Own work: 'Archway, Bath'

     Welcome to the Salon des Refuses. I painted this specifically for an exhibition in London. Not something I usually do as living in south west Wales it is such a schlep. Anyway I was relieved of the hassle of getting it up to town and back by being rejected. Alas.

     The judging criteria meant that this isn't in my usual mixed media. I have had to work in water soluble media only. This has meant a change in my technique, and a little learning in the process. The composition is also slightly different in that I have included the urban context of the arch, which I usually play down or omit altogether.

     Perhaps this is not sort of architecture that one immediately thinks of in connection with Bath - it being Georgian and all that. This structure is however late Victorian, the work of the Scottish born architect J M Brydon, and illustrates how by the turn of twentieth century British architecture was swinging back to full blown Classicism. It forms part of his complex of civic buildings - Guildhall, Market and Art Gallery - in the centre of the city. The arch is merely the rear entrance to the site. I love its sculptural, mannerist qualities.

Own work: Aberglasney:

      Ahead of my forthcoming exhibition at Aberglasney I've created this mixedmedia image of the house. All rather John Piper, which - I have to be honest - was not quite what I was out to achieve, however I do seem to have regained a more confident approach than the hesitant approach I took in that painting of St Cathan's church recently uploaded here.

Own work: St Cathan, Llangathen

      Finally, finally, started painting again! It has been months of emptiness. The consequences of Lockdown here in the UK - not the epidemic, but Lockdown. And here is what I've managed to produce - a bit laboured I'm sad to say. The 'usual' mixed media. All this activity as I'm exhibiting in next month at Aberglasney: 10-06.22 - 16.06.22

Own work: The House of Correction, Folkingham

     The first big piece of art I have done in a long while. The House of Correction, Folkingham, Lincolnshire, by that excellent provincial Georgian architect Bryan Browning. A favourite of this blog. Here is the real thing.  Perhaps a little more restrained than I would have liked, but maybe that is a reflection of how I'm feeling at present. Usual mixed-media.

Own work: Nevile's Gate, Trinity College, Cambridge

     Finally got round to posting this!  Nevile's gate, Trinity College, Cambridge and a rather nifty piece of  Jacobean architecture it is, dating from c1610. I worked from a photograph which I took several years ago, the lockdown meaning I haven't been out much of late. I think the shadow under the arch needs darkening before it's framed.

Own work: The Sardis Chapel, Ystradgynlais

     Revisiting the Sardis Chapel at Ystradgynlais, this being straightened times when travelling in search of new subject matter is out of the question. This time mixed media with some collage. To be honest I didn't really enjoy the process, perhaps with time and distance my attitude towards this painting will change for the better. At the moment all I can see are the faults.

Own work: West Door, Leominster Priory

     Two new artworks in a week, what's going on? Here's The West Door of Leominster Priory - the usual mixed media 26 x 27.5 cms on 300gsm watercolour paper. Enjoy.

Own work: The Sardis Independent Chapel

     Another new work for you.  The Sardis Independent Chapel, Ystradgynlais, Breconshire. Ystradgynlais, which is visually nearly all Victorian and later, is oddly enough situated south of the Brecon Beacons towards the head of the Tawe valley. So sort of industrial South Wales, really. Not the sort of place one would automatically associate with deeply rural Breconshire. The chapel, perhaps the grandest in the town, dates from the 1860s and is a far more dominant presence in the streetscape than the retiring parish church. As you can see from the collage it is a rather odd building with a number of mannerisms to the classical façade: the bases and capitals of the eight Doric pilasters, (which are missing both their pads, or orli, and abaci), are continuous between adjoining pilasters, and the entablature is missing most of its cornice.

     It is now closed. Anyway, this is a mixed-media collage roughly 30 x 37cms on watercolour board.

Own work: 'Rocks and Cave, Pennard'

     Latest painting, after a short-ish hiatus: 'Rocks and Cave, Pennard'. Mixed media on 300gsm watercolour 30x26cms. What more can I say?

