The only painting I have ever created from a vacation photo!

It’s not often that I try and recreate an image from a vacation photo. In fact, this is a first.

This past July, Chris and I ventured to Northern Ireland and then took a ferry over to Scotland. It was a magical trip, each day, different from the other in what we saw and what we did.

Golf played a major role as we attended The Open which was held at Royal Port Rush Golf Club in Ballymoney. And if you’re going to visit Scotland and you’re a golfer, it makes perfect sense to play St. Andrews – the birthplace of golf. So we did and it was one of the most memorable rounds I’ve ever had for many reasons.

Seeing the sights of Northern Ireland and Scotland was also a major part of our itinerary. We visited the cities of Dublin and Belfast in Ireland as well as Glasgow in Scotland. Though enjoyable, I wasn’t exactly blown away.

But the majestic natural beauty of the coast of Northern Ireland – that made a major impression.

Parts of it reminded me of driving the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Yet this part of the world had a certain magic all its own. When we journeyed to The Giant’s Causeway, the timeless beauty of the rocky shore was a sight to behold.

Legend has it that the Causeway was the ancient home of the mighty giant, Finn McCool, who built a rock formation to help him cross over to Scotland to battle the Scottish giant Benandonner. Science says the hexagonal rock formations are a result of volcanic activity more than 60 million years ago.

Regardless, the rock formations were awesome to behold. But so was the entire landscape of the coast.

We took several pictures. One of them I used as the basis for this painting.

If you visited the Giant’s Causeway, you could see the exact same view shown in this painting.

But since I don’t want to be a landscape painter, I knew I had to add some different element to it. So I chose to paint a peasant girl, standing atop the largest rock, staring off into the distance. The peasant girl is based on a painting I saw in a gallery in Glasgow, though I made her look more like a young adult than a child.

To me, adding the human element into the painting adds a certain story appeal to it. The title of the painting, “Once Upon A Time In The Giants Causeway” (I have seen both Giants and Giant’s used for the name), adds to the timelessness. For this is a place that seems as if it has been unchanged for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

It’s a large painting – 36″ x 48″ and if you were to see it in person, I think you would like it.

But if you don’t, that’s okay. It’s a memory that will last for me.

In addition to creating advertising and marketing communications, I also love to paint. My work can be seen on a variety of websites: art sleuth, artfully walls and pixels are just a few.  In addition to buying my original paintings, you can also order prints of my work, as well as get my artwork put onto a variety of items like iPhone covers, pillow throws, tote bags, greeting cards, coffee cups, shower curtains and a wide variety of other items by visiting my other website on Pixels. I also invite you to follow me on Instagram to see work in progress from start to finish!