This is a painting I created back in June this year 2026. It was a commission for a birthday gift for the mum in the portrait. This happy family portrait is a memory of a lovely day climbing the Ticknock Mountain in county Dublin. I was commissioned to paint this portrait by the mom’s husband for her 40th birthday gift in July this year. What a great present to celebrate such a milestone birthday!
I often paint portraits of family or places as birthday gifts. Paintings are rarely expected and usually turn out to be such brilliant surprises. Naturally, it was the same with this painting too. Claire, the lovely mother and wife, was delighted with her painting and so was her husband. They had a spot picked in their house for the painting to hang and take centre stage. The painting captures her and her two sons Jack and Daniel who seem to be having a great time. I was delighted to see the photo of them, they look so natural and full of fun.
Behind the Portrait Painting Commission
This painting was based on a photograph taken by the husband and dad who commissioned me to create it for him. He wanted something with a good impact and I suggested a larger size of 50 x 60 cm for the canvas. He was very happy to go with my suggestion.
I wanted to capture a good amount of landscape to create some depth in the painting. The views are just spectacular and I was really looking forward to painting them. I love the mountains and painting them gives me so much satisfaction.
The Ticknock Mountain is in county Dublin and has a beautiful view over the entire Dublin Bay, some great views over the Dublin Mountains and Wicklow Mountains. You can see as far as north Dublin and of course Dublin city itself. The two towers are on the right and you can see Howth in the centre back.
The rocks in the foreground bring the family featured foreward and add to the depth of the overall composition.
The two – week long painting process
Because of the size of the painting, it took me around two weeks to paint. I enjoyed every minute of it, from the basic line sketch through covering the surface with colour blocks to adding final details. I used mostly flat brushes for the painting, only painting with a small round brush when detailing the faces and features of the main characters.
This photo shows me using a small flat brush to paint the rocks in the foreground. I used my usual, as I call it, Irish colour palette. This palette includes a lot of earthy tones of browns and greens. What worked really well in the painting I felt, were the splashes of bright colour of the clothing, especially the bright acidic green which I used again throughout the painting to keep the colour in harmony.
I painted over areas with many thin layers of paint to create a good coverage and add ‘meat’ to the surface. The photograph was taken during an overcast day and this made the colours true to life. I am always delighted working from these kind of weather conditions, especially when painting skin tones.
The mum in the photograph is wearing sunglasses, so my client was keen for me to remove them. Therefore he emailed me a few separate photos of his wife’s face for reference.
I worked on a fine grain canvas, texture of which is nicely shown in the detailed photo above. The surface is fine enough to capture detail and rough enough for it add interest into the surface.
Finalising the Portrait
My client was really happy with the finished painting of his family, though a little worried his wife would like her gift. Nevertheless, once he gifted her the painting, she was really happy with her surprise.
Finally, before collection, I applied two thin coats of satin varnish to the canvas surface. I allowed it to dry well and took some photographs before my client collected the painting from my tiny studio, e.g. my house 🙂
Finally…
Thank you all for reading my blog. It is such an honour to work as an artist. It is hard work, but also so rewarding. And with Christmas 2026 approaching, I am hoping for a lot of interesting projects to come my way. I cannot wait, so please order early to avoid being dissappointed.
You can contact me at info@trueimage.ie or go to my Contact page and fill out a contact form. All I need to begin the commission process are some photographs and an idea and we can take it from there… I am looking forward to it.
Finally, please feel free to leave a comment to any of my posts here…
