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Ice cream with Nan and Bampi

Painting of family in Brynmill Park, Swansea

A new oil painting – 40 x 50cm – “Ice cream with Nan and Bampi” – this people portrait is a snapshot of life in Brynmill, Swansea where I live. This is a refreshments kiosk in the picturesque Brynmill Park where we can see two grandparents, after the school run, treating their grand child to an afternoon ice cream.

I love the colours in the painting, they remind me of the bright bold colours of Ladybird books from my childhood. I am especially proud of the movement in the figures I think I managed to achieve; the caring consideration towards the grandchild illustrated in the movement of the grand parents. Bampi is a slang name in South Wales for Grandad.

 

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Brynmill from Swansea Beach

“Brynmill from Swansea Beach” is a new painting of the area of Brynmill in Swansea, “from the beach” – it is not actually from the beach as such as the image that inspired this painting was shot from Swansea Marina using a telescopic lens.

At the top of the hill is Brynmill Primary School, with the Patti Pavilion in the foreground. I love how the terraced houses perched on hills, a Welsh motif, slide down to the beach. It is as if the cwtched houses are all sunbathing and happy to be at the seaside.

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Umbrella Flowers

Now available for purchase on my website – “Umbrella Flowers” – oil – 50 x 60cm – £295

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“An expressionist oil painting of some cow parsley flowers craning their necks to the sun to catch a fragment of some nourishing summer light as it peeks and shoots through the trees and bushes in the background. I love the way cow parsley catches the light in it’s lacy petals. It’s delicacy the very expression of summer calm and heat. They seem to stretch their flowery fingers to the sun in exaltation. In praise of summer.”

https://controlpanel.artweb.com/flowers-/529983_umbrella-flowers.html

 

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The “Street” Series

 

I really loved painting this Triptych of elderly people walking in the street. Two are sold already, both from Carmarthen. The gentleman in the middle having his “Afternoon Trundle” is from Swansea. I like this type of painting because we have a tendency to give this type of painting a “back story”, where are they going and where and who have they come from or going to. We superimpose our feelings onto these elderly figures. I find I have much affection for them all, which may be because they all look like nans and grandads, our nans and grandads. I have an affinity with them, out excitedly on the way to shops, the sun sending glad tidings into their bones. All excited to be out on their afternoon quests. As they walk purposely into the facing sun, it gives the impression they all have plenty of life in them.

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All Happed Up for the Road

Delighted to say I have just SOLD this lovely oil painting “Happed Up” of an old gentleman walking down the street in Carmarthen, catching the bright warming, descending sun on his face. I just loved the gentle warm colours on this sheep skin jacket and the inky blue of the door and the flaky, powdery colours of the damp wall behind. The title “Happed Up” is an Northern Irish expression meaning to dress up warm against the cold. Although the winter sun gives the impression of being warm, there was a nippy bite to the December air. The photograph that inspired this painting was taken on the same street and the same day as the one that inspired the painting “Saturday Shop” which has also been sold. My husband loves this painting so will be sad to see it go.

https://www.artfinder.com/product/happed-up/

happed up

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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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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.

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A MEDITATION ON ART, PAINTING AND PLACE.

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In a meditative manner, to the music of Eric Satie’s gorgeous “Trois Gymnopedies”, I attempt to describe how working close to nature but in the city is a major influence on my painting, blending with my technique to create my artwork. In fact, place and painting are inseparable. I am greatly influenced by the light and beauty in Wales and around the Swansea area in particular. Most of my paintings inspired by the bountiful beauty that surrounds me, the sounds as well as the images. You might even notice the odd inspiration that made it to be a painting too (as well as the odd painting of my inspirational Swansea). Welcome to my Attic Art Studio and the place and surrounding area that inspires much of my artwork.