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