[Martin Kealey]

Curious as to what fellow medieval military enthusiasts might think of this painting. Gouache and watercolour on illustration board.

[Bryan Heff]

That's really great. Can you tell us more about this? Are you the artist?

[Martin Kealey]

I painted it about 21 years ago, after returning from meeting my wife's family in Poland. At that time, I had never heard of Grunwald or the Krzyzacy (at least by those names) and found myself quite fascinated by the battle that I learned was Tannenberg where the Poles defeated the Teutonic Knights.

[Gottfried P. Doerler]

you are very gifted. did you enjoy professional training ? do you sell your paintings ?

a question to the heraldry:
white eagle on red field is polish, ok.
red-white-red stripes is austrian (which side did they fight for ?).
what is the yellow lion on blue field ?

[Mark Moore]

Beautiful. You need to have prints made of that for sale...lots of them. .........McM

[Daniel Wallace]

the quality of your work it great, i remember water color as a kid and it always had that light washed over look, then when i was trained in college i saw these new water color pigments that come in a tube - and its great at how much different it works. you can make colors so much more solid, i was never much of a painter, but my best painted work is in water color.

details of the horses are excellent, there's a clear showing of motion, folds of cloth are spot on. the forms and movements of the bodies are natural.

weather your formally trained or not - this is really good work - my question would be did you do this from memory, or did you use some reference?

this makes me want to pick up a paint brush again and give it another go, but I'm more of a sculptor / sketch artist these days

[Martin Kealey]

I have little formal training, having gotten tossed out of art school after one semester due to (now cured) anger issues back in '75. I now work principally in oil paints (except on my nesting dolls-gouache and watercolour with those) and just paint what interests me. I rarely sell my work, usually just trading it for things I want (an example is the bronze provocator helmet I posted in 'Show us you helms' thread) I am currently working on a painting of some Krzyzacy on a punitive patrol in Lithuania coming across the frozen body of a brethren who had been tied to tree and had his throat cut by some Lithuanians. I find the imagery of the white cloaked knights in winter settings fascinating.

[Martin Kealey]

Daniel:

I use reference photos sometimes, memory other times. I the case of this painting, I attended a polo match and took lots of photos of the riders in action. It is real easy to do a few minor alterations in a polo rider's pose and end up with a great mounted combat image. The armour on the ax wielding Krzyzacy was owned by a friend of mine (made by Robert MacPhersen) and the harness worn by the Krzyzacy grabbing at the great banner of Krakow is my own personal one (also MacPhersen work). Other helmets and such were drawn from museum examples I could find. The picture is 2x3 feet. I'm thinking of redoing it in oil on canvas.

[Daniel Wallace]

I was denied recommendation to art schools because i flat out told my professors i couldn't stand modern abstract art and refused to work in it, and more than half the classes i took seemed to be how to make something abstract. has since been my downfall with the greater art community.


if you do decided to redo it in oils, post if up once your done, I'd like to see what it comes out as.

[Martin Kealey]

Will do. I'll also post the one I'm working on re the Krzyzacy in the Lithuanian forest.