Burry Port

The painting above is of Burry Port Lighthouse with the Gower in the distance. The painting was sold yesterday.

Burry Port Harbour was originally built between 1830 -32 to handle shipments of coal from the area. It was re-vamped recently with the siting of a marina and housing. The lighthouse is no longer part of Trinity House lights but I believe it still functions. I have painted the light house and harbour several times in different compositions.

Today I felt a bit of a chill wind while walking the dog and that prompted me to paint a winter landscape of the Towy Valley. Tomorrow I am in the gallery. I am not sure what I will be painting.

What's in a name ?

The painting above is one I did today of Kidwelly. You will note that I have signed it in the left hand corner. I am often asked if I will sign a painting or print when in fact it is already signed its just that it may not be very noticeable.

I firmly believe that the painting should sell itself figuratively and literally. The name is really of no great consequence. I am not one to flourish a large signature across a work athough I have no problem with others doing so. I am content to mark it as genuine with my initials and record and catalogue it in a database.

Obviously names do sell paintings a superb painting by an unknown provincial artist may be worth nothing whilst a very poor daub by a well known artist might sell for tens of thousands.

Not every painting an artist does can be successful but some will regretably sell all their works of whatever quality relying on their name.

I have also been asked if I have any connection with David Cox. My family history is somewhat clouded on my fathers side but I do know that my family did live in Heath Mill Lane in the 19th century. This is the same place David Cox lived. So who knows, and what's in a name anyway!

So today I did the painting above and Alex spent the day mounting paintings ready for framing.

Home and Away

The painting above is of The Gower, Llangenith Beach and Worms Head, and was sold yesterday.

Worms head is a very familiar shape to us as we have sailed around these waters of the Bristol Channel for a long time. I understand that the word 'Wurm' means 'dragon' and it was named by Viking invaders. The shape as you can see is very like a giant dragon or sea-serpent and marks the westerly end of the Gower. When we camped in North devon recently we could still see the Wurm from our camper van on the cliffs. Ironic really as we had travelled some 200 miles by road and we were in site of home.

Last night we had David Cowdry and Erika round for dinner both lovely people and exceptionally talented. As usual our dog Jac was the centre of attraction and stole the show.

Today was spent making some trim out of oak to finish off our new flooring. Tomorrow is put aside for painting and Alex has a number of paintings to frame.

"Any old iron"

The painting above is of Llansteffan Beach. It was sold to a lovely lady from Caerffili yesterday.
I just got back from walking the dog and I heard a very unusual sound from the estate above the reservoir.
"Any old iron scrap metal pans.." this was a cry I hadn't heard for about 50 years. The only difference was that today it was on a loudspeaker. I have to say though it did get me thinking about the rag and bone man when I was young. He used to come down our street with his old white cart horse pulling an open cart piled with rags and relics from the kitchen. He would have balloons tied to his cart and would give children a balloon for a bundle of rags or an old pan.
Obviously the price of metal is going up at the moment.
When it comes to recycling paintings or canvas I am afraid I generally don't bother. I have previously primed over an old painting and spent time producing a new work to find that the texture of the old painting ruins the work. I do recycle brushes to some extent. Watercolour brushes tend to be used for oils when they are no longer suitable for watercolour. Worn oil brushes are used to scrubble turps or medium onto a canvas. When of no longer use they are thrown in to the scrap wood pile for my friends wood burner.

Whats in a Sketch

The watercolour sketch above is of Druidstone Haven and was done on the scene last week. It was painted on Saunders Hot Pressed paper. I don't usually use HP paper but I had been generously been given a pad. The paper is smooth and similar to painting on thick cartridge paper. Anyway why do people make sketches? For myself I sketch both in pencil and watercolour for a number of reasons:
To make a record of the scene before me for a possible painting later
To keep my hand in drawing and painting from nature
Because I enjoy doing it
A sketch will take about 2-15 minutes normally. The time is generally dictated by the subject, the weather conditions and my wife Alex. If it is wet and windy I paint very quickly but more importantly I judge how long I can take by my wife's look when I say,
"I am just going to do a quick sketch!"
In fairness she is very patient, more patient than I am when she runs into a friend and starts a long conversation.
The majority of my sketches are kept for a period and then culled,(taken to the skip), if I haven't made use of them within a couple of years. So even if I havent used them for reference I have still enjoyed doing them and they have helped to keep my skills honed.

North South divide

We have been away for a week while my family came to house-sit and look after mom. We stopped in Druidstone in a little campsite with views overlooking St. Brides Bay. It was a really nice week which was spent walking the coastal path and reading when it was too wet. I got plenty of material for new work too. Pembrokeshire is divided into North and South by the Landsker Line an invisible boundary that divides the English speaking South and the Welsh speaking North. It is also divided physically by the Milford Haven Waterway.

We stopped South of the Landsker Line in Druidstone and North of the Haven. The main difference we noticed is that in North Pembrokeshire particulalry close to the coast there is a distinct lack of trees. A scruffy windswept bush would be as much as you are likely to see. The other really noticeable difference is that in South Pembrokeshire at night there are literally flocks of starlings in their thousands whilst in the North there are barely 20 or thirty birds in an evening display. It could be that the lack of trees and low numbers of swallows is connected.

Anyway I did a lot of sketching mainly of coastal scenes. On approaching Broad Haven you are quite high and can easily see the Oil refineries in the South of the Haven. The picture above is of the Old Texaco refinery and is sold.

Dinner time now!

Cattle in the floods

The picture above is of the scene I saw of cattle in a flooded field at the begining of October. I didn't get a chance to sketch ot take a photo of it at the time it was just posted in my mind for future reference.

I am not fortunate enough to have a photographic memory but I am able to visualise some scenes and paint without other references particularly if there is no great amount of detail required.

Today I painted in the gallery. I went up the Black Mountains on Sunday and today I painted a scene from the Black Mountains of a stream and waterfall. I may put a red kite in the painting when dry as we did see half a dozen and it may just be what is needed. I will see.

This is my last post for a week or so as I am away. My family are coming down to look after my mom so a week away and a bit of walking and painting.