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Summer on Three Cliffs Bay

Three Cliffs Bay in Summer bay Emma Cownie

Three Cliffs Bay never disappointed. It did not matter how many times I saw it. The sight of it always caused me to catch my breath; when I saw it from the road, from the slopes of Cefn Bryn or from Pennard Cliffs.

It is one of the things I miss about living in South Wales. I imagine it in sunshine, although I am pretty sure the Summer in Wales this years has been as poor as it has been in Ireland. It may well improve. Septembers were often best for sunshine. Just as the schools had gone back!

Emma Cownie with Gower painting
Here’s me posing with the painting! – Sunny Morning Haze on Three Cliffs Bay (Gower)

I used to get up early in the morning and drive down to Pennard to walk along the edge of the golf course, past the dog walkers, to see the sea and take photos. This is a new painting (see above).

Once I found an excellent parking spot opposite the corner shop in Pennard, only to find I had forgotten to put the battery in my camera. I wasn’t carrying a spare. So, I had to drive all the way back to Swansea to fetch the battery. The journey seemed to take forever (as I cursed my stupidity all the waythere and back) but when I got back the conditions were still lovely.

It was low tide and you could see the river, the Pennard Pill, at its meandering best. When you first come to Three Cliffs you assume you can easily cross the Pill in your bare feet. You can at the shoreline but it get deeper quite quickly. There are stepping stones further up stream. In boot-wearing weather, its a short walk inland to cross at the stones. My painting (see below) Two Rock, Three Cliffs is near to the stepping stones.

Here is my other new Gower painting.

Read about my 2018 walk along the Gower Coastal Path here

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Spring Newsletter

Spring Newsletter 2024

Read about my other appearances in the media here 

New Work Spring 2024
See Derry City Paintings Here
New Work 2024

The Causeway Coast and Antrim

 

A selection of some of my paintings of the area. Please check my website to see my full collection of work

Antrim and Causeway Coast

A Recent Commission

Mumbles View _ Emma Cownie
"Mumbles View" 120cm x40 cm

Paintings of West Donegal, Fanad and Gower, Wales 

Paintings of West Donegal, Fanad and Gower, Wales

Wishing Everyone a Happy and Relaxing Easter/Spring Break! 

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My Autumn Newsletter

Painting of ferry at Magheraroarty Pier

Autumn 2023 Page 1

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie
Finally…

Paintings of Donegal by Emma Cownie

Find out more on my website 

Cruit Island in the Autumn light
Cruit Island in the Autumn light
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Summer Newsletter

Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022

While many of you are baking in England and dealing with a hosepipe ban, in Donegal it’s cloudy with occasional showers. I thought I would share you my recent newletter. They have ended up being quarterly. It depends of how much news I have and how busy I have been. I always make it strong on the visuals and light on the words! I also make the typeface large for reading on smart phones!

Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022
Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022
Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022
Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022

 

Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022
Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022

 

Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022
Emma Cownie Newsletter Summer 2022

 

Read More

More about greyscaling 

Buy Paintings 

Visit our viewing gallery

Commission a landscape painting 

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Summer Newsletter 2021

Here’s my summer newsletter. I am shutting up shop for a  month from 20th June to 20th July. All going well, we will be safely installed and open for business (online at least) in Donegal by mid-July. I am already longing to get back to my painting routine.  I can’t quite  believe that after being ground so long by my broken leg and the pandemic that we will actually move house/studio to another country by then. It’s a huge step!  Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly!

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Hidden Gems (of St Thomas, Swansea)

Hidden Gems by Emma Cownie

Here is a short series of paintings based on the shadows in a backlane in Swansea.  The photographs I used for these paintings were taken a couple of years ago. I came across them in my folder of printed images and decided I wanted revist my “urban minimal” themes.  The light in St Thomas is quite different to that in Brynmill, where I am at the moment.  I don’t know if its because the sea is closer to this part of Swansea, or because Kilvey Hill  has a particular angle of steepness,  but on a sunny day the light is luminescent.

I particularly wanted to used a glazing medium called liquin, to see if I could add depth to my shadows. I first did an under-painting using red ochre and sepia and then used the medium to add colour to shadows.

Back Lane, St Thomas (2021)

Back Lane, St Thomas (Swansea)(2021)

As I grew in confidence I used more liquin medium to paint the drying washing on the line and shadows on the stone wall.

Hung Out to Dry (St Thomas)_Emma Cownie
Hung Out to Dry (St Thomas, Swansea)

I think the darker shadows were more successful than the lighter ones.

Backlane Basketball painting
Backlane Basketball (Swansea) 2021 

I particularly enjoyed the contrast between the neat house with its clean, fresh drying washing and the apparent ugliness of the rough breeze-block wall in the backlane. This painting is very hard to photograph because of the very light and very dark colours. Some part of it end up too light or too dark! I think I got about right but I am still not happy with the final image. Just a reminder that you need to see a painting in real life to really appreciate it.

