“Down by Killy Willy” – A return to the scene of much of my recent inspirations for painting landscapes.
I just love how the light is caught and moulded around the tree trunks by the bright silver sunlight, bleaching out the barren, branched trees.
I love how the warm jacket of greeny moss blends and is balanced by the muddy browns under the water surface, visible through the dark shards of tree shadow falling on the still water.
It is so pleasingly rustic and complementary in it’s colours as sometimes nature only can be.
The name Killy Willy refers to name given ;locally for this brook or pill, by the local people around Ilston in the Gower Peninsuala, near Swansea, in South West Wales.
“This is another oil painting of the stream in Ilston Cwm, in Gower. The stream painted here is sometimes known as the Killy Willy, which runs to sea as Pennard Pill, at Three Cliffs Bay.”
Every weekend my husband and I explore and almost mine the beauty of Gower peninsula with its amazing variety of beaches, woods, hills and valleys for inspiration for my next paintings. Increasingly I have used this peninsula to keep my artistic juices flowing. It is almost as if we are harvesting the beauty of Gower in some way and using it to create art before sharing this bounty with art lovers throughout the world.
Different paintings of Gower adorn walls in the homes of art lovers on various continents. Our weekend walks are not just for our aesthetic enrichment but for others too it would seem. What a joy to share the beauty of this stunning peninsula designated Britain’s first Area of Outstanding Beauty.
“This is another oil painting inspired by Ilston Cwm in Gower, near Swansea, Wales. It is a refractionist painting of the clear winter morning light falling on Ilston Cwm from the Parkmill entrance behind the public house, Gower Inn. It is a painting of early morning when the light is clear sharp, crisp and brilliant as reflected in the mirror like reflection of Ilston Brook, as it meanders through the leafless trees of the woodland.”
The painting has sold but you can buy a large limited edition mounted print here
“This oil painting is simple in construction and technique compared to many of my paintings. I only wish to express (most of my work is inspired by expressionism, especially the Pont Aven school) the brilliant final flowering of Autumn, the final raging against the light.
I simply used fired reds and oranges to express the feeling of the tree’s leaves being on fire, charred by Autumn and it’s burning light. It is this dying of the leaves that these trees are their most brilliant, their most beautiful. Not in green leafy health, but in glorious decay. There is also movement in the painting also as if the leaves and branches are moving as with raging flames.”
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.
Winter Morning Light (SOLD)
You can buy large limited edition mounted prints of this painting here
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.
These painting have been sold but you can buy large limited edition mounted prints here
Here is my latest oil painting – “Tree by the Brook” – 60 x 80cm – £395.
Email if interested in buying.
Beech by the Brook (SOLD)
This is the latest in a series of oil paintings, based loosely on my refractionist style, of a wood in an area of the Gower Peninsula called Ilston. This painting is of a green moss coated tree, lit by the low lying rich winter light, whose roots plunge into and drink from Ilston Brook.
I love winter light more than any other light and how it’s eye filling light illuminates the barks of trees. How it casts mist greys and pinky, purple pastel hues into the background light.
