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Up and down Village Lane, Mumbles

Up and Down Village Lane, Mumbles (1)
George-Yatess-map-of-Glamorgan-1799
George-Yatess-map-of-Glamorgan-1799

Mumbles is the name commonly given to to coastal village on the western rim of the expansive Swansea Bay. Strictly speaking its the name of the headland that juts out into the Bristol Chanel. Mumbles Head is often the windiest place in the area. Listen out for it on the shipping forcast. Anyway, the place a lot of people think of as “Mumbles” is  the largest village on the Gower peninsula.

People have lived in the area longer than most places in Britain – 30,000 years if you are asking. I doubt if the ones living there today are related to the people of the stone age who left behind their flint axe heads, now kept in Swansea Museum. Or possibly even related to the Romans who built a villa or mansio at Oystermouth so they could keep watch over the bay and maybe eat oysters.

It is possible that a few might have ancestors amongst the Normans later built a castle at Oystermouth in the late 12th century. The castle was to keep the local Welsh population in check. Apparently the name Oystermouth is a corruption of the Welsh name for the settlement, Ystumllwynarth. When non-Welsh speaking people started to settle in the area, they heard the Welsh name, but couldn’t say or understand it, but they knew there were oyster beds in the area, so they brains turned it into “Oystermouth”. Even today the people of this area seem dont have a strong Welsh accent. Read more about the different accents in the Swansea region here.

Oyster fishing was once an important industry in Swansea Bay, employing 600 people at its height in the 1860s. However, overfishing, disease and pollution had all but wiped out the oyster population by 1920. 

 

https://enjoygower.com/history-of-oystermouth-castle

Its a bit confusing. A lot of people use the names Oystermouth and Mumbles interchangeably.  The distinction between Oystermouth and Mumbles is blurred. Local buses to the area are labelled Oystermouth, despite the fact that most people in the area would say they live in Mumbles. Strangely, I have never come across anyone who says they live in “The Mumbles”. Its people from further away who say that, I think.  

Whilst at Three Crosses Brooke-Branwhite, Charles (1851 - 1923)
Whilst at Three Crosses Brooke-Branwhite, Charles (1851 - 1923)

Like pretty much everywhere in Britain,  two hundred years ago Oystermouth/Mumbles was a few lanes and a lot of fields. Village lane stretched from the coast up a steep hill.  

Map of Mumbles 1844 from The Story of Mumbles
Maps of Mumbles Village and Oystermouth - 1845 and 1896
Maps of Mumbles Village and Oystermouth - 1845 and 1896

Village lane was (and still is) in the centre of the village but a lot of houses have been built in the fields around it. Built “Mumbles” has also extended to all along the headland with a new cutting and road being built at the end of the 19th century. The new road coinsided with the building of “Prettiest Pier on the Bristol Channel” which attracted large crowds on the newly extended railway from Swansea. Village Lane was increasingly out of the way and probably ignored by most visitors.

Southend, Mumbles 1925. Shared from the Swansea History Society Facebook page.
Southend, Mumbles 1925. Shared from the Swansea History Society Facebook page.
Up Village Lane
Up Village Lane by Emma Cownie (SOLD)
Village Lane, Mumbles #1
Village Lane, Mumbles #1 by Emma Cownie
The Victorian Villages c. 1885 - From the Story of Mumbles
The Victorian Villages c. 1885 - From the Story of Mumbles
Village Lane, Mumbles (#1) by Emma Cownie
Up Village Lane, Mumbles (#1) by Emma Cownie

Modern day visitors who like their cars will find visiting Village Lane a bit of a challenge. It’s one way (down hill, thankfully) and there is no parking at any time of day. Obviously, residents are allowed to drop off their shopping and deliveries but move on sharply. There are several Air B&Bs along here now. Wales Online wrote and article recently trying to make out that some people were unhappy with the short-term rental properties. They didn’t seem that unhappy to me. One anonymous local said  “You just miss having more neighbours,” she said, but added that living in the street is “lush” and the people that do live there full-time “cheer each other on” and perhaps most importantly- “offer each other cake”.

