Countdown to Ireland

I'm getting SO excited about my trip to Ireland. I'll be gone 12 days, 7 of which will be at a workshop with Robert Liberace. I leave early Thursday morning and will spend a few hours in New York City catching up with two friends there during my layover. Then I fly to Dublin, arriving very early in the morning. I'll take a coach on to Northern Ireland and stay that first night in Ballycastle at a bed and breakfast owned by Robert's cousin. They say you can see Rathlin Island and Scotland from Ballycastle, which is on the northernmost coast of Ireland.

Then on Saturday I move to Limepark (just down the road near a town called Armoy) where I'll stay for the week of the workshop. We'll be working on portraiture in the mornings and plein air landscape paintings in the afternoons.

Right now I'm still planning to paint online this Wednesday evening before I go. I'm taking my camcorder and laptop, so I hope to broadcast while I'm there, too, if all goes well.

Preparing: Last night I toned 12 Raymar canvas panels, six 8x10s, and six 11x14s with acrylic paint in as close as I could get to a midtone grey, haphazardly made with red, blue, yellow and white. They were dry almost instantly and I've got them packed in two Raymar wet panel carriers. I've cobbled together a pochade (painting) box to use with a tripod rather than take my French easel, and I've gathered most of the paint colors Rob has on his supply list and bought the brushes he recommends. I'm not taking mineral spirits because you can't take it on the plane and because they'll have that available for us there. I am going to pick up some walnut oil to use as a painting medium, because it's on the list (well, Rob suggests linseed or stand oil, but they don't smell good to me)- not because I usually use it. I'll let you know what I think about it once I've used it.
I still haven't packed, because that would deprive me of that last-minute-panicked-packing experience I love so much. Ar ar ar.
Morgan and the kitties are going to get lots of love while I'm gone, and the house will be cared for. I'll stay in touch with my folks by Skype. My friend Karen will be on call if they need anything. My usual days at the gallery will be covered by four other artists. It looks like I'm really going to get to go!

Several people have asked that I blog about my experiences as I go. So I'm going to try to send a newsletter frequently over the next two weeks, along with photos of what I see. Stay tuned!

Susan

email- susan@susancarlin.com