Too Dark!
Too Light!
A Soft Breeze (St Thoams, Swansea)
Just right? A Soft Breeze (St Thomas, Swansea) 2021

Read more about my Urban Minimal project

My Painting Project: Urban Minimalism

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Spring Newsletter 2021

Newsletter Cover

Here’s my spring newsletter which you will see is heavy on the visual and very light on the text!

Spring Newsletter 2021 Page 1
See more Gola paintings 

 

Spring Newsletter 2021 Page 2
See Large paintings 
Spring Newsletter 2021 Page 2
See  All Recently Sold Work 

 

See! That was easy to look at. If you wish to get regular (no more than once a month) updates about my work and news about exhibitions sign up here. 

 

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Tenby in the late winter sun

Paintings of Tenby for Sale

We are in the midst of lockdown in Wales, the schools are shut and the good news is that the covid numbers are falling. They need to fall a lot further because when the schools and the university students come back they will shoot up again.  I had in a mind a longer blog post, but I find that after I have got up, done my yoga/ankle exercises and painted in the morning light, that I am too tired for much else.  That post will have to wait a little longer.

So I have decided to show you my most recent work. I have been painting Tenby, which I can only visit in my imagination.Tenby is a harbour town and resort in southwest Wales. It’s known for its 13th-century town walls and its stretches of sandy shoreline, including Castle Beach.

I have been working on a triptych (which is three paintings) but I have only finished two of them, so its a diptych (two)! I will add the third one when I have completed it. I was trying to find unusual angles to paint. As much as I love painting Tenby and its colouful houses and boats, I need a fresh angle to present my brain with a new set of challenges to solve. This first painting, the challenge lay in how to paint the headland off in the distance and balnce it with the very dark shaows in the foreground. In the end I simplified the details and make sure that the tone was cool with warm grey and mauve.  I was particularly pleased with the shadows on the beach and the blue house.

Painting of Tenby Harbour
Out of the Tenby Shadows

My second painting is a view of the pier or quay from Castle Hill. This is a headland on which the ruins of Tenby Castle overlook the harbour. I liked the fact that this was the “underside” of the view we usually see of the harbour.  The pier is a working pier as can be seen from the lobster pots stacked at the far end. It’s also where the Caldey Island boat picks up supplies for the islanders and the abbey every day (so long as the wind is not from the South West or over 20mph). Apparently royal mail has continued to visit throughout the pandemic, so that the monastery shop has been able to continue to operate.  The boat that takes visitors to the island leaves from Castle Beach round the corner. The island is usually open from Easter to September for visitors, I don’t know whether that happended this year. A visit to Caldey in the boat was a pretty outdoor affair in ordinary times, so maybe they will start again in the summer, who knows.

Painting of Tenby Harbour
Tenby Pier, Wales (Sold)

I will add my third painting when I have completed it.

Update:Here’s the third and final painting of the three.

Oil Painting of Tenby in the Winter Light, Wales_Emma Cownie
Tenby in the Winter Light, Wales (Sold) 

That’s me done with Tenby for a while!

Read More

About my visits to Tenby here 

About I paint Tenby Harbour here 

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Penrice and Oxwich. A Gower “Road Trip”

My leg and ankle are recovering from my accident this spring and although I can walk a faster than I used to, I still cannot walk long distances which means that a lot of my favourite Gower walks are off limits to me. I find staying indoor too much isn’t good for my mental health (especially during the Pandemic) and it is vital to get out and see different places nearby. Fresh air is good for the soul, the mind and more importantly it blows away the virus!

This blog is about a very short road trip around parts of the Penrice estate down to Oxwich Bay we did this week.  My husband drove and I took the photographs. Penrice Castle was built by the Mansel Talbots. They were one of the most powerful families in South Wales and certainly one of its biggest resident landowners and MPs for Glamorgan in the Victorian era. The “new” Castle at Penrice was built by Thomas Mansel Talbot in the 1770s,  as an alternative residence to the rambling old house at Margam. Thomas, who had travelled to Euope and considered himself a man of great taste had a neo-classical villa built. He also had the land around the house landscaped and a park laid out  to improve the romantic scenery that had first attracted him to the place. His son, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, who was born at Penrice in 1803,  modernised the old Aberavon Port and renamed it (modestly) Port Talbot as an industrial hub for South Wales. The house at Margam was also pulled down and a new mansion was built there between 1827 and 1830 near the ruins of the old abbey.

I will the road trip start with a map. All road trips need a map. There is an excellent map of Gower at Mapsta here. Our trip starts at the top left hand side of the map where a lane turns a sharp left from the A4118 road down a narrow single track lane. A word of warning if you fancy this road trip. This is not a trip for a large vehicle. Most of the lanes are single track and are very narrow. We spent most of it praying that we did not meet any thing coming the other way, and we drive a tiny Kia, as it would have possibly meant a ggod deal of reversing! Thankfully we didn’t.

