Painting of a Yacht Angle Bay

The above painting is of a yacht at anchor in Angle Bay. As I recall I think it was called Sea Squaw.

It is an old painting which is still in my studio somewhere. I thought I would include the video showing how it was painted albeit the camera quality is poor, you get the idea.

Dinefwr Castle and White Park Cattle

The painting above is sold and is of Dinefwr Castle and their famous white cattle. The cattle have been associated with Dinefwr since Medieval times and are apparently distinctly different from all other breeds. I just like their long horns and inquisitive faces.

Yesterday I took Jac for his early morning walk and was lost in thought for most of the 25 minutes or so. We got back and I let him in the house and he promptly disappeared to be met with a lot of shouting. I wandered in and noticed a great trail of stinking mud along the floors and walls ending with a happy looking Jac and a not so happy looking Alex.

 I obviously hadn't noticed the state he had got into. 

He was easily remedied with a visit to the hosepipe.

 As for Alex and the house well  I kept a low profile for a while!

Cefn Sidan Oil Painting

The above painting of "A walk on Cefn Sidan" sold last week. It so happens yesterday I got the long distance view of Cefn Sidan as we took my sister to Saundersfoot for her birthday. It was a beautiful clear day and you could view the whole of Carmarthen Bay out to The Gower and Worms Head, with Cefn Sidan prominent with its sparkling sand.

I am carefully watching a batch of red wine that is fermenting. About 40 plus years ago we used to make our own home brew. Any fruit wine we could get hold of and sometimes beer. We were on a basic very income. We had no carpets, only a rug in the lounge.  A second hand sofa and chair we were given a bed and a table I bought in the auction for £5. We didn't have a fridge, washing machine, freezer, dishwasher (and still don't, only me). We had a second hand black and white TV we rented for £2.40 a month which meant watching all programs through a snowstorm. Anyway enough tears and nostalgia we brewed as that's the only way we could afford to drink.

One day a whole bucket of apple wine exploded in the bathroom. Not really an issue except the stains were impossible to get out and it got into the lights and fused all the electrics. I sorted the electrics and covered the stains with blocker, oil paint you name it but it still came back. As we were in a police house this was a bit of a problem. The police were very strict with houses and inspected your them regularly. When we got married they refused to give us the key to the house until two days before the wedding. Anyway when we were posted on I had to quickly use paint blocker on it the day before inspection. We decided to stop making wine then as to be honest we were drinking too much.

So this is the first batch since the 1970's. Fingers crossed.

My studio

I have a small studio which means I must keep it in order. in any case I am by nature a tidy person and I like to have everything available and in the right place when I am painting, whether in the studio or outside.

I have three studio easels, one Jullian easel for painting outdoors and two pochade boxes which are a light outdoor paint box and easel. Plus a sketching easel and display easels. Sounds a lot, come to think of it is. They all fulfill different functions. An outdoor easel needs to be light and portable a studio easel can be solid and heavy.

Anyway I am missing out the most important part a studio needs good light and I am lucky to have good daylight throughout most of the day.

Watercolour of Brecon Deanery

I was flicking through some images and I saw this one. It reminded me of the time Alex and Iwere royally entertained by the then Dean of Brecon Geoffrey Marshall and his lovely wife Hazel who put on a huge spread. As a thank you I did this little watercolour sketch for them of the Deanery.

They are a delightful couple and were excellent hosts. Also present I recall was Father Richard Williams of Hay on Wye a real character who takes services with his dog (some sort of Large poodle) present. It was a very informative and entertaining afternoon and we didn't refer to religion once!

Boat scene in the Med

When undertaking a painting that it intended for sale I always consider who might buy it. It is generally not sufficient to produce a good painting it has to mean something to the buyer.

Take the painting above . I rarely do a full painting that is other than for the West Wales or Welsh Market because that's where I work and sell. I go around the country and Europe seeing wonderful subjects but I know for the most part they are only likely to sell in that area or to someone who has a connection to it. I always take my sketch book and pass the time sketching but I hardly ever turn them into a full painting.

I did the painting of boats in a boatyard on Corfu because it appealled to me. It is not likely to sell but I am happy to keep it myself. I did it in a fluid style that I thought suited the subject.

Bats at Dinefwr

Last night we went to Dinefwr (hence the painting above which is sold). We, of all things went for a bat walk! It was great. We had a talk on bats, not too deep and then a very pleasant walk in the duskdown to the mill pond to watch the bats emerging. We were provided with bat detectors that listen in and were provided with a spectacle of bats feeding off the midges and insects from the pond.

Yes a pleasant evening walk and the rain kept away untl the very end.

My website is now back on line but needs a bit of tweeking which I can do at my leasure.

www.markcoxpaintings.co.uk

Sunset

I have decided that after 15 years my old website had to go. I had set it up using  old (even at that time ) Namo web editor software. I have had to keep an old computer just to update it as the software is not compatible with anything after windows xp. Sounds like I know what I am talking about, don't be fooled.
Anyway I have had increasing problems uploading and updating so it has been trashed. I am starting on a new one but am having trouble transferring my domain name (its a mystery).

It will all work out in the end, and if not well whatever. The blog is unaffected.

So today I may be playing (torturing) the piano, finishing the garden for winter or sorting out my studio which is in more of a mess than I would like. I will not be sat in front of a computer!