Down Village Lane, Mumbles (#3) Yellow House by Emma Cownie
Down Village Lane, Mumbles (#3) with Tree by Emma Cownie

It was clear from the article that ordinary people are still  keen to live in these 2 bed cottages and they are not cheap!

Angela Benham is renting the orange house on the lane and she said that “The people on Village Lane are outstanding. When I first moved in, I had two bottles of wine, two bunches of flower and seven cards welcoming me to the lane. That made me feel really part of the community. The whole community is lovely here, it’s a great place to live.”

I am not surprised people love it as its wonderfully quiet and the views are stunning. The cake is definitely a bonus!

Village Lane, Mumbles (#2) Yellow House
Village Lane, Mumbles (#2) Yellow House by Emma Cownie

Find out more about the area

A lot of my information came from the excellent website The Story of Mumbles. It is really worth looking at for local stories and history.

https://www.storyofmumbles.org.uk

https://enjoygower.com/history-of-the-mumbles-train

https://www.visitswanseabay.com/destinations/mumbles

https://www.visitwales.com/destinations/west-wales/swansea-bay/fantastic-sights-and-things-do-mumbles

 

Mumbles View _ Emma Cownie
Mumbles View - A commission
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All about my work

All About My Work - Emma Cownie

I recently spent a morning writing about my influence to someone in a gallery in New York, whom I thought was interested in representing me. Sadly, after sending some images and putting these words together he asked for 150 dollars to feature in some catalogue of theirs. So that was that. I am used to being sent scammy messages, like this one I got this morning from so-called “Mr Beast” which read ‘Hi, You have some pretty amazing works, all I can say is Awesome! It must have taken a lot of time to put these magnificent pieces together..they are so unique..I’m so in love with then. I’d love to purchase some of them if i can be informed about them. Looking forward to hearing from you. Best Regards Mr Beast’. I just ignore those sorts of messages.

I suppose I was annoyed that I spent sometime answering this one. Why did I bother, well despite some misgivings, the Instagram account associate with ethe gallery had some really good artists on it. Anyway, I thought I’d publish the summary here in case people would appreciate an overview of my work as a whole.

My work is influenced primarily by US artists especially post-Edward Hopper American realists who revere light shadow and the sense of stillness and quiet. One of my favourite contemporary America Artists is Jessica Brilli who I traded paintings with a couple of years ago.

The only British artist I am influenced by is the late David Hockney, who obviousy was greatly inspired by American art. I include a few paintings to illustrate how I attempted to bring an American sensibility to the Irish landscape and more recently to the Welsh landscape in the UK. Here some examples

This composition was inspired by Fairfield Porter

In this series I attempted to pare all detail down – I called this style rural minimal.

A number of these paintigns have become book covers.

Recent innovations to this style have involved a more obvious use of texture inspired by the Bay Area artists, among others like Mitchell Johnson.

Rocky Ground, Bun An Inbhir (Donegal)
Rocky Ground, Bun An Inbhir (Donegal)
Painting of Houses on Bloody Foreland
Up Bloody Foreland, Donegal
Painting of Narin Donegal by Emma Cownie
Narin Rise, Donegal by Emma Cownie

A recent development in my work has concentrated on another US inspiration, Richard Diebenkorn particularly his Ocean Park series of paintings. Using my husband’s drone photography I have been interested in exploring texture and composition primarily. These recent paintings show this style and they are still available to buy.

A Change in Direction
A Change in Direction (Reynoldston, Gower)
A Fork in the Road (Inishowen, Donegal) by Emma Cownie
A Fork in the Road (Inishowen, Donegal) by Emma Cownie
Llanrhidian (Mill Lane) by Emma Cownie
Llanrhidian (Mill Lane) by Emma Cownie

Finally I have occasional detours into acrylic gouche which seems to allow me to paint in a slightly different way to oil and acrylic – normally on hard board but I have really liked the results. I have tried to bring an American sensibililty to Irish and British landscapes.

