Fastnet Lighthouse At Night – Irish Greeting Card

Description

Fastnet Lighthouse At Night – 5×7 Irish Greeting Card by Mark Tisdale.

This Irish greeting card features Fastnet Lighthouse at night. Fastnet Lighthouse perches appropriately enough on Fastnet Rock, a small islet that is the most southerly point of Ireland. Fastnet has been dubbed “Ireland’s Teardrop” because it was the last part of Ireland that 19th century immigrants saw of their homeland when sailing to America.

I had seen pictures of this 1891 lighthouse before and honestly thought they were of a fictional location. The sight of Fastnet Lighthouse rising out of the rocks like that looked like a fantasy. So I was surprised when I was researching Irish Lighthouses to discover that Fastnet Lighthouse was real. It’s actually the second light to perch on that rocky islet. The first was lit in 1854. Constructed of cast iron it was soon deemed unsuitable when another lighthouse built in the same fashion was taken down by a strong gale. The light today which has stood for over a century was built from Cornish granite.

As anyone who has checked out my work knows, I love lighthouses and often seek out new subjects. I often depict them in the rain at night, but for some reason when I saw this one, I wanted it shining brightly beneath a starry night sky. It just suited its fairytale appearance to me. Perched on a rock reaching into a starry night sky seemed appropriate to me, what do you think?

The end product is a study in shades of night blue getting more inky higher into the atmosphere. The water is similarly filled with darkness accentuating the water that is reflecting the golden warm light of Fastnet Lighthouse above. On the horizon there’s a bit of clouds that suggests a storm has either passed or may be gathering strength. Whatever the case, the stars rule the sky at the moment over this old Irish lighthouse.

What captures your attention most in the image on this Fastnet lighthouse card?

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