Mussenden Temple is a place on the Antrim coast that I love to visit, so when I was asked to paint a little romantic version of it as a wedding gift I was thrilled to have another reason to go! I went on quite a dull day however so I’ve used some of the many sunsets I’ve photographed to liven up the colours and create a warmer, more colourful effect.
![]() |
The finished painting, pastel on velour 12″x12″ |
![]() |
Stage one and I’ve sketching in the temple on the yellow velour. This shade of surface creates and nice warm glow underneath my layers. |
![]() |
Sunsets are the best skies to paint! I love the warm colours and this is making use of the lovely contrasts between the blues and oranges. |
![]() |
Lovely warm grey tones as the base for the ocean. |
![]() |
On quite a small scale so the detail in the temple itself is quite fiddly. I’m adding the darkest areas here first. |
![]() |
Lots of bricks on the bottom of the temple and I’m using lots of sharp edges of the Unison to do the finest of lines. |
![]() |
Almost there! |
![]() |
In it’s gorgeous frame from Art & Home. I decided on this frame before I painted the piece and took an off cut home to make sure I was using the right shades in the painting. |
![]() |
To give you a sense of scale 🙂 |
I hope the couple who got married in this special place had a wonderful day. Congratulations to them and I hope this painting is a happy memory of their big day!