Painting in Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire

A windswept Aberyswyth on the Welsh coast also rather reminded me of Eastbourne, with its rocky beach and long dark groynes stretching into the waves.

The long lines of the shore gave the opportunity for lots of lovely fluid work in acrylic, with the overcast sky and drama of the waves rolling in across the rocks.

Green Sea, Aberyswyth (Acrylic, 5 x 7)

Then a really beautiful sunny morning found me working on the coast around Dinas Head in Newport.

Farm Gate, Newport (Oil, 5 x 7)

The beautiful blue skies continued down to Fishguard.  The sun caught the little boats in the harbour, making everything bright and colourful, with beautiful reflections.

Boats at Fishguard (Oil on linen, 24 x 26)

Lastly, after visits to Broad Haven and Little Haven,  it was over to Haverfordwest, with the mysterious, brooding outline of Wolf Castle on the horizon.

Clouds over Wolf Castle (Acrylic, 10 x 10)

Painting in the Conwy Valley, Anglesey and Snowdonia

Preparations for my Great Welsh Journey show found me starting out in September last year at Llandudno in the north.  It was the beginning of a journey that was to take me right round Wales from top to bottom.

Llandudno has a lovely, long Victorian pier.  This was really exciting for me, as it reminded me of the pier at Eastbourne, which I have drawn and painted on many occasions.  I did a number of small postcard sketches as well as a mixed media drawing.

Llandudno Pier (Oil, 5 x 7)

Rainclouds Over Llandudno Pier (Mixed media 29 x 24)

Using watercolour, acrylic and pastel, I tried to get the feeling of the great man-made structure striding out into the great organic swell of the sea, something at once grand and strong, and yet also vulnerable.

Moving round to the bay at Conwy, there were dark rainclouds moving in from the Irish Sea, but these made a lovely contrast with the subtle colours of the sand.

Conwy Sands (Oil on linen, 32 x 32)

In the morning at Anglesey, it was raining pretty hard, and it was often difficult to see the Menai Bridge through the mist.  Then the clouds would lift, and I took a lot of photos of the bridge spanning the straits, which I later made paintings of using acrylic to convey the loose, watery feel.

Morning, Menai Straits (Acrylic, 10 x 10)

Travelling through the mountains of Snowdonia, the weather was again terrible, with heavy rain and low clouds obscuring the mountains, which would sometimes lift to reveal glimpses of the landscape.  There were lots of sheep at the side of the road (which became models for more postcards), and purple heather and waterfalls up the hillsides.  

On to Betwys y Coed, all wet slate, autumn leaves and a river with waterfalls running through the centre of the town.  I took photos from the bridge and did little studies and acrylics as well as larger canvasses.

 Waterfall, Betwys y Coed (Oil, 5 x 7)

River in Early Autumn, Betwys y Coed (Oil on linen, 24 x 26)

By the time I got to Blaenau Ffestiniog, the rain was torrential.  Great heaps of slate rose up above the town, and it seemed as if everything was wet and grey.  It was amazing.  

I climbed up one of the heaps, and took lots of pieces of the beautiful shiny slate.  It was gorgeous stuff, and I became quite engrossed in looking at all the different pieces and all the colours and patterns.   Every piece was different.

However, by this time I was covered in mud, soaking wet, and my camera was full of water between the filters.  Time to dry off!

The Great Welsh Journey Guidebooks Arrive

I'm back!  Hope you've all had a great Easter...

I've just taken delivery today of the brochures and invites for my new show which opens next week in Bristol at the Lime Tree Gallery.

The show is called 'The Great Welsh Journey', and, along with other work by Welsh artists, my contribution consists of a core collection of 20 oil paintings based on a trip around Wales, along with drawings, acrylic sketches and postcards.  

The brochure take the form of a 'guidebook' to the paintings, narrating the story of the trip through words and illustrations of the work.

