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Rainbow Wood

Painting of Trees

Delighted to say I have just SOLD this golden oldie “Rainbow Wood” via artgallery.co.uk!

 

 

This is another refractionist/cloissionist painting where I attempt to break down the light streaming through the leaves of the trees in to blocks of colours. My painting has two prominent motifs which are to 1. create or animate light via my use of colour or 2. conversely, to break down light into component colours, in order to show light being ‘refracted’ through different materials, such as the leaves of the trees in this painting. The wood floor is illuminated by the light and I wanted to create an effect of movement of colour sliding along the ground and also sweeping, almost windswept across the trees like colour on the wind.

I like that pre-perceptual fleeting moment before our brains ‘construct’ images before colours and light are burnt into conscious representation. I love woods and trees because they capture the light in many ways and translate this light into numerous colours, too many to paint. I attempt to catch that fleeting fluidity, that becoming an image, not fully formed, more sensation than perception. I hope this vibrancy recreates that feeling of awe we feel in nature’s beauty, before our brains explain it away. To return to the fluent, heart-filled child-like wonder that sometimes ossifies with age.

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Inner Light

Delighted to say I have just SOLD a Giclee print of this painting “Inner Light ” via Artfinder – also now on it’s way to the USA!

inner light

 

“This is another refractionist painting and is almost an inverse of “Up Cwmdonkin”. Instead of the refracted light creating a stain glass effect falling on the outside fringes of a wood, here it illuminates within the hidden chamber of a forest, which gives it a heightened, magical or enchanted feel. It feels like a secret wood of childhood fantasy and imagination. I like how the brillant rainbow colours contrast with the jet black and how the inner sanctum of light is framed naturally by the surrounding trees, inviting one into the shower of light and colour. But is this scene too good to be true? Is there a Brothers Grimm malevolence here, in this painting? Do the black trees signal a menace, a foreboding or do these encircling trees call one into a place of wonder and a child-like joy, where the light and colour, silence and peace rain down and let the soul rejoice? Or is it a broody chimera? Depends on your own imagination I suppose?”

 

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Swansea From Mumbles painting

Swansea from Mumbles

This is a new “naive” style oil painting “Swansea from Mumbles” 80 x 60cm £435 –
This is a rarely seen view of Swansea town centre and surrounds as seen through a telescopic lens from the beach at Mumbles – I loved this viewed when I first saw it, especially as one can see The Black Mountain (in the Brecon Beacons National Park) in the distant background.

This painting shows me why I love Swansea and South Wales. With all the huddled up houses hanging onto hills and valleys and sliding down to the sand of Swansea Bay. It is like the Valleys of South Wales are transplanted to the seaside. As a result this view almost has a slight incongruity to it.


It is as if, in a child like manner, two of my favourite aspects of Wales have been sandwiched together, the glorious coastline and the beautifully sculpted valleys in one view. Best of both worlds. For me this makes Swansea the heart of and gateway to South West and West Wales. A transition physically and geologically from the Valleys to the breathtaking coastline that lies around the corner of Mumbles and all the way up West Wales to the jutting rugged glory of the North Wales coastline. I love this part of the world. It is so beautiful and inspiring.

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Swansea from Mumbles

Limited edition mounted prints are available here 

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Up Village Lane, Mumbles

A new oil painting as of today, 40 x 40 cm. This oil painting “Up Village Lane, Mumbles” is a naive painting of a rather lovely lane, Village Lane, in Mumbles, near Swansea which crawls up the hill from Swansea Bay.
The lane is a huddle of beautifully coloured cottages, of various pastel shades, which are especially colourful when the sun is out although their assembled ability to cheer the heart on a grey day is always appreciated too.
It is quite difficult to paint the front of Mumbles unless one is on a boat. I photographed this image from further around the arch of Swansea Bay with a telephoto lens.

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Up Village lane (SOLD)
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My “Art of the Day” Feature!

 

My “Art of the Day” Feature on Artfinder

Sunday, 19th April 2015

“This is a new oil painting inspired by Ilston Cwm in Gower, near Swansea, Wales. It is painted in my ‘refractionist’ style, and shows the clear winter morning light falling on Ilston Cwm from the Parkmill entrance behind the public house. In early morning the light is clear, crisp and brilliant as it reflects on the mirror-like water of Ilston Brook, which meanders gently through the leafless trees of the woodland…”

https://www.artfinder.com/story/winter-morning-light-on-parkmill-2015/

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Clear Winter Morning Light

Winter Morning Light on Parkmill

A new oil painting as of today – 80 x 60 cm – £395 – “Clear Winter Morning Light”.

Again this is a painting of Ilston Cwm and the woodland there. I rose up early and photographed this early morning scene when the winter light is at it’s most brilliant and clear. I loved the mirror like reflection of the water in the brook also. I found this composition pleasing so I painted it.

 

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Winter Morning Light (SOLD)

 

You can buy large limited edition mounted prints of this painting here 

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My Ilston Inspiration

Glorious Gower

My present series of paintings which included the recently sold paintings below are all of and inspired by Ilston Cwm a rural woodland in Gower Pensinsula. Gower was the first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK in the 1950s and is a major influence on my artwork.

I love visiting this area, every weekend to walk my dogs and take photographs of the area.

I like doing this especially in Winter when the rich Winter light catches the mossy barks of tress and illuminates the background behind the leafless trees with pinky purples and silvery greys.

I find winter with it’s seeming desolation much more colourful than other times of the year. The light is more brilliant, thicker and more concentrated  than the light of summer. Less diffused. More clear.

The fact the trees have no leaves allows one to look through and beyond and gives greater depth of perception and a richer array of overlapping colors .

This seems to suit my refractionist style of breaking light down into colour components as these blocks of colour have a greater overlaying depth in winter.

Winter light is also lower in the sky and this helps with a sharper more intense light falling on mossy tree barks.

It is so great to get out of the city to soak up some countryside. It has become a vital part of life, escaping the every day concerns of life and work in Swansea to commune with nature, to get away from it all and to return with a bucket load of inspiration for paintings to be contemplated or painted in the following week or weeks.

It is like getting filled up with inspiration, in fact. Replenished, reinvigorated.

I find Gower a very moving place, inspiring. There is something tangibly uplifting about this peninsula. A special energy, or spirit to the place, a Nature Cathedral.  There is a presence that inspires one and lifts the soul towards creativity, towards play. I am blessed to have such an inspiring place only ten-fifteen minutes away.

 

beech by the brook

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wooden bridge

Down Stream (2)

These painting have been sold but you can buy large limited edition mounted prints here

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From Ilston With Love

Delighted to say I have just SOLD this lovely painting “A Tree by Ilston Brook” via Artfinder –

I have painted a series of paintings similar to this painting which are all inspired a rural area close to my home in Swansea, called,  Ilston Cwm, in the Gower Peninsula.

I will be blogging later in the week about this lovely area of Outstanding beauty and posting an accompanying video so that you can see it’s beauty and inspiration for yourself.

https://www.artfinder.com/product/a-tree-by-ilston-brook/

beech by the brook

This painting is sold but you can buy large limited edition mounted prints here.