New Direction - Acrylic Gouache by Emma Cownie
Acrylic Gouache by Emma Cownie

 

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How to spot a Fake Artist (Updated Ai version)

https://emmafcownie.com/2017/11/07/how-to-spot-a-fake-artist/

Three years ago a lifelike robot of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama was installed in luxury shops in London, New York, Toyko and Paris. In London, the Art “robot”  painted  spots on the windows of Harrods as part of a display by luxury retailer Louis Vuitton. She  “smiled” and “nodded” at passers by in a decidely creepy manner. 

No one was going to mistake the robot for the real thing.

93 year old Yayoi Kusama meeting the Robot version of herself at Louis Vuitton Tokyo !
93 year old Yayoi Kusama meeting the Robot version of herself at Louis Vuitton Tokyo !

 Yayoi Kusama was a creative genius who had to wait a long time for success and recognition. She however had to take action against scammers in China who put on fraudulent exhibitions of her “work” in 2017. Since her death this year a lot of counterfeit Yayoi Kusama artworks — particularly prints — have appeared on the art market. 

Nine years ago I wrote a blog post about how to spot a Fake Artist. Back then I pointed out that the world is full of fakes and fakers, and thus it has ever been. Art forgery dates back more than two thousand years. Roman sculptors produced copies of  Greek sculptures.  With the advent of Ai, however, it has got harder than ever to spot the fakers. I have seen real artists fooled by Ai generated art on Instagram too.  

The fakers come in a number of guises. The first are accounts that just steal other artists’ work and present them as their own.   Then there are the accounts that pretend to have painted their work with real paint and will sell you a print. No paint was ever involved in these works. 

I am not going to post Ai images on my blog. But I will post links to account that I think are Ai generated. You can tell me if you think I am wrong.

Porter Art Guild 

This is a couple called  John and Tracy Porter from Illinois and Wisconsin. They began as founded a hand-painted furniture company and then graduated to “offering a curated selection of mixed media works that showcase the depth and breadth of their talents”. To be fair to them, their work is gorgeous  – both the photographs and the lush oil-painting-type images. But they are all digital images, not paintings.  Why aren’t they up front about their process? 

Jef Bourgeau

This is more a grey area. Jef  is a Detroit painter, curator, photographer and conceptual artist. He was the founder of Detroit’s MONA but he has turned to digital methods to make his art. He uses oblique descriptions for how he creates his work, including “digital” and “Photoshop, including the latest iteration” (which includes Ai). He says he dont use ai but his detractoors says they are actually just high resolution Ai images printed on fancy paper.

Mae Macpherson  

“Mae” isn’t a real perspon. This is a company founded in “her” name run by three people registered to an address in Edinburgh. On the website it says “The name “Mae Macpherson” is used as a creative brand identity and does not represent a real individual.” Yet they go to a lot of effort to give the impression that she’s a real person. A nice relateable artist. On the website there are videos of an individual opening up prints and spinning them around for the camera. She climbs a ladder and put on the wall. Is she Ai too? 

maemacphersonart
maemacphersonart

Who or what is she? It really annoys me that businsesses like these are pretending to be something that they are not.  These accounts have thousands of followers on Instagram and Facebook and comments gushing about how talented “Mae” is.  How are they going to feel when the find out that Mae isnt a struggling artist but something a computer spat out?

It doesnt not matter to me that people are buying someone else’s  art rather than mine, its the deception that gets me.  The real damage that they do is putting doubt and distrust into people’s minds. If I see paintings that I think are good I now wonder if they are ai. 

So, here’s what my updated checklist of what to look for:-

A photograph of the artist. Even better if the artist is photographed or filmed in the act of drawing, painting or standing in front of her paintings at an exhibition. That way you know the photo hasn’t been lifted from facebook. Look at their fingers? If they have 6 on each hand it might be ai.

A surname, not just “Rosa” or “Luigi”.

A detailed backstory, preferably with details of education and exhibitions.

A website, facebook page, a blog, an Instagram page with a back story of paintings this will help prove that this a real artist and not the product of a factory or ai.

Subject matter – are they generic  Scottish villages/mountains/seascapes/lakes or are they of particular locations that are named?

Do they sell original work -in oil or arcylic paint? Are the canvases a bit untidy,  around the back? Is there a photo of their studio or where ever they paint? 

