This is a 12 inch square oil painting on canvas mounted on board. It was an opportunity to play with the background – scraping and layering paint to try to build a texture to represent the muddy foreshore. I’m not sure how successful it was but it was an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.
This is Langland Bay, Gower looking towards Rotherslade sometimes known as Little Langland. This was completed in one session mostly using a painting knife. 30 x 30cm square oil painting on canvas mounted on board.
The Bristol Channel has the second highest tidal range in the world, exceeded only by the Bay of Fundy in Canada. Hence at low tide it’s a very long walk to the water’s edge at Rhossili! Worm’s Head is accessible at low tide via the isthmus shown at the top right corner of the painting. This view is taken from the top of Rhossili Downs that skirt the whole length of the bay.
This painting is unusual for me because it is made up of just a few clearly defined blocks of colour locked together to provide a simple but strong composition. I usually enjoy rendering details and textures, but in this case I’ve deliberately kept the rendering within these colour planes to a minimum in order to increase the chromatic impact of the intense light of a bright summer’s day.
This is a 12 x 12 inch oil painting on canvas board completed in one session a week ago.
Late afternoon sunshine at Rhossili beach with Atlantic waves rolling in. These jagged rocks are to be found on the beautiful and underused beach to the east of the Worms Head. Most people prefer the more familiar long sweep of sand that stretches north for three miles from Rhossili to Llangennith.
12 x 16 inch oil painting on canvas board.
These are a few sketches I made on a recent trip to Nerja in Andalucia in southern Spain. The square where I sat was busy and full of sounds and movement with people coming and going, and a violinist playing Puccini. I used charcoal and a very soft 8B pencil in an A4 sketchbook – all very ‘smudgy’, but an enjoyable way to pass the afternoon in the warm Spanish sunshine.
This is a painting started some time ago and completed today. It is from a sketch I made on a visit to the ancient village of Zennor near St Ives a couple of years ago. I tucked myself away from the tourists at the back of The Tinners’ Arms, the local pub. The tower is that of St Senara the ancient parish church, which is associated with many myths and legends. The village has been a magnet for artists and writers, including DH Lawrence who finished his novel Women in Love here in 1915-17. He wrote this of the village:
“At Zennor one sees infinite Atlantic, all peacock mingled colours and the gorse is sunshine itself. Zennor is a most beautiful place: a tiny granite village nestling under high shaggy moor-hills and a big sweep of lovely sea beyond, such a lovely sea, lovlier even than the Mediterranian…..It is the best place I have been in I think”.
I think that says it all!
The painting is 10 inches square, oil on canvas board.
Looking towards Worm’s Head from the Rhossili cliff tops. The Worm snakes out for about a mile into the Bristol Channel and is only accessible during a window of about four hours at low tide. This is a 10×12 inch oil painting on canvas board.
