I finished this painting yesterday based on my experience of a walk last week at Three Cliffs Bay, Gower. It was an unseasonably cold day, with a shower of rain never far away. I did some quick sketching, and took photographs. It was too chilly to sit for a long time.
Oil painting on canvas board, 40x40cm (16x16inches).
I’m currently working on a series of coastal paintings that focus on clouds. I am enjoying exploring the subtle greys and the rhythms of the ever changing cloud formations, attempting to re-create the atmosphere I experienced on that particular day. This is Langland Bay on the Gower Peninsula in south Wales, a popular venue for surfers and, increasingly, all-year-round bathers.
As usual I have several paintings in progress at any one time. This is the first that I’ve finished. It’s 12 x 12 inches oil on canvas board, and like all my paintings is for sale. If interested please contact me at pobbles2000@yahoo.com
These are two recent paintings of basically the same subject matter of sand, sea and sky. In the one above I have used a rather ‘sweet’ colour palette of greens, blues, mauves and ochres, whereas the one below is rather more ‘gritty’ and restricted to a few mostly earth colours. I actually prefer to work with a restricted palette, and I also prefer to paint the coast during the winter months when the colours are less saturated, more subdued. I like playing with subtle variations of greys. The winter months generally provide more dramatic skies and more turbulent seas that evoke the old Romantic aesthetic ideal of the Sublime – that aspect of nature which we admire but of which we are in awe.
Both pictures are beaches on the Gower Peninsula of south Wales. The one above is of Caswell Bay and the one below was inspired by Langland Bay.
Both are painted in oil on canvas board, the top one is 32 x 46cm and the bottom one is 30cm square.
Both these oil paintings are for sale, enquiries to pobbles2000@yahoo.com
A bright but windy day at Three Cliffs Bay, Gower. This was an abandoned painting from a few years back that I decided was worth repainting yesterday afternoon.
Oil on canvas mounted on board, 29 x 30.5cm
Looking down from the cliff tops at the south Gower coast with Tor Bay in the foreground and the Great Tor proudly jutting out into the Bristol Channel. The tide is high with the cliffs silhouetted against the morning sun.
An oil painting on canvas board, 12 x 16inches
A view of Rhossili village, Gower, from the cliffs. Low sun on a winter’s afternoon. I was particularly interested in the visual rhythms set up by the geological folds in the limestone rock.
An oil painting on canvas mounted on board, approximately 44 x 46 cm.
A Day of sunshine and showers at Rhossili on The Gower Peninsula, south Wales. The tide is out and the prevailing westerly wind is carrying the clouds across the downs. I love it walking these cliffs when it is wild and windy – as it so often is!
A 30 x 30cm oil painting on canvas board.
“Sker House is a historic building in Wales. Originally built as a monastic grange of the Cistercian order over 900 years ago, it is situated just outside the town of Porthcawl, near Bridgend. Little remains of the original structure and it was completely rebuilt in the late sixteenth century. Its residential form appears to have been determined by the preceding monastic grange. The house was made famous as the basis of R. D. Blackmore’s book The Maid of Sker.” (Wikipedia)
The house has been owned since 2003 by Niall Fergusson, the distinguished British historian. A few years ago, I attended a talk he gave about the house and how he and his family came to settle in Porthcawl and restore the Grade 1 listed building. This stimulated my interest and prompted me to make this painting.
A 30 x 30cm (12 x 12 inches) oil painting on canvas mounted on board.
I have used a slightly cooler palette for this painting, replacing Cadmium Red with Michael Harding’s Amethyst, a rich, transparent red purple.
For those who are interested my palette for this painting comprises: Amethyst, Raw Sienna, French Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Lake and Titanium White… mostly Michael Harding Artist Quality, handmade oil paint – expensive, but well worth it!
30 x 30cm Oil painting on canvas board.
This painting is available to purchase. Contact: pobbles2000@yahoo.com
My goal for a long time now has been to paint looser, to allow the paint to do the work and to just let the paint be, to let go sooner. Simplify, simplify, simplify. I am trying to think in terms of the relationship between just a few large masses, to focus on getting this right rather than getting bogged down in describing detail painstakingly accurately. I think I’m getting there… slowly!
I always agonise over whether to include figures in a landscape painting. In this case I have used figures on the beach and cliff top to suggest the dramatic scale of these cliffs.
Oil on canvas mounted on board, 27 x 38cm.
Available to purchase. Enquiries: pobbles2000@yahoo.com
