Sunset Llansteffan beach

Alex and I decided to go down to Llansteffan Beach last evening to take Jac a walk along the sand.
It was a beautiful evening and the sun was going down behind the castle. I know I have just done two paintings of Llansteffan in a row but I couldn't resist replicating the view we had last evening. I chose to use a large board to do it justice so it will be a reasonable size when framed.

Talking of Jac he is pawing me now indicating he is due for his second walk and then his dinner!

An autumn shower on Llansteffan Beach

I said I had to finish a couple of paintings of Llansteffan, well here is one of them showing a couple on the beach and an autumn shower.

I have mentionied before we have a fault with our telephone on incoming calls and in fairness it has only been going on since the begining of September so whats the hurry BT. Well a couple of days ago Openreach opened up a trench in the road and apparently yesterday they were laying new cable? Well I was more than pleased to note that the internet, which had previously been fine had now gone down to dial up speed. So I sent a suitably acerbic email to BT only to find an hour later that the internet was actually fine and if anything better than before. I seem to remember that once disconnected on the cabling it needs to reset itself and takes a short while? Anyway it will teach me to be too quick to criticise. But our phone is still faulty!

Jac # Magician

I finished the above painting of Llansteffan today. In fact I have another couple to do of different sizes.

While I was working I decided to treat myself to some almond cake I had made. I made a cup of tea and got the cake out of the tin. At that point the door bell rang. I went and answered the door with Jac. I was talking at the door when I realised Jac was no longer with me (most unusual).
When I returned I found that Jac had turned into a magician. Yes he had made my cake disappear!

Slide show of Holidays snaps!

Yesterday Alex and I went to see our eldest daughter's family. We had been looking after their dog while they went away on a cruise.  They had a a great time albeit that the Bay of Biscay was a tad rough on the way back. We took the cool box with us as they don't use milk and I live on tea. The coolbox is one of those that you plug into the car cigarette lighter socket. A few months ago it stopped working. Now I never have needed an excuse to take apart anything mechanical, purely for the challenge of putting it back together and to see how it works. So when the coolbox packed up I stripped it down replaced some wires and Hey Presto I smugly announced, "Look Alex I have fixed it the little fan is going around!"

So when we went to pick up the dog we took the coolbox and some other provisions. I plugged it in and it merrily purred away during the car journey. However when we got there and opened the "Cool" box we found the contents had been cooked. The coolbox had been working in reverse and the large aluminium sink was hot and the fan was sucking in air. It seems I had mistakenly crossed the positive and negative wires! Oh how the Gods laughed!

Anyway for yesterdays journey I swapped the wires around and all was well.

When we were there we were treated to a slide show of photographs taken on the cruise. (Jen you would have loved this). Now this was not the usual holiday album. Our four year old grandson had been appointed (or appointed himself) official photographer. So the slide show entailed about:

47 images of his Mr Men Collection,
Several photographs of the toilet,
Several interesting pictures of the stained glass ceiling in the reception when he apparently lay on his back,
Numerous other images taken with no flash showing human legs and other body parts from the perspective of a 46 inch four year old.

I am not sure if there is a minimum age limit to the Turner Prize (judging by the entries I doubt it) but his collection could surely win it. If he could come up with a suitably pretentious artists statement it would be a cert!

Llansteffan Contre Jour

The painting of Llansteffan above sold this weekend. Hardly a reflection of recent weather. Anyway it was a nice painting withthe castle contre jour (against the light).

 I have to get on with my work as I dont have a huge amount of stock at present.

Little Grey Fergie

I painted this little grey fergie today. It is a very loose painting with no preliminary drawing other than a few blocks done with a brush as I went along. It was first painted all over with a ground of burnt sienna and  alizarin crimson intially. A quick impressionistic style of painting that I occasionally break into when the feeling suits. It is a quick charming style that is fine for painting outdoors (weather permitting).

Carmarthen and the River Towy

I finished the above painting today of Carmarthen and the River Towy.
It is again one in the 6ins x 6ins series which ends up 12ins x 12ins when framed.

As you get older you naturally start to declutter and Alex and I have been doing quite a bit of that lately in the house adn in the business.

In the business we have made a few decisions to streamline what we do and give us more time. We are only doing one (possibly two) exhibitions a year. I will no longer do demonstrations or give talks. We are finally getting rid of our card machine which eats money and to be honest is not really necessary if you are not doing many exhibitions. I have cleared out a lot of work and a bit more to go. All these things should help the finances, reduce the tax bill and give us more time to enjoy the business.