Penrice Loop #1
Penrice Loop #1

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Home Farm Penrice
Home Farm Penrice (SOLD)
Down long narrow lanes past a parking spot for a woodland walk  at Mountybank (see estate map)
Map of Penrie Estate
Map of the Penrice Estate
Up a steep and winding lane past Penrice Village
Painting of a Penrice Cottage by Emma Cownie
Penrice, Gower
Along wet and winding lanes past Pitt Farm
The road then bends and drops back down towards Oxwich Village
We past a series of sturdy cottages and then turn left at the junction in Oxwich

The carpark is free in the winter during the week (possibly only during pandemics)
This morning’s heavy rain has left puddles everywhere but there’s still a beautiful view across the bay to Great Tor and Three Cliffs

We saw people. There were not too many but enough to watch. There was even a small wedding party having their photos taken on the beach off in the distance. It was heartening to see people managing to commit to a future together come what may! It must have been next to impossible planning their day as we have had a national lockdown, a local lockdowns and a mini-firebreak and there are rumours of another lockdown after Christmas.

A wedding party off in the distance
Can you see them now?

On the way back home, we continue anti-clockwise on our loop back up a steep hill to the main road past Underhill Cottage.  It was originally the Head Gamekeeper’s cottage. It has a lovely, sunny position overlooking the beautiful Oxwich Marsh and the sea with Nicholaston Woods behind. These days it is a holiday cottage.  It is possibly one of the few sorts of holidays you could be confident of not getting cancelled these days (if you live locally, that is).

Painting of cottage near Oxwich marshes by Emma Cownie
Underhill Cottage (Oxwich, Gower) SOLD

Buy my book “Footnotes: An Artist’s Walk around the Gower Coast” here 

Read More

Mansel family and Port Talbot  https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/port-talbot-history-origin-name-18664821

Penrice Castle

Penrice – castle

https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/penrice-castle

http://penricecastle.co.uk/ 

Holiday Cottages on Penrice Estate. There are 16 holiday cottages on the estate

http://penricecastle.co.uk/gower-self-catering-holiday-cottages-wales/

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Swansea: “The town of windows between hills and the sea”

Swansea: The town of windows between hills and the sea

Dylan Thomas, the poet, grew up in Swansea and he descbed it as “An ugly, lovely town … crawling, sprawling … by the side of a long and splendid curving shore”.

About 5 years ago I went through a phase of painting a number of intricate paintings of Swansea. I loved the layers of Victorian and Edwardian houses with their high pitched roofs.  I went to great effort to walk out onto the quay and the beach to take photos with a zoom lens. The quay is no longer accessible, as part of the walkway has since collapsed.

I recently reworked a couple of these paintings that I still had.

I was recently commissioned to paint another painting from this series. The commissioned work would be similar, but the composition and the execution of the work would be slightly different. I had mixed feelings about the project because I knew how fiddly these paintings are. These paintings take a great deal of concentration!   I use a small brush for all the work on the buildings and they take several days of very focused effort to complete. Still, I hadn’t painted one for many years so I decided to paint one again. Perhaps it’s like a transatlantic flight, something that you can endure once a year but no more often than that. So here it is.

Swansea from the Beach
Swansea from the Beach Revisited (2020 commission)

Still, for all my wingeing I can’t help but say that I was really pleased with the final painting. My head hurts from all that focusing on the small houses with their white gables and red chimneys. However, I did like thinking about the different places in the painting as I painted them. The perspective squeezes the buildings together in a way and makes them look closer to each other in a way they are not in real life, by that I mean, on the ground.

beachfront-cafe-swansea
Beachfront café when it was 360

On the far right of the painting, on the beach, is what used to be the 360 Café and is now called The Secret. Next to that is the green building know as the Patti Pavilion, the trees behind it belong to the beautiful Victoria Park. They look so close to each other but in reality, the Patti Pavilion is on the other side of the busy Oystermouth Road.

Patti_Pavilion,_Victoria_Park,_St._Helen's,_Swansea,_2009
Patti Pavillion and Oystermouth Road

The square building that stretches across the rest of the painting is the Guildhall, which contains the beautiful panels painted by Frank Brangwyn. Rising up behind these buildings is are the parts of Swansea known as Sandfields, Brynmill, and Townhill.

The Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.
The Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.

Once upon a time, they were villages or rolling farmland, but now they are all merged into the sprawling City of Swansea.  As Dylan Thomas aptly described it “The town of windows between hills and the sea.” On rainy days the clouds descend on Townhill and it can no longer see or be seen!

I am now working on a medium-sized much “looser” Donegal landscape painting, before making a start on two more commissions.

 

You can now buy a print of this painting here. Click on “reproductions” tab to see your options.

 

To follow in Dylan Thomas’s footsteps you can visit his favourite places around Swansea:-

https://www.visitwales.com/things-do/culture/cultural-attractions/swansea-and-gower-dylan-thomas-footsteps