Oh the painting above is an old one of sunset over Brechfa and is sold.

Country cottage

The above painting was a commission of a cottage, family home situated on a quiet country road. Doing a painting like this really requires a bit of detail for the customer as they know their own home intimately and putting a window in slightly the wrong place etc would likely be irritating or worse to the recipient.

Anyway I have always been happy to spend a bit of time getting things right on this type of subject whereas I am more concerned with the overall effect in an impressionistic landscape painted en plein air.

Rain and Jam

Its been a bit wet lately not that affects Jac he pretty much always goes for a swim and for me it just means putting on more weatherproof gear. My sister visited the other day and the sketch above shows her walking Jac in the rain.

The nickname for a police patrol car used to be a jam sandwich because of the red reflective stripe around it. 

Jam sandwich has another meaning for me. I have previously mentioned that when I was in the police in the early1970’s I was quite short of funds. Well occasionally I was sent to work in the lock-up in Steelhouse Lane.

The lock-up was the police cellblock for prisoners waiting to go to court. They could be held over a weekend or merely overnight. When I worked outside the City Centre I was occasionally sent to the lock-up to sit with a high-risk prisoner (someone arrested for rape or murder). I was also sent to work there on overtime when they were short of officers.

One of my duties would be to make the prisoners meals and feed them. This is absolutely true, for breakfast they had a choice of a strawberry jam sandwich and a mug of tea or nothing.
For dinner they had the choice of a strawberry jam sandwich and tea or nothing.
For tea they had the choice of a strawberry jam sandwich and a mug of tea or nothing.
I still recall the piles of white sliced bread, tubs of spread and the catering size tins of strawberry jam.(This was of course before human rights legislation arrived with an a la carte menu).

I have to add that I too always joined them and was very grateful for a strawberry jam sandwich for breakfast dinner and tea mind you that also meant it avoided me claiming expenses for a meal!

Painting of the Gower

When young I used to visit the art gallery in Birmingham weekly to look at the paintings which included works by David Cox ( incidentally lived in Heath Mill Lane along with my ancestors) and the Pre-Raphaelites. Not surprisingly these painters had a big influence on my work.

The painting above is one I did of the Gower and Worms Head probably influenced by the likes of Arthur Hughes and others of the Brotherhood. The painting is sold.

Yesterday we went to put several paintings in the window of Origin Gallery in Carmarthen as part of a display.

A trip to the Scarlets

The painting above is of the River Towy with Merlin's Hill in the background. It is painted from the bend near Tan yr Rhallt. The painting is sold.

We had a great day yesterday. We went with some of the family to watch the Scarlets play Southern Kings. We nearly didn't make it though. As we got in the car to go Alex said,
" Have you got the tickets?"
" Err, no."
I quickly returned to the house and put them safely in the car door pocket.

We then drove to Llanelli parked up and walked to the Stadium. We took our grandson into the Barn watched some recorded rugby highlights and bought him some horrible pancake stuff with marshmallows ... He liked it. We then met up with our eldest granddaughter and her boyfriend had a chat and were on our way to get in to the ground before kickoff.

Our grandson then asked me if I had the tickets..........I looked at Alex,
"You are joking aren't you?" she said without a word from me and a look that could turn the world to stone.
"Err I think I left them in the car." I replied quietly.

I then had to quickly go back to the car to retrieve them. Fortunately I got there and back without having a heart attack and before the game started and were joined by our son.

Anyway a great game with fabulous tries and ball handling in the second half. So much so my omissions were not mentioned again.

Aberystwyth Promenade

I mentioned commissions the other day. Well the painting above is one of two commissions i have done of the Promenade. This one was for a couple who were celebrating their Golden Wedding. The proposal took place on Aberystwyth Promenade in the Bandstand. A lovely story and I needed to make sure that the painting reflected it. I wanted a nice sunny day with a sea breeze, a timeless painting that could be from any particular decade. I was up to my eyes in work but fortunately I have developed my own way of working which suits me and cuts out a lot of preliminary stages.

Here is stage one roughed out in turps and burnt umber. from there it is a matter of building up the layers and adding detail. This method works very well outside.

Plein Air Painting of Dryslwyn Castle

Yes I finally got out to do some painting outside. It was a great day for it and I quickly got lost in the work. I went out to Dryslwyn although the Castle is much in evidence the tree and its shadow are the real subject here.

I started by doing a 60 second sketch and then a tonal value sketch 60 second on a piece of scrap primed board. Then I began the painting by putting a wash of burn umber and turps over the board. I then roughed out the shapes and values with burnt umber and ultramarine. I then started building up the painting with paint and medium keeping to mixing four colours and titanium white.

The location was a bit on the road for my liking but I survived and was a happy man at the end of the morning. 

Watercolour Bathurst Estate

The watercolour above is of the entrance to Bathurst Park with Cirencester Church in the background.
I did this without an easel standing in the park grounds holding the watercolour pad and using an aqua pen brush. These brushes are great for on the spot paintings .

I have tried other makes but they weren't as good as the original.  As with all paintings and particularly watercolours it is a matter of deciding what to leave out. Anyway I think I got the essence of the scene including the mother having a picnic with her toddler.

With luck I may get out for a painting today