Carreg Cennen

I painted Carreg Cennen Castle yesterday. This impressive Castle used to belong to the Lords of Dinefwr. I believe that it was sold by mistake. The Castle was included in the sale of a farm by accident, or so the story goes. So having withstood all sorts of attacks throughout the ages it succumbed to a solicitors pen. Thats life.
Anyway today was a bit hit and miss for me (reminds me of juke box jury with David Jacobs, really showing my age now). I walked the dog, finished a Lee Childs Jack Reacher story, took Alex to Origin Dyfed, went to the Waverley to paint and found the gallery was booked. I had forgotten!
So I visited my mom. Then went home and did an oil painting, walked the dog, went shopping for a new bed for the dog, picked up Alex from Origin Dyfed, then went to Tescos. ...
Tomorrow we are off to the Small Picture show and a couple of days r and r.
So no blogs now for a couple of days.

The visit

The painting above is one I did of Tenby from South Beach yesterday.
We had a visitation today, one of our grandaughters arrived. She is actually very sweet but as with all young children ~busy. So while Alex was busy with our grandaughter I disappeared and did an oil painting. Needless to say I believe I had the better bargain.
I am definitely in an oil painting phase. I go through periods of painting either mainly in watercolours or mainly in oil paints. Although I nearly always use watercolours outside my finished paintings at the moment are mostly in oils.
Tomorrow I am painting in the gallery in Town for the first time in a month. I have been away and also the gallery has been closed for redecoration. So it will be a nice change to paint there. What I like is that I get to chat to the odd interested party. The light is nowhere near as good as at home but its fine for a few hours.
Having babysat all day and made a superb full dinner Alex is now busy framing a commission!

Two old characters and a stationary engine.

I sold the painting of the stationary engine today along with a painting of St Davids Head. I am quite taken with paintings of local "characters" myself. I have several others in my head but they have yet to see themselves on canvas. I also learnt that a large painting that was framed under glass had successfully negotiated the postal system to the buyer in one piece which was both surprising and good news.

I painted a view of Tenby from South Beach today. I was quite pleased with the result. I then had other matters including trying to sort out my mothers care and shopping etc...

Alex has called me now for a well deserved cup of tea and cake! A luxury!

Marie Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun

Day off today 2 of the grandchildren went home mid-morning, then visit my mom, then we went off to Tenby to watch our son in the Tenby Marathon. He did very well. I was worn out just watching the event. So not much done artwise. We did walk the dog on South Beach which was inspirational. The beach was wet and the reflections of the cliffs and hotels were magnificent. All being well tomorrow it will be an oil painting of Tenby.

My drawing above is of Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun an excellent French portrait artist whose work I very much admire. She had quite a life. She was great friends with Marie Antoinette and only escaped the French Revolution and guillotine by fleeing France. She fled to Italy and then settled in England for a short period and was a succesful artist at a time when there were very few female artists and virtually no succesful ones. She was obviously very charismatic but above all very talented producing delicately executed work which I find very pleasing.

Anyway tomorrow Tenby

Breathless

Life as we know it comes to a halt this weekend. Mayhem breaks out . Two of the grandchildren arrive. So today was a day of tracking bears in Pembrey Country Park and drawing and making animals.

Life can be pretty varied, hence the painting above which I did a while back. It is a dyptich referencing the juxtaposition of Eastern and Western Society. I dont normally paint anything that is too mentally taxing, but I really liked the individual images anyway.

Talking of taxing I best go and rescue Alex from the grandchildren.

Strange Day

A strange day today cleared out a lot of paintings. I do this periodically otherwise there would be nowhere left to stand. These were mainly watercolours that had never progressed to being framed. The painting above is one that survived the cull. Its different from my normal style but I quite like it.

I did a watercolour today which was ok. Ill have another look at it tomorrow to decide its fate. We are getting the paintings ready for the Brecon Small Picture Show now so Alex has been busy. She has also framed several commissions I finished this week.
I have had a go at making the dinner tonight something at which I dont excell (or enjoy).

So hopefully we will make it through the night without food poisoning.

Yin and Yan

The painting above is an Oil of Carreg Cennen Castle. I sold the painting last year to a gentleman I had never met before from Ammanford. The painting was in an exhibition and he didnt have his cheque book so I told him to take it and forward the money later. He took the painting and very promptly sent me a cheque.

Things like that go a long way to reinforce my positive view of people in general. I find that 99% of people are very genuine. Occasionally people do try it on. I once had a gentleman from the Netherlands wanting to buy a painting and arrange the shipping himself. It was an expensive scam which we fortunately didn't fall for.

Anyway today was a bit hit and miss I did a watercolour painting of Castell Carreg Cennen. I wet the paper and stretched it taping it to a board. I then dried it accidentally left a small section with water trapped under the paper. After painting the sky the trapped water soaked through and left 2 large cauliflower spoils which effectively ruined the painting.

In life you win some you lose some.