Landscape Paintings Archives

Posted on November 1, 2026November 1, 2026 by emma cownie — 11 Comments

Friction is Necessary

When I was a Secondary School teacher (please note this was a decade ago ) I used to want “easy” classes. You know, classes where the pupils were polite and enthusiastic. They did exist; classes where they’d put their hands up and waited to be called upon to make their interesting point. However, there would be plenty of classes where the pupils were chatty, called out, argued back (known as “chopsey” in Swansea) or worse, were silent and didn’t say anything. There weren’t so many of those classes but I did have a couple. The thing was, that the so-called tough classes challenged me and made me think about how to engage them and focus their energies towards learning. I learnt more as a teacher from trying to shut them up/or getting them to talk. Convenience wasn’t good for me and it was probably dull for them too.

I can think of a few idioms but they dont quite fit; “No pain no gain/ Its all grist to the mill”. I also pondered over ‘inconvenience is the cost of community’

Some inconveniences are annoying. Actually all of them are. My mouse stops working when I roll it over my mousepad. It stops me typing as fast as I would like. Many blog posts have been shorter than the might have been beacuse I struggled with WordPress. I can never decide whether using Elementor is easier than the WordPress editor.I have tried to edit and publish this post several times. I usually have one of my cats trying to lie across the keyboard. Today it’s Nellie. Yesterday it was Flossie.

Nellie and Flossie love getting in the way

Maybe rather than asking why I struggle with my PC and the mousemat I should ask why am I in a such a hurry? Why not stroke the cat? Is it because I dont actually want to be doing this? Yes and no. Writing gives my head exercise. Like going for a short walk. But I am tired. I have been awake since 3.30 am. The clocks went back last weekend and my body is still on British Summer Time. I keep looking at my watch and thinking “Is it only 11.30!”

I have closed my Creator account on Facebook and Instagram. That means I no longer have a professional page on either site, just personal ones. That way Meta cannot crawl my pages or website in order to train its AI. My paintings will be posted here and on substack, I will also send more frequent (but shorter) emails to my subscribers. Setting up on Substack is very inconvenient. There’s a lot to get my head around, I just try to do a bit and look to see what other artists have done. It’s going to take quite a while to get up and running.

But that’s OK. I am coming across a lot of interesting artists and writers. I am thinking about how I present myself to an audience that has probably never seen my work before. It’s giving me a bit of a kick up the proverbial and I probably need it.

I came across this quote “Modern man thinks he loses something—time—when he does not do things quickly. Yet he does not know what to do with the time he gains—except kill it.” (Eric Fromm’s 1956 book The Art of Loving).

Yet some inconvenience and effort are essential to a sense of satisfaction. In Art as well as writing. We need to put some effort into a thing for it to be worthwhile. If I dont exercise my brain it will get flabby and lazy.

I aim to hide the effort. When I paint, I try to hide the brush strokes. Reduce them. Dont over work the image. Muddy the colours. To simplify, reduce, cut the details. I have to empty my mind and just paint. Each painting is a failure but still I try. I never quite get there. I never will. That’s the whole point. The effort is the whole point of the thing.

o now I will attempt to publish this post for the third time. I started yesterday and lost my new and improved version. So here’s my shorter, worse version. Nellie has just arrived so I must stroke her/feed her.

https://philosophizethis.substack.com/p/how-love-became-just-another-thing

https://www.seenandunseen.com/art-being-inconvenienced

Subscribe on substack here

Posted on October 24, 2026October 24, 2026 by emma cownie — 4 Comments

Off to the USA

No, not me. Just a couple of my paintings.

Above Mussenden Temple_ Painting by Emma Cownie

Posted on October 22, 2026October 22, 2026 by emma cownie — 7 Comments

There must be 50 ways…

Its Over

It’s time to end this abusive relationship. Meta, who own Facebook and Instagram, has recently “announced” a change to their Terms of Service for business & creator pages from 30^th October. It was a very quiet announcement and lots of people missed it. In fact they tried to sneak it past us. There was no email notification, no pop-up warning, no signature to consent. It will just happen. You agree to them automatically by continuing to use the platform.

