Painting of a Mirror Dinghy on the Towy

I haven't done much painting in the last 10 days but I have done this little oil painting of a Mirror dinghy on the River Towy. In fact it shows Alex and our eldest daughter in the little Mirror we bought and renovated. It was an old wooden one and performed well single or double crewed. We also had a larger Wayfarer Dinghy that was pretty patched up but had great fun in it. We took it up to the Lake District and sailed it in the sea including a hairy sail off Plymouth. Those days are over but we enjoyed at the time.

Mumbles

The painting above is of the lifeboat house at Mumbles and is sold. We once sailed from Swansea to Angle Bay in Milford Haven and the last thing we saw was Mumbles Lifeboat House and Lighthouse until we were actually inside the Milford Haven. It was a little bit nerve wracking. We did have radar or we wouldn't have attempted it. As it happened there was a tanker coming out of the channel towards us in the fog bank as we entered the Haven but we only had to find shallow water to ensure we were out of his way.

A bit of a family get together today and then watch the rugby on TV. We don't watch a great deal on TV but we have watched Peter Kaye and Sian Gibson from North Wales in "Car Share". Its the sort of program that makes me smile all the way through. There is one exception I pretty well laughed uncontrollably all the way through the episode when they went in to the Safari Park!

Its all too Beautiful

Well the countryside is "all too beautiful " in the words of Steve Marriot and the Small faces. Bluebells are out in abundance and so I post this picture which I will probably put in Origin Carmarthen this weekend.

I received a letter yesterday informing me a Dame had purchased one of my paintings. I was naturally pleased however I also received a lovely card from the recipient of a commission. The commission was particularly special and it was clear it meant a lot to them. Whilst of course it is always nice to sell a painting, knowing your work has made some sort of positive impact is so much more rewarding. It is at those times you feel painting is maybe a bit more than just making marks on canvas.

Anyway a good link is Itchycoo Park

A Family Portrait

This painting sits on my wall. A family portrait. Plenty of lambs about now and the grass is green.
A different subject for me but variety and all that.

Painting of Bridge over the Gorlech

It was a beautiful morning for a walk with Jac today. It reminded me of this painting I did as a commission. The couple I did it for became betrothed on the bridge. It was a beautiful setting full of light and I did my best to do it justice.

On a different tack who or what are the Kardashians? Am I the only person on the Internet who has no idea what they are. They seem to be every where.

Alex is away today and I am not sure of my duties yet but I expect she will let me know before she goes.

Painting of Dinefwr Castle

The above painting of Dinefwr Castle from the Deer Park has now sold and is to be framed. I did this last year having a very pleasant days painting. ! It had hung about in my studio until now waiting for a new owner. The sun caught the top of the painting when I photographed it so not a great photo but heh ho

Family

As I haven’t done any painting today and I was talking about motorcycle combinations I thought it might be worth posting this charming picture. It shows my Uncle Don seated on the bike with my grandmother (whose family were from Pembroke Dock) and my father in the sidecar. I am not certain but I think it is a Norton 1926 four speed 588 OHV outfit. My Uncle Don was very keen on motorcycles and eventually opened up his own garage.

 I believe the outfit showed here belonged to my grandfather who probably took the picture. He was a bit of a lad. He had worked in a jewellers before he left for South America in 1912 on the SS Mauritania travelling on a passport under a different name! Anyway enough said.

I remember when you had to put a parking light on your combo or car at night. If you didn’t a policeman would call and tell you to get it done! Also when it was cold you put an oil lamp under the sump to keep the oil viscous. I’m not sure if it was the good old days but they were certainly different.

We had a number of motorcycles over the years, Triumph, Ariel, Royal Enfield, Honda and unfortunately we even had a combo which was horrendous to drive. My last motorcycle was a Triumph 750 but my favourite was a Daytona 500.