Category: Painting of Wales

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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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My Attic Art Studio

 

At Work in my Attic Art Studio

At present I work  mainly from my attic art studio as the sky light enables me to paint most of the day, normally from 6.30 am onwards. It is also warmer than my newly built garden studio which I am sure will come into it’s own in Spring and Summer.

At present it is too cold and glum, plus my husband is planning to cut  and lay huge boulders as rustic garden steps in the next few weeks.  I will be using Clearwell boulders from the Forest of Dean and buying the stone from a company called Wyestone in Herefordshire which recently supplied stone to the Chelsea Flower Show and also featured on Alan Titchmarsh’s “Love our Garden”.

In fact, the waney edge wooden cladding on my new garden art studio is from The Old Mill Yard in Carmarthenshire which also featured on a television program recently when the timber yard was featured on George Clarke’s “Amazing Spaces”.

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When the light fades in my attic art studio I switch on a combination of blue artificial “day” lights so that I can squeeze a bit more painting time in the evening too. My house and art studio overlook two parks, Singleton and Brynmill, here in Swansea, Wales. I can hear swans, ducks, various birds from my attic studio as well as magpies, seagulls and ravens scurrying across the tiled roof of the house. I love the sounds of nature and the sounds of children playing as I paint. It is very relaxing and conducive to painting, listening to these sounds amid the bustle of a city.

Hopefully I will be even more immersed in the sounds of nature from my new studio.

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The Back Lane Gallery – Opening Soon!

This is a mock “How to….” video detailing the steps in building an art studio/gallery in one’s back garden.

As I need more room to paint (I paint in my attic art studio at present) as my paintings get increasingly bigger, my husband project managed the building of an art complex at our home so that artlovers can visit for a private viewing of my artwork in the art gallery and also buy paintings, prints and so on from his log cabin office.

I have sold dozens of pieces of artwork this way and really enjoy meeting artlovers who love my artwork. Having a viewing space is designed to help artlovers make that final decision about buying my artwork.

It also helps some artlovers to meet the artist and to get to know who they will be buying art from. It all adds to the enriching experience of buying art.

Artlovers also often like to hear about the inspiration behind certain paintings and this brings the artwork to life. Although my paintings are professionally photographed some artlovers simply like to see the paintings in front of their very eyes. If you want to book a date to visit me at my home then contact me and arrange an appointment. We will be happy to see you!

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Craftsman Gallery

These two rather complementary paintings of Tenby are now being exhibited in the Craftsman Gallery, St Helens Road, Swansea.

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Tenby Tide

This is quite an unusual painting of Tenby into that the tide is fully in, and the boats bob on the lapping multi coloured strips of water, which add a crispness to the West Walian light and a rich vibrancy to the coloured Tenby terraced houses, which cwtch the Harbour and lighten the spirit with a sea-salted breathiness.

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Tenby Tide

Buy mounted limited edition print here (free UK postage)

(29 x 20 cm print only) with mount 40 x 30 cm

[wpecpp name=”Tenby Tide A4 print” price=”30.00″]

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Up Cwmdonkin

Another ‘refractionist’ painting. The title takes it’s name from the actual park, Cwmdonkin Park, which is where the poet and composer of words Dylan Thomas walked an displayed as a child and adolescent, maybe imagined and constructed as a young man, and dreamed big dreams. His family home hugged the side of the park, on the steep of the hill running alongside the park. Perhaps he extended his journey to the Uplands Tavern this way or then again, perhaps not!Image

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Down Cwmdonkin

This is an example of my ‘refractionist’ technique at work as I build up the painting, first from breaking down a photo into areas of colour, which I sketch in as mainly black and white, gently adding colours that I feel will represent light on colour at different depths of perception. Then I add to these ‘segments’ individual colours, reflecting light being refracted on different areas and at different distances. Slowly I build up these complementary spectral colours, constantly having to retreat some distance from the canvas to inspect the painting to see if it is coming together or being constructed in a coherently plausibe way. Each segment helps construct the perception of the scene, in this case, building up a picture of a path through a park. In fact, this park is Cwmdonkin Park where the great poet and composer of words, Dylan Thomas used to walk as a boy and young man. His family home is minutes away, hugging the side of this park. The final painting is quite expressionist but also conveys a spectral, refracted light spectrum hence the name ‘refractionist’ as it is the combination of light falling on various materials at different distances that I am attempting to ‘express’ or as my sister, described it, a ‘stain glass’ effect. This is apt as I love paintings that somehow expresses the extraordinary in the ordinary, the supra natural in the natural, the divine in the mundane, hence the spectral feeling I am attempting to communicate through the painting. The fleeting moment of wonder or awe when we walk into a sunlit and stain glassed church almost.