Ask someone else opinion. Does this art look real? Does it look like a human made it? Any more suggestions to add to my checklist? Let me know!

The Corner of my painting room
The corner of my painting room
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Waiting for Ilston Stream to return

Waiting for the stream to return (1)

We have been regularly walking our Border Collie, Effie, along Ilston Cwm since late summer. The Cwm (valley) is a wooded crease in the landscape lined by a stream that flows towards the sea at Three Cliffs Bay. Once past Parkmill it is known as Pennard Pill. Only in the summer the stream often runs dry so only a rocky stream bed can be seen. I forgot this when we revisited for the first time and I initially thought it was primarily the result of this summer’s long drought. Which it sort of is but not in the way I thought. I found it difficult to recognise parts of the stream that I had painted in early spring years ago.

Painting of Welsh woods and stream
Still Killy Willy (Emma Cownie)

It can feel very odd to cross little bridges over the empty streambed. The early morning woods were one of the few places that felt bearable in the heat of the summer. Despite the lack of rain the valley was still green but the undergrowth was “restrained” (I think that’s the right word). There were ferns and mosses but they had not spread their fronds as far and wide as they usually do. In many areas thew ground was completely bare.

One of the few oaks, most of the trees are birch, pine or poplars

Dry stream!
Effie and I crossing a bridge

I thought I’d include this funny clip below from Instagram. I thought it really caught he vibe of what it is like walking a Border Collie in the woods. I hope it plays for you where ever you are. (I have another version at the end of this post if you cant get it to play).

The point of walking a dog is the enjoy the dog’s joy.

From my Instagram Reels (a rare thing, I dont do many of them)
)

The heat has gone and it has been raining but the stream has only returned in parts of the cwm. It’s a small thrill to come across parts of the stream returned and babbling. Its mostly the part near the church at Ilston.

The still stream in late summer

Now it is raining again I notice that the ferns are more expansive, perky almost. The mossy branches, more verdant and lush. There is plenty of undergrowth and the mossy branches are looking plush again. I feel like they are trying to catch up for lost time before the tempertures drop!

I am looking forward to a time when water is flowing along the length of the stream again and I might paint the reflected woodlands in all their glory!

Footnote:- Effie is usually covered in tiny green burs after running through the bushes. They are not easy to get out and I have to tease them out with my fingers. The odd thing about Effie, and probably all Border Collies, is that she never yelps or complains although she clearly doesnt like them being removed. I have to reward with cheese to ensure her cooperation!

Bridge over Ilston River
Bridge over Ilston River

Ilston Quarry Ford, Gower
Ilston Quarry Ford, Gower
https://www.instagram.com/reels/Db6GEiFJPJW/

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Me and Social Media

me and Social Media - Emma Cownie

I have been a full-time professional artist for 14 years now. I have used social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X) and this website hosted by WordPress to show my work for quite a bit longer than that.

I have never used TikTok. I gave up on Twitter/X no long after Musk bought it. It was never particularly good for the still image. Instagram used to be very good for photographers and artists.

A couple of years ago I would regularly get over 200 hundred “likes” on a post on instagram sometimes over 500. Once or twice over a post even got over a thousand likes, but no more. Now I am lucky to get 50. I have noticed that this has happened to a lot of other artists’ accounts too. This has been sapping my confidence and damaging my creativity. “What’s the point if no one sees it. No one will buy it if they dont see it”

Round the Rosses
Round the Rosses – 362 likes in 2019

My work has not deteriotated in quality. In many ways I feel that it has much improved but you’d never think that from the metrics. I appreciate that as Instagram decided to chase the Tiktok market by introducing Reels and Stories that I have resisted that change. I am not a film maker and I dont want to be one.

Lighthouse at Fort Dunree (Donegal)
Lighthouse at Fort Dunree (Donegal) 833 Likes in 2022

I appreciate the beauty of a still image and silence. I never have the sound on if I can help it.

