Colourful characters

One of the great pleasures and challenges is to capture the colour and expression in people that you meet, come across by accident or get the opportunity to observe from some quiet corner. On a recent trip with my family to Dingle in West Kerry I was wandering around the town enjoying the sunshine and the relaxed holiday mood when I spotted two men standing in an laneway observing the bustling street-life in the town centre. It is always interesting to have a good look at what people are doing, how they are dressed and what moods and interactions they show. Invariably I come across interesting characters and scenes that somehow capture particular aspects of everyday life and human behaviour. A lot of these scenes are not particularly significant or dramatic but yet they convey essential aspects of human nature which are the same the world over but depending on the clothes, age etc can capture a particular time or place very well.       

On this occasion I was lucky enough to be able to sit on a bench across the street and a short distance away from these two interesting characters and  I greatly enjoyed watching the interaction between them. It was clear that the man with the green jacket had a more casual relaxed attitude and yet continued to observe closely all the activity on the main street in front of them. The man with the dark blue suit and cap kept up an animated conversation with the big man in green and watched his face closely to get his full attention and react appropriately to his opinions and expressions. 

It reminded me of a scene from the film 'The Field' where the big man 'Bull McCabe' has the small simple character 'Bird O'Donnell' dancing to his whims and fancies. 

The big men in green was clearly a colourful character in his manner of dressing and expression while the smaller man in dark blue provided a perfect contrast to his relaxed easy manner. I greatly enjoyed  trying to capture this scene in a small painting with a lot of colour and light in the clothes and also strong facial expression to show how absorbed and engaged they were in their conversation and observation.   

The big man is in profile and is looking at the activity on the street rather than looking directly at his companion. The purpose of this positioning is to show his stronger personality and lack of need to impress his friend whereas the smaller man has a stooped position and is completely taken up with observing and engaging with his bigger companion.

I'm happy with the colour and expression in the painting as it captures well a typical scene in rural Ireland and it also shows the subtleties of small town relationships and interactions.