This painting is based on a black and white photograph taken on 22nd January 1943. My paternal grandfather Daniel T McCarthy is sitting on his newly bought Fordson tractor. The orange model was made from 1939 – 42. Behind the tractor is a plough. Much of the ploughs in Ireland were still horse drawn at that time. My grandfather was a forward thinking man in terms of farm machinery and this tractor was the very latest in tractor technology at that time. I didn’t know him, he died in 1973. The original photograph had a glare that obscured much of the engine detail. Also the very front of the tractor was cut off in the photo, so I had to consult the original negative plate to get it right. So I spent WAY too much time on this. I faded the colour in the sky to make it look colder and blurred the detail in the ground and background so the tractor stands out more.