Snowdonia

Contemporary, portrait, landscape, painting, best, top ten, paintings, oil, artist, artists, gallery, life, figure, graphite, sketch, Snowdonia, drawings, pencil, Art, geometry, composition, Master, Masterpiece, Welsh, Wales.

These are a few of my paintings of the Ogwen area in Snowdonia. For my money, one of the most beautiful spots in North Wales. 

Not cosy or pretty, but somewhat austere and awe inspiring.

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Outcrop in Snowdonia'

Oil Painting on board. Size: w22" x h16.5" / w56cm x h42cm 

Private Collection

Click here for comments by other artists on this work, or to order cards/prints.

The light at Ogwen is great, particularly, as any landscape painter or photographer knows, when it's a cross light as at the early or late part of the day. 

Such a light really reveals the form and structure of the landscape features. I hope that anyone visiting the Ogwen area could instantly spot the individual outcrop depicted here. I think it's important to treat any and all features as particularly as possible. 

Therefore a painted rock will be like a portrait of a specific rock, rather than a generic 'rock-y-ish' form.

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Ogwen Falls'

Oil Painting on board. Size: w22" x h16.5" / w56cm x h42cm

Private Collection

Click here for comments by other artists on this work, or to order cards/prints.

I learnt a lot about painting moving water with this one. I started with brushmarks which flowed down with the water but this looked wrong. I had to scrape these marks off. 

Eventually what seemed to work was: paint the rocks under the water as clearly as possible; let dry; cover the area of the water with clear medium; then push dry paint into the wet medium with a rough-haired brush - but upwards, i.e., against the flow of the water.

N.B., Click on images to zoom.

'Ogwen'

Oil Painting on board. Size: w21" x h28" / w53 x h71cm

(Owned by Royal Cambrian Academy)

Click here for comments by other artists on this work, or to order cards/prints.

My wife Mari isn't keen on this one. She thinks it a bit 'Chinese' (I can see what she means - those rather cold and flat watercolours of mountain-scapes). 

I prefer to think of it, in those moments when I need to cheer myself up, as somewhat akin to those simple and austere landscapes found in the background of Piera della Francesca. But (before you think I've lost it completely) I'm obviously thinking of the subject and it's character, not the quality of painting.

This painting won the first prize in the North Wales Open, a painting exhibition for all comers, amateur and professional. 

The organiser told me afterwards that it was the first winning painting in the history of the contest about which he had had no complaints from the public! (I'm pretty sure this comment was intended as a compliment.......?)

Although it's a stunning site for picture making, the weather can range from hot to nigh on arctic. Anyone choosing to work here has to be fully prepared, not only with the painting materials etc, but particularly with suitable clothes. 

One February I went to the falls to work and was standing on icy rocks, actually in the frozen river. Within 10 minutes (and even though I was wearing 3 pairs of good woolen socks and some decent boots) my feet were freezing. I had to pack it in. 

I know that some would say it's possible to work from inside a car, and this is true. But you can't take the car up the mountainside and park it in a riverbed.

After visiting Ogwen, or indeed any prospective painting site, making some drawings, some painted sketches and taking some photographs, I will finish a painting in my studio. This could take up to two or three months per painting. 

There may be some drying time involved between layers so I am usually working on several paintings at the same time. (I have been doing one painting which I have been working on for roughly two years. I’m determined to get it finished at some point.)

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

What's occurring here, and who painted it?

(The answer will be in the next posting.)

And here's the answer from the last posting -

'The Ancient of Days'.  

by William Blake, 1794, British Museum, London.

             quiz  quiz quiz  quiz  quiz       “details, details............”    quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz  quiz          

"Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling." 

Gilbert K. Chesterton

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. . . . and now, a Recommended Read . . . 

Glencoe
John Prebble

A brilliant account, of a terrible historic event, based on meticulous research and vividly written, with both a clear overview and engrossing detail. Prebble is the historian who also wrote Culloden, upon which the compelling Peter Watkins TV film was based, and subsequently The Highland Clearances.

'You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and to put all to the sword under seventy.'

This was the treacherous and cold-blooded order ruthlessly carried out on 13 February 1692, when the Campbells slaughtered their hosts the MacDonalds at the Massacre of Glencoe. It was a bloody incident which had deep repercussions and was the beginning of the destruction of the Highlanders.

John Prebble's masterly description of the terrible events at Glencoe was praised as 'Evocative and powerful' in the Sunday Telegraph.

Published on Penguin

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