Own work: 'Rocks and Scree; Pennard'

     I had started this last month before me exhibition completing it during the first full day there.  It is based on a drawing I made of the cliffs at Pennard, Gower.  Mixed media on 300gsm watercolour paper, again making use of butter for the stopping out. I hope you like it.

Own work: Cliffs at Pobbles Bay

      A new work to share with you: Cliffs at Pobbles Bay.  Mixed media on 300gsm watercolour paper.  Pobbles bay, which at low tide is connected by smooth pale sand to Three Cliffs Bay, is one of those hauntingly beautiful places that peninsular Gower is so rich in. The sky and the rocks were created by applying a wash over butter!  It, the butter, was then removed with a hot iron.

Own work: Bethania Chapel, Morriston

     Finally!  Finally able to share this with you all out there - The Bethania Chapel, Woodfield Street, Morriston.  Mixed media, as yet undetermined dimensions.  I have to admit this took for longer to do than I had hoped, having infinite pains with the windows.  This chapel, like so many now in Wales has closed for worship.  That whole proud nonconformist culture is in what seems to be terminal decline.

Own work: Llangathen church

     For a few months now I've been really struggling in the attempt to paint topographical subjects. Finally I've actually achieved something I'm vaguely satisfied with - a little bit too Edwardian - but ok.

Own work: Aberglasney

     I have to admit I'm rather pleased with this sketch.  Not that I had thought it would turn out stylistically quite as it has. I simply didn't sit down and consciously conceive of making a drawing in the Edwardian manner. It just happened and I'm glad it did.

Own work: Grongar Hill

     With my next exhibition slowly creeping up on me - it's September - I've been changed subject matter and gone for the local and my first landscape painting in a long, long time. The subject is Grongar Hill, painted from the churchyard at Llangathen - a visit well worth making if only for the fabulous view over the Towy valley. I'm relatively happy with it. There are however a number of things I would hope not to repeat.

     I've blogged about Grongar Hill, the inspiration for the poet John Dyer, before.  John Piper painted it, I think, three or four times, and it has a fascination for me, which is partly associational and partly for the immense beauty of it and the landscape that surrounds it.  Mixed media.

Own work: Llandeilo church

     Ahead of my next exhibition I have returned to topographical painting. Here's the first in a while; Llandeilo church.  Mixed media on 300 gsm watercolour paper.  I'm not at all sure whether I'm satisfied with what I've created!  Looks a bit overworked to my eyes.

Own work: the Methodist Chapel, Bourne

     I finished this an hour ago.  It's taken two weeks and three attempts to produce something I'm vaguely satisfied with; mainly I think caused by the evenness of the building and texture.  I more readily respond to the picturesque, the textured, bricolage. The usual mixed media, and, like my Baptist Chapel of a month ago, a rather Piper-esque painting.  The chapel itself is the work of the nineteenth century Bourne architect Thomas Pilkington, who was responsible for the Town Hall in Market Deeping which this blog visited in Jan 2017. Here  A cold, grey looking day it was too, when the sky and stone of the buildings around me were almost the same colour.

Own work: The Baptist Chapel, Bourne

     Here is something I prepared earlier when I was in a very John Piper mood.  It's of the Baptist Chapel in west St Bourne, Lincolnshire. It is a rather powerful piece of architecture and I've always been inclined to credit Bryan Browning, beloved of this parish, with the design. I have no documentary evidence for this, unhappily. I've asked at the chapel a couple of times but nobody had a clue. I did the painting Wednesday and it probably took about three hours - perhaps less.  Thankfully less than half that time was actually spend siting in the cold drawing. Mixed media - pen and ink, watercolour, gouache oil pastel over pencil underdrawing on Acid free, Archival, 300gsm watercolour paper.  The most Piperesque thing I've done to date.

Own work

   A painting expedition this morning, the first in a while.  The destination was St Michael Langtoft and the lovely classical south porch.  The Buildings of England says 18th century - I wonder if it's not earlier than that.  Charming all the same.  The usual mixed media.

Own Work: St Firmin, Thurlby

   A sketch I did the other week, and which I feel vaguely pleased with.....