Grania and the Celtic spiral sun

Earlier on in this blog I had mentioned picture I had been working on, called Grania. I had decided to place her in a meadow of wildflowers, inspired by the wildflowers I had seen growing in profusion on the coast here. In the background I painted a small lake and mountains, and had planned to put a Celtic spiral sun rising over the peaks, its light spilling over the mountains, illuminating the green grass, the lake and Grania golden hair. I spent a long time observing the rise and fall of the mountains here, seeing just how the light and shadows fall at different times of the day, noting the way the brush and trees grew and the way stones were revealed through the soft velvet of wild grasses. Still I could not express in my painting the subtleties of texture and tone I had seen so clearly in nature. I decided the shelve Grania for a while until I could solve the problem. Recently, I finished the Celtic spiral sun and placed it behind Grania without the background. It looked incredible! (In my humble Irish opinion ;) )
Sometime Pictures just know how they want to look.

Here's the sketch of Grania

And the rough sketch of the spiral

and the finished piece!




I put Grania and the celtic spiral sun up in my store http://www.beltain.com just a day or so ago. I love the art nouveau look of it.