carysfort Gallery there. I am going to try and…
This painting was commissioned as a wedding gift from a bride for her husband-to-be. It is a portrait of his father, who sadly passed away. I had one photo to work from. The painting is painted in acrylic on stretched canvas in the size of 30 x 40 cm. The…