So what? The new terms not only grant them the right to use anything I post on my business pages on Facebook and Instagram but also the links to my blog and my website! This means that all the years I have used FB and Instagram to share my art, along with all the links to various places like my website, blog, articles about me, publications, reproductions, podcasts, galleries, etc can be used by Meta to train Ai.

Europe’s biggest news publishers are asking regulators in the EU and UK to stop Meta from introducing these new business terms but I doubt they will succeed. I dont really care, I have had enough. Meta are forever changing their rules on how to get seen. First it was all about hashtags, although apparently you can’t have more than 5 now. Then it was all about Stories, then Reels now its about Shares. So many silly films of artists spinning around with their paintings to create a video. Stories with pages of text on them. It is just silly, demeaning and exhausting. It is not about Art. Being on these platforms has damaged my confidence as an artist. I catch myself thinking “What’s the point of painting this, if no one will see it?”

Meta has not provided a single means for business owners to opt out of this change. Meta has not offered creators any compensation for the use (theft) of their data. The terms dictate that if I do not agree to this my only recourse is to stop using Meta entirely.

So I have decided to close my business page on Instagram and will shortly do the same on facebook. I have made many artist friends on Instagram, in particular, and I will be very sad to leave. I will be posting all my new work, sales and other news on this blog (here) and on Substack. So if you are wondering why I am telling you about every new work I finish all of a sudden, this is why.

I have thousands of followers on Instagram (over 8000) and across my Facebook (6000) accounts but Meta have been surpressing my views for some time. Or possibly they have all voted with their feet and left already. I know I find using these two platforms a very frustrating experience as the dreaded algorithm shoves so many manic reels at me. I have said before how I find going onto these platforms makes me feel ill. I am sick of all the adverts and frantic short form video I get shoved before my eyes. I hate it on Youtube too. No doubt it makes others feel ill too. It’s just that it’s a lonely business being an artist and I do not relish losing touch with so many people. Perhaps, it’s an illusion and I have lost touch already.

Substack

If you use Substack, please follow me on there. It’s like a breath of fresh air. No reels. Just still images and thoughtful writing. I joined in 2018 to follow a number of journalists who set up accounts there and I been pleasantly surprised by how many really good artists are on there so it’s time to make the move. And yes, I know it’s owned by billionaires too but I have to leave the Metaverse.

I am delighted to annouce that I have sold two paintings “Above Mussenden Temple” and “Round the Bend Maghery (Donegal)” to a collector in Maryland, USA.

Take it away Paul…

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Dn5GEpJ7j/

More on Meta’s change of their terms of service

https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/uk-competition-chief-very-alive-to-risks-from-sweeping-meta-scraping-change

https://thenextweb.com/news/publishers-eu-uk-regulators-meta-ai-terms

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/meta-business-accounts-ai-scraping

https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1xa7638/meta_gave_itself_permission_to_create_accounts_on/n

Posted on October 18, 2026October 18, 2026 by emma cownie — 7 Comments

Up and down Village Lane, Mumbles

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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!

See More Paintings of Mumbles

See More Paintings of Wales

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

Posted on October 4, 2026October 7, 2026 by emma cownie — 13 Comments

All about my work

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.

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 (Reynoldston, Gower)

A Fork in the Road (Inishowen, Donegal) 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

Posted on September 20, 2026October 7, 2026 by emma cownie — 6 Comments

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.

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?

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!

Posted on September 9, 2026September 11, 2026 by emma cownie — 4 Comments

Waiting for Ilston Stream to return

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

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.

View this post on Instagram

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.

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!

https://www.instagram.com/reels/Db6GEiFJPJW/

Posted on June 6, 2026June 6, 2026 by emma cownie — 6 Comments

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

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.

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.

https://www.inishview.com/places/ardara/

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

Welcome to Ardara.ie

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/

Visit Ardara

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

Posted on May 25, 2026May 25, 2026 by emma cownie — 12 Comments

Three Donegal Paintings

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.

Posted on March 26, 2026April 5, 2026 by emma cownie — 6 Comments

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!

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 (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.

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 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 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