Puerto Mogan

It’s been a busy day today. Walk the dog then the gym by 8am. Got back then had to call the doctor for my mom. Time for a shower then into the gallery to do a quick painting. At 12 noon I went over to the new gallery where Alex was busy painting the walls.

I then spent the rest of the day helping put up a stud wall and other odds and ends with the odd intermission to check on mom and walk the dog again.
Still its 5.50pm and we are now home for supper and a relax!

The watercolour sketch above is of the harbour at Puerto Mogan in Gran Canaria.It took about 20 minutes. Not much more I can say about it.

River Towy

The painting above is one I have now pretty well finished. It isn’t a very good image as the light has caught it and I was in a bit of a rush. I will have to take it again for my catalogue. Anyway the painting is about 4 feet by 2 feet and is intended to replace a painting in our kitchen. That was 8 feet by 2 feet and is no more. Alex is redecorating so she needed a new painting and to be honest I had seen enough of the old one.

It was an early start today mom phoned at 3.50am so it was out of bed and visit her. She was a bit confused! So was I at that time in the morning. I didn’t sleep after so I took the dog out at 7 and got to the gym for 8. I then started on the painting above. It is a view of the River Towy looking towards Carmarthen.

Alex went to Swansea with grandchildren and her mother to pick tiles?
Tonight we are having a meeting about the new Gallery for the co-operative.

Granddaughter

The sketch above is a quick portrait of one of our granddaughters. I have previously said that I no longer do portraits except for the family. It is a specialised skill and one that needs to be kept up. More importantly it is very time consuming and the market doesn’t really pay except for the very few top portrait artists who charge £15k plus for a head and shoulders portrait (also known as a kit kat).

I find children are particularly hard to sketch/draw paint. You often see portraits, which are completely wrong proportionally for children. (Which tends to age them). They do not have the same general proportions as adults. They tend not to sit still either. It is all about observation and not preconceived ideas. Easy to say but not so easy to do.

Anyway I am quite pleased with the sketch above it is a good likeness and very recognisable to anyone who knows her. It took about 10 minutes observation and 5 minutes drawing. There is a minimal use of line and this results in an unfussy picture. It is unlikely to go anywhere further but will reside in a sketchbook.

Today I helped fitting out the new gallery, walked the dog twice, went to the gym and primed a large board for a new painting to go in Alex’s kitchen.

Druidstone and horses

I finished the painting of Druidstone beach and horses today, shown above. It is quite a large oil which will probably be set directly in a frame without a mount or glass. I also varnished three paintings.

I have been asked if we will exhibit in Swansea in November and as it doesn’t interfere with Newport or Carmarthen exhibitions we said yes. Things are a bit tight as we are expecting our 7th grandchild soon and we are also babysitting for a full week and dog sitting for three weeks along with all our normal caring commitments.

On a brighter note the Rugby World Cup starts soon.

Lifeguard

Yesterday I started a new painting of Druidstone. It is coming on and I hope to finish it tomorrow. Today Alex and I are going to work on the new shop for the co-operative Origin Dyfed in Kings Street, Carmarthen. It is a lovely space and there is a lot to do to get it ready for opening. We have been away but other members have been working hard.

The sketch above is of a lifeguard in Gran Canaria. Alex and I went to the beach. Because the water shelves quickly from the shore she was a bit nervous and only wanted to paddle, which is understandable. So one of our daughters’s persuaded her in while I had a swim not far off shore. It was lovely and I thought quite warm. Judging by the shrieks coming from Alex she didn’t agree. The waves were nothing and just broke gently on the shore. Anyway I was swimming along gently when a large swell suddenly appeared. It was a real one off Atlantic Roller coming in. I swam up it without any problem as it hadn’t started to break but when I looked back to the shore I could see Alex and my daughter standing in the shallows. The wave must have broken about ten feet over them. Anyway they disappeared from view. The next thing I saw was two backsides and legs in the air amongst the breaking wave. They had been knocked over backwards and were washed up the beach. I swam back and got out. Alex was like a drowned rat she had also lost her prescription sunglasses in the sea. She had also hurt her hand but was otherwise ok. At that point I allowed myself to burst into fits of laughter. We found her sunglasses and she recovered her composure and continued to insist through the day that it had been a tsunami! At least she isn’t prone to exaggeration.

Moon in the Morning Gran Canaria

We have been away for a week in Gran Canaria with most of the family. There were 18 of us including grandchildren. It was a great place for the kids plenty of swimming and things to do. It was not the holiday Alex and I would choose if we went away by ourselves but it was really good fun.

The hotel was fine and the area was clean. The hotel had a good mix of British, German, Russian, Polish and Finnish visitors. All got on fine apart from an incident over the pool table when there was a minor verbal skirmish.

I didn’t get any painting done but didn’t expect to. I did do a number of sketches.
The one above is the mountainside opposite our hotel with the moon still showing at 9 in the morning.

We got home late yesterday after a few hiccups. We found that the hot breakfast and packed lunch that had been promised on departure were merely a conceptual idea.
No they didn’t appear. That is the trouble with conceptual things including art they are pretty much of no use or value.

What was even more of a problem was that the transport for 18 didn’t turn up to take us to the airport. A mini bus for 14 arrived despite us checking the day before and having a written confirmation from the company. In the end 18 of us crammed into a mini bus for 14 with luggage.
As an aside on the flight home Alex and I sat on either side of the Isle. Alex bought 2 teas off the trolley when the stewardess came along. The stewardess passed me my tea and some tubes of milk. When I opened the tube and squirted it the milk shot sideways and went down the dress and leg of the stewardess. She looked down at me as I apologised rather embarrassed. Then I nearly compounded the embarrassment. As she handed me a tissue I went to wipe her leg with the tissue realising just in time it was not to wipe down her leg but to put under my tea.

The picture above is just a time filling drawing of an old tobacco tin. I was actually looking for a sketch of a Four Wheeler and came across this.

The other day we were having a day off watching the rugby as I posted. Anyway Alex and the girls (?) popped to the supermarket for more refreshments and the odd ingredient that had been forgotten.
Now anytime I here the words “ I am just popping to …”
I know that is code for, “I will be about four hours”.

So I wasn’t expecting them back anytime soon. The more interesting side of this was that we were left with the children. Now they are all great but surprisingly they have no interest in rugby. They are very interesting in creating an obstacle course and climbing over everything available including me. So it was a long 4 hours.

Anyway I digress from the subject of the post. Our daughter in law was driving a new Landrover for the first time. It was a company vehicle. The female contingent jumped in with shopping bags and credit cards minus children and left for the shops. All went well until the store closed and threw them out. They went back to the car and at that point my daughter in law realised she didn’t know how to reverse the car. She tried pushing and pulling the gear stick to get it into reverse but failed. Alex came to the rescue. We once had an old series 2 Landrover and she handled it like a toy.
So Alex leaned over pushed the gear stick in the right direction and gave a mighty heave.
To the amusement of all her hand came up holding the gear stick and complete housing.

Eventually everything was restored and reverse gear was located.

Today I did some sketching and then read a bit more of Mr Dickens.