Strangely, I am okay with “Sponsored Content” as I don’t pay to be on the site and I know they have to make their money somehow. What I do have a problem is that when I log on these days my senses are assaulted by all singing and dancing stuff I never asked to see, accounts I never signed up for. The suggested content is overwelming. The infinite feed is insane. “Discover” is rarely of interest so I dont bother with it. The algorithm has bland dull taste.

Lately, I have felt sick logging on and sicker logging off. I used to find artists I liked but now I feel exhausted and used.

Rocky Ground Bun An Inver
Rocky Ground Bun An Inver by Emma Cownie – 92 likes in 2025

All this stuff has been deliberately designed to be addictive. A court case in California earlier this year upheld the view that Meta and YouTube design addictive products that harmed young people. I haven’t noticed the platforms becoming less addictive, if anything they seem to be getting worse.

I will go on my phone to answer comments and queries and find I have got distracted looking at videos of sick or disabled cats in countries many of miles away. It makes me feel stressed. On the days when I dont log in, I feel a lot better.

Emma Cownie Painting of Boats at Inishbofin Pier, Donegal
Boats at Inishbofin Pier, Donegal 1340 Likes in 2022

Last month, the European Commission found Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act for the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook. The investigation focuses on features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and the platforms’ highly personalised recommender systems. Earlier this year the EU told Tiktok to change its addictive design or face a massive fine. Sadly, the UK is no longer in the EU.

I can’t wait for Meta et al to change their addictive designs so that my head no longer feel fried after I have been on their sites for a silly amount of time. So, I have decided to turn off comments and likes on my Instagram account and the “Emma Cownie landscape Artist” Facebook account that is linked to it. I will continue with comments and likes on my other Facebook account for a while longer so I can compare results.

I hope it will save my sanity. It’s just as much work to turn off the comments and like but I feel better having wrested a modicum of control back from the Tech giants.

I am off to wrap some paintings and read a sewing book.

If you want to contact me you can still DM me on these sites or email me at emmafcownie@gmail.com

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Farewell to Derry City

Farewell to Derry City

 As a good bye to Derry and am holding a sale of paintings of the beautiful city. It runs until the end of the month. Derry is a gem of place and I am sorry that not more people come to visit (and buy my paintings!)

Painting of Derry Panorama_Emma Cownie
Derry Panorama_Emma Cownie
Palace Street Derry _Emma Cownie
Palace Street Derry _Emma Cownie
Painting of houses on Castle Street, Derry/Londonderry by Emma Cownie
Castle Street, Derry/Londonderry by Emma Cownie
The Peace Bridge (Derry) by Emma Cownie
The Peace Bridge (Derry) by Emma Cownie

The sale runs until the end of the month and I offer free shipping too!

See all my Derry paintings here.

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Ardara – One of the best (and most colourful) villages in Ireland !

ardara 1

Ardara is pronouced “Arr-drahh” sort of prirate-like and not “Ar-dara”. It means Height of the Fort in Irish. I have heard Irish people (on the National TV weather forcast) get it wrong but they lived in far away Dublin. It is a busy little village near the Bluestack mountains in Donegal. Just over 700 people live there but thousands visit, especially in the summer time and many more pass through on the main road from North to South Donegal.

Map of Donegal – Ardara is to the South
Artie our cat from Ardara
Artie our cat from Ardara

Our cat, Artie, was once a stray in Ardara until the Animals in Need Donegal charity, trapped him, neutured him and found him a home with us. They had prioritised rehoming him rather releasing him back onto the mean streets of Ardara because long-haired cats find it difficult to get dry after rain and so they don’t live very long. Thankfully, he’s living a cushy dry indoor life with us and I hope he has a long life ahead of him.

Ardara’s main street rolls down a long hill and turns right – then that’s about it. Before you know it you are back in the countryside. Like a lot of Donegal townlands, or villages, it is small but condensed. There is a lot in a small area. We had previously sat at a junction outside Ardara for 20 minutes and watched as what seemed like hundreds of tractors “zoom” past on a “Tractor Run”, a popular rural fun raising activity in Ireland (and Wales too). When I say “zoom” I mean relatively speaking, as a lot of the tractors were vintage ones that did not really zoom so much as chugg past.