It's been an exciting project to work on, and I'm looking forward very much to meeting everyone at the preview day on Saturday 28th April.  There's even going to be Welsh-themed snacks and refreshments!

You can see the show online at here.

If you'd like an invite to the show and your very own guidebook, then please do request one by getting in touch with the Lime Tree Gallery, who will be more than happy to send them out to you.  Or just come along to the gallery at 84 Hotwell Road, Bristol - the show runs until 26th May.

See you there!

Happy Easter!

The schools break up today for Easter, so I'm off to be mummy for the next two weeks.

Happy Easter!  See you soon.

Treasures of Heaven

When I was in Paris at Easter last year, I went into Notre Dame.  Whilst I was there, a ceremony took place which had at its centre a large round glass case held by the priests, which a line of people were approaching to venerate, some on their knees.  As I sat and watched, I realised that the object in the case was the Crown of Thorns.

It gave me quite a jolt when I realised what it was I was seeing.  Having studied Fine Art, which is all bound up with the patronage of religion, I've seen a lot of reliquaries and unusual holy objects, from parts of the cross to bits of saints.

I've been to Jerusalem, to the Dome of the Rock, the exact location where Christ is said to have been crucified, and to Bethlehem, supposedly where the stable was.  Bethlehem was rather an underwhelming and unromantic place, but in Jerusalem, you could put your hand into the indentation in the rock where the cross would have been held upright during crucifixtion.  The intense atmosphere of everyone in the confined space of the vaulted room where the rock is was highly charged, and some people actually fainted when they felt the rock.

In Notre Dame, some approached the Crown of Thorns on their knees, and almost passed out when they were in front of it, such was the intensity of the moment.

Whether or not you believe that you can place your hand in the indentation of the stone of the exact spot where Christ was crucified, or that that object in the glass case in front of you in Notre Dame truly is the Crown of Thorns that touched the head of Christ, is not actually the point of a relic.

The potency and power of the object lies in the fact that it is the focus and embodiment of human belief and faith.  As such, it is a direct conduit to heaven, and therein lies its power. Instead of being separated from God, you are by your faith directly connected, just for a moment.

I don't know if you caught the BBC4 programme Treasures of Heaven, in which Andrew Graham Dixon looked at reliquaries, including the Crown of Thorns in Notre Dame.  Unfortunately it's no longer available on i-Player, although you can see more details and a small clip at Treasures of Heaven.  

It's a really interesting little programme, a gem in itself.  However the most memorable and moving moment is also the bit which you will need the strongest stomach for - I'll just say it's a very visceral moment involving an eye.

Favourite Paintings - Van Gogh

Given the beautiful sunny weather at the moment, this is perhaps an easy choice for favourite painting - Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Vincent van Gogh Vase with 12 Sunflowers (version 3) (Oil on canvas 1888)

They're happy and vibrant and full of life-affirming optimism, and I think that's why so many people identify with and love these paintings.

Van Gogh had moved down to Arles in the sunny south of France in 1888, intending to set up a studio in the 'Yellow House' with his friend Paul Gauguin.  In preparation for his arrival, Vincent excitedly painted a series of 11 pictures of sunflowers to decorate the house.  Yellow, the colour of the sun, symbolised happiness, with the sunflower being a Dutch symbol of devotion and loyalty which he felt for his friend.  Also, by including flowers from buds and full blooms through to drooping seed heads in the paintings, it is a reminder of the cycle of life.

 

The paint is applied thickly, with love for the medium, and in a huge variety of strokes.  As well as the colour being expressive, the marks are too - fluid, lively, quick, with lots of texture.

Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers (detail) (Oil on canvas, 1888)

 

 Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers (detail) (Oil on canvas, 1888)

Initially, the sunflower paintings followed established painting rules, having a blue background (blue being the complementary of yellow, so that each colour is intensified by being beside each other).  However later paintings in the series have yellow backgrounds, so you have yellow on yellow with yellow, with just a central pop of blue.  It's turning the happiness and the message of the paintings right up to 11.

