Min-y-Don Harlech

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post we have been up in North Wales for a few days in our camper van stopping at Min-y Don. I did some sketches and a number of watercolours about 20 I think although only half that number will eventually make it to framing I suspect. Its mainly finding subjects that are marketable. I will paint all sorts of things that take my eye but we won’t necessarily go to the time and expense of mounting or framing them.


The painting above is an example, a nice little watercolour of sheep and the dunes at Morfa Harlech. Will it find a frame? Probably not.

When we got back we had an email form Pat who we hadn’t seen for years. She reminded us of another embarrassing moment which I will get around to posting.

Today was spent in the garden and collecting grandchildren and my mother.

Harlech Castle

We have been away for a few days and have just got back. We spent our time in Harlech, a lovely spot but unfortunately the town is a bit run down. I suppose the recession is hitting everywhere. The people were very friendly and the beach is superb. Jac ran for miles in the dunes and on the shore.

Anyway we had a good time relaxing walking and painting. Here is one of the watercolour paintings I did of the Castle.

On the beach

The watercolour above is another in the series I have done of figures on the beach.


When the children were young we would go on camping holidays. We like the outdoors and we could also just about afford it. I am often reminded by my son and daughters of the preamble that accompanied any treat in a fish and chip shop or café on holiday.

“You can have one drink so make it last that’s all we can afford.”

It was true and at least they appreciated it now although it did cause problems at the time. Many of our camping holidays were at Barmouth and were for the most part a great success. We had a ridge tent, which held five of us including the dog. It didn’t have any separate compartments and it wasn’t tall enough for anyone to stand up in apart from the dog.

Occasionally we were rained out. We would wake up in the middle of the night wet, with our little tent collapsed on top of us in a howling gale. We inevitably gave up and packed the car at that point to go home.

We still love the area and Alex and I go back there and I sketch and paint the coastline and the Mountains of Snowdonia. We do have a tent still but we use our camper now. That is our concession to getting older.

Today was spent sketching and reading.

Ceramics and me

The painting above is of Alex and one of the little ones.


When I did my art degree I learnt a lot although strangely I was never taught how to paint or the techniques of painting. Fortunately for me I could do that before I went. I did learn about Art History and also Ceramics.

I am interested in techniques and methods so ceramics did appeal to me. When I was boarding at school we had a good teacher with no budget so we dug clay and then built our own wood fired kiln. We made slips and were relatively successful.

It is quite a scientific process, firing times, formulae for slips and glazes etc.. The lecturer at college was also very good and very organized something of a rarity in Art College! Unfortunately I had no connection with ceramics or pots and was very average.

It was a blessing really as you have to specialise and me real love is painting.

His Pride and Joy ~ Grey Ferguson Tractor

The painting above is the one is of a Ferguson tractor. I posted an image of the drawing a couple of days ago.


I went to a school in Aston which had an annex near Lichfield. The annex was an old hall and farm. You spent the third year boarding at the annex. (It was subsidised and people paid what they could afford if anything). I thoroughly enjoyed my year there and got to drive a tractor like the one above and do all the farm chores. I could never have been a farmer though. It is just too much of a tie. But I loved the outdoors and still do.


I probably enjoyed the boarding because school work took a bit of a backward step.

We did anything to get out of maths or French. Someone would leave the pigs out and we could spend a morning chasing them around the fields. Someone else would stuff straw up the chimney in the Nissan Huts used as classrooms and we would be smoked out.

We played rugby in a field full of cow pats and sheep….Probably couldn’t do most of it now with H&S.

It all sounds a bit Huckleberry Finn and I suppose it was in way. I didn’t like school much bit I did enjoy the year boarding.

Man's best friend

The watercolour above is of my son’s dog. He is a big black Labrador, the dog not my son. All my children have dogs which is nice for them but it can be a bit chaotic at family gatherings.


Our daughter was talking the other day about our dogs when she was young. I hadn’t thought before about how much impact it had on her. She remembered when they died and how she felt and going to fetch a new dog, what we did and which dog was with us. It was obviously a big part of her growing up. Anyway she turned out to be a lovely person as did the other children so I am sure the addition of man’s best friend to the family helped in their nurturing and development.

Dogs are popular in paintings probably because they hit the spot and remind us of a dog we had or knew. I am a big softy in that regard although I rarely paint a dog portrait as I have said before. I do incorporate dogs into a painting as incidental to the scene on occasions.

Ah well its time to take the dog out now!

Vintage MG Carmarthen

The painting above is one I did last week. It shows an MG sports car, which I have to say I love the look of. It was one of those really hot days in July last year.


I have to say that although I am fascinated by machinery I am not really interested in cars as such. We used to do all our own maintenance and servicing at one time. Alex had an old Landrover which we did most things on including changing the cylinder head and converting it to unleaded fuel. Cars now of course are half machine half electronics so are impossible to work on without the right equipment. All I need from a car now is it to stop start and be comfortable carrying our work and us. I must say also that I don’t really enjoy lying under a car getting rust in my eyes changing an exhaust pipe. These days any problem straight to the garage!

So I would never go to the motor show but I would go to a vintage show or steam rally. There are plenty of good subjects there and of course there quite nostalgic.