The main street is dotted with lots of cafes, bars and wool/tweed shops. Ardara people are very friendly and welcoming. This is a regional centre for the dyeing and weaving of Donegal wool. This seemed to rub off choice of the colours of the walls of the village itself. The villages in the south of Donegal are a lot more colourful than the ones in the north. They favour white houses. I don’t know why, but I was surprised by the vibrancy of the colours of wool and cloths. They were the exactly same as the colours you see all around your in the Donegal landscape: greens of the grass, browns of the bogs, the pinks, purples, yellows and oranges of the flowers. Some cloths were flecked with an array of lush colours. As an artist it was very inspirational to see these colours.

A couple of years ago we visited the Triona Visitor Centre where a very patient lady answered a lot of my questions about weaving. There is also Campbell’s, Eddie Doherty’s and John Molloy’s to the south of the village. I would happily taken armfuls of coats and jumpers but in the end we limited ourselves to a tweed flat cap for Seamas and a pair of Donegal socks for me! Last of the big spenders, eh? This little village is well worth a visit and the list of upcoming festivals it hosts gives a good excuse call by if you are ever in the north of Ireland!

See more of my paintings of West Donegal here and Arranmore here

Find out More about Ardara

https://www.welovedonegal.com/ardara.html

https://www.govisitdonegal.com/things-to-do/places-to-see/ardara-heritage-town

https://www.donegalcottageholidays.com/join/images-of-ardara/

https://www.ardaradistillery.com/discover-ardara

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Three Gower Villages

Paintings of three gower villages by Emma Cownie

These three villages Landimore, Llanrhidian and Llanmadoc, are on the northern side of Gower, away from the busy beaches of Caswell, Three Cliffs Bay, Oxwich and Port Eynon. The “Llan” part of the place names originally refered to an enclosed area of land- usually a church or monastic cell. Landimore is the English version of the placename, in Welsh it is “Llandimore”. I liked the challenge of painting these lesser-known Gower villages (I am sure they are very well-known to the locals) especially the Britannia Inn at Llanmadoc from high up!

Google Map of Gower

Three Gower Villages by Emma Cownie
Three Gower Villages by Emma Cownie

See more paintings of Gower and the Welsh coast here

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Three Donegal Paintings

Three Donegal Paintings by Emma Cownie

Grief has made me stupid. I struggle with new or complicated things. I am really struggling with writing anything longer than a couple of sentences. WordPress keeps changing how it works too.

 So I am just going to present you with three paintings of beautiful Donegal I have finished recently. I have a small collection of Gower paintings to come too. 

Waiting for the Tide, Rossbeg (Donegal)
Waiting for the Tide, Rossbeg (Donegal)
Misty Morning on Rossbeg (Donegal) by Emma Cownie
Misty Morning on Rossbeg (Donegal) by Emma Cownie
Quiet on Arranmore, Donegal by Emma Cownie
Quiet on Arranmore, Donegal by Emma Cownie
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Getting Above it All

Getting Above it All!

We have now been back in Swansea since the end of January. The move from Derry with three cats and a dog was very tiring indeed! 

Until last week’s six days of glorious sunshine, it has rained almost constantly here. This has kept us indoors, reluctantly, and unable to enjoy the Gower Coast, or able to look for inspiration for subject matter for paintings. It has been a pretty depressing to be honest. So with last week’s sun, we spent nearly every day re-aquainting ourselves with this wonderful landscape. By we, I mean my husband, myself and our dog, Effie the collie, who absolutely loved running herself into the ground, or sand, in the beautiful beaches of Three Cliffs Bay, Tor Bay, Mewslade Bay and Rhossili Bay. My husband, Seamus, also managed to fit in the Knave, a gorgeous area between Mewslade and Port Eynon.

The Knave

I have been using my Canon camera but my husband has also been experimenting with compositions photographed by drone. We have (had – one was lost near Mewslade) two DJI Mini 2 drones which are fairly basic compared to some but which are quality enough to take drone photography good enough to paint from, which is really the whole point.

We initially used drone photography partly as a response to living in Ireland, especially the Republic of Ireland, where some beautiful landscape was sometimes inaccessible or on private land so we would have fly above it to get a good view of it.