 

Vincent spent spent the summer of 1888 in a frenzy of work and waiting. Gauguin finally rolled into town in October, bringing a long roll of rough jute as a present, which both painters used as a substrate to paint on.  (You can trace their paintings they they did together at this time by piecing together the paintings that were cut from this roll of jute.)  

 

Having waited for months for his arrival, van Gogh must have been quite overwhelmingly fit to burst when his friend turned up.  Gauguin, however,  seems to have been quite arrogant and domineering. Unfortunately, it all ended in tears, with the actuality of the situation being nothing like the artistic idyll which Vincent had built up in his head.   The two artists didn't agree on anything, from domestic arrangements to painting, and van Gogh couldn't cope with Gauguin's overwhelming critical attitude.  

 

In only 2 months Gauguin was gone, and Vincent was plunged into severe depression.  

 

Eighteen months later, van Gogh was dead.

Vincent van Gogh, Still Life with Two Sunflowers 1887

Using Acrylics

For some of the work in the 'Great Welsh Journey' show, I've used acrylics as they're great for quick note-taking.

Acrylics are a synthetic paint which can be diluted with water.  They dry quickly, and once dry, they are plastic-like in nature, and are pretty impossible to get off clothes or brushes because you can't dissolve them with a solvent after they harden, so be careful, and always wash your brushes out as soon as you can! 

Acrylics are like a cross between watercolours and oils to use when painting.  They can be used thickly or drawn into like oils, or thinned down with water to use in washes like watercolour.

Here's some close-ups of some of the work from the show.

This is a small painting called Afternoon at Rhossili.  The card has been prepared with a gesso primer and a warm grey acrylic base coat.

Afternoon at Rhossili (Acrylic on card, 6.5 x 10)

When looking from the clifftop at Rhossili on the Gower Peninsula, you can see the wide sweep of the bay with the water shining over the wet sand.  To get the effect of the water on the sand, I used the acrylic in washes of creams and then blues, with a lage soft cats tongue watercolour brush and plenty of water.  Coats of colour dry very quickly.  You can also see the warm grey of the base coat showing through.

 Afternoon at Rhossili (detail) (Acrylic on card, 6.5 x 10)

You can also draw into acrylic with the end of the brush or a stick, as you can with oils - this is called 'sgraffito'.  It reveals the colour of the canvas, or a dry layer of underpaint beneath.  The marks at the top are the distant lines of waves, the thicker marks at the bottom are grasses on the cliffs.

 Afternoon at Rhossili (detail) (Acrylic on card, 6.5 x 10)

This is a detail from Clouds over Wolf Castle (pictured in yesterdays blog).  Wolf Castle in a dramatic collections of jagged ruins on the crest of a hill which you can see rising up from the road across from Fishguard to Haverfordwest.  

To get the looseness and airiness of the clouds, I again used a large cats tongue brush, but using white on a dried background of sky blue, so that the colours didn't mix but retained their integrity.  The white was also thicker and more substantial, so didn't apply so thinly over the blue, although still allowing for a very free form of mark-making.

Clouds over Wolf Castle (detail) (Acrylic, 10 x 10)

Lastly, this is Houses at Betwys y Coed, which shows how you can apply acrylics thickly with a palette knife or edge of a piece of card.

Houses at Betwys y Coed (Acrylic, 10 x 10)

This is an area with autumn trees, so the paint here indicates volume and foliage.  I've also drawn into the paint so that the lilac of the base coat shows through (lilac being a complementary colour to the yellows of the foliage of the trees)

Houses at Betwys y Coed (detail) (Acrylic, 10 x 10)

These various ways of applying acrylic build up to form a vocabulary of different marks, which you can use in various combinations as part of a painting.   There's no right way or wrong way of applying the paint.  Find what's right for you.  When it looks right to you, and says what you want it to say, then you've got it right.