We also found that the drone did not have to be that high off the ground to be produce interesting shots. Compositions seemed to improve from only 10  or  20 foot in the air. We rarely go too far above the landscape feature we are trying to photograph.

Coming back to Swansea and intending to repaint “old ground”, so to speak, it is important for me to keep things fresh, otherwise my work can become laboured or even slightly bored painting the same subject matter in the same way as before. So drone photography helps freshen up the process. It also helps one to re-imagine compositions in terms of landscape painting.

It has helped me see composition in a new way and it has also helped us to become more aware of how various bits of Gower landscape “fit ” together. 

There are no longer isolated, and seemingly unconnected, areas anymore.

For example, the photo above shows the Worms Head area with Fall and Mewslade bays behind and the Knave beyond that.  The various areas of landscape now form a more coherent whole. I will give some examples below of the images we have been capturing down in Three Cliffs Bay and Tor Bay and how they have resulted in a couple of paintings.

Three Cliffs 

Droning is also good fun, flying around the countryside having a bird’s eye view of the landscape is strangely liberating and, at times, exhilarating – so says Seamus (I find it quite alarming at times, I dont have his nerves of steel).

Effie, our dog, had her first excursion down Three Cliffs  which saw us walk down the rocky paths and great sandy swathes from Penmaen car park to Three Cliffs Bay. 

How great it was to see those monumental stacks again, like seeing an old friend, rising impossibly from the sandy ground. Effie was pretty good with the other dogs on the beach who were trying to join in with her ball chasing fun.  Fortunately she is ball-chasing obsessed and as long as she has a job to do, some work, she is fairly singleminded and behaves well.

This was a relief, as we were worried it might take some adjustment for her as her previous experience of beaches were 2-mile empty beaches in Inishowen and in West Donegal where she rarely came across other dogs. Also, Donegal people are often so polite that they leave the beach when you arrive and let you have free run of it to yourself. It is great having a beach to yourself, a real treat and luxury!

Great Tor, Gower
Effie at Three Cliffs, Gower
Effie at Three Cliffs, Gower (I have the ball)

 

In Gower, even in early Spring, there are numerous other dogs to contend with, but most are just out having a great time like Effie, so are generally not much trouble. It has been great seeing Effie have so much fun, she loves running on the beach.

Effie on Rhossili Beach with Worms Head behind
Effie on Rhossili Beach with Worms Head behind (again I have the ball and her attention!)

 

My husband droned Three Cliffs the week before when the tide was in. It was out when we were there.

Three Cliffs, Gower

 

My first drone photography inspired paintings were both of Great Tor and I am presently working on my first Three Cliffs paintings since I have returned. 

I have been working on commissions in the last few weeks. 

Great Tor at Low Tide #1

Great Tor at Low Tide #1 by Emma Cownie

 

I found this a very dramatic composition which conveyed movement and vibrancy. The light is still Winterish and bracing.  

Great Tor at Low Tide #2

Great Tor at Low Tide #2 by Emma Cownie

 

Although this is of the same Tor it looks very different. Drone photography allows you to explore different aspects of the same subject matter. It allows you to see things differently from different heights and angles. Much like a person’s face can appear different from different profiles. This keeps the creative juices flowing as it is possible to re-imagine similiar subject matter in so many more ways.

Plus all these aspects can combine with photographying at different times of the year with different light. For example as the days draw longer, it will be possible to drone on the other side of Great Tor, a side usually in dark shade at present. Longer Summer days will provide new aspects and new compositions. 

The possibilties for composition are greatly increased with droning. For example, the colours in this second painting seem warmer as the drone is lower and reflects the sandy orange rather than in Great Tor #1 where the drone is higher and is reflecting the sky and the painting is more  imbued with blue-tinged light. It took a while to realise how the height of the drone greatly influences colour. This is an area which I find very interesting. With a camera, light and colour is relatively more stable and predictable. With a drone so many more variables around light, colour and composition come into play. 

So that is it for now. I will blog again soon and hope to blog more frequently in future. 

 

See more paintings of Gower here