![\"Bridge,](\"http:\/\/www.treeshark.com\/BlogPosts\/Painting\/oil03L.jpg\" "\\"Bridge")
<\/a><\/p>\nAfter my drive down I was straight out. I had spotted this scene on my last visit but the light had been wrong but when I arrived this time the view was\u00a0perfectly lit with dark shadows lit by dramatic splashes of sunlight. This is all very well but on blustery days like this the scene looks different from\u00a0moment to moment so you have to decide as you go along which of the lighting changes you like. I repainted the landscape behind the house two or\u00a0three times until I liked how it sat with the brilliantly lit foreground.<\/p>\n
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Morning saw a dramatic storm come in from the sea. I set out intending to paint it but when I got down to the Parrog at Newport the rain was horizontal\u00a0so being a wimp I sat and waited in the car. I didn’t have long to wait the wind soon harried the clouds off to the North leaving only a few tattered and\u00a0defeated remnants in a ragged array across the bay. Looking to my left however a new army of ominous clouds was gathering for an assault so I knew\u00a0I had better be quick. It was quite frustrating painting the sky as everything was moving so fast. Several arrangements got painted in then scraped out\u00a0but I settled for a simpler sky in the end as the first dramatic version rather overwhelmed the scene.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n That evening I returned to try another strategy with the clouds. This time I mixed all the hues first and started with the clouds rather than the sky.\u00a0On the whole I think this worked better and I had this quite complicated cloudscape done quite quickly and it was easier to keep the colour fresh as\u00a0well. Mind you by the time I came to paint the foreground I was needing my head torch to see my palette and my painting.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Next day I \u00a0went round the side of Carningli intending to paint the nearby prehistoric grave, but got side tracked by this simple view. The trees were\u00a0a lovely mixture of dusty greens part turned to autumn reds that just had to be painted. this is a smaller one only 7in by 10 in.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n I arrived at Pentre Ifan later than I wanted but the light was still good so I settled to do a watercolour. It was very blustery with the paint getting\u00a0moved across the paper by the wind. This is the third time I have painted this cromlech and none of them is really what I want so I shall have to\u00a0return. I will try dawn I think as the light should be on the back of \u00a0Carningli, the peak seen here to the right.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n One more at the end of the day. I was a bit too late here and only had 15 minutes to splash something down, but the photo I took on arriving is good\u00a0and with this quick note to help it will make a studio picture I hope.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n A quick sketch in passing of the mouth of the Teifi near Cardigan, just a very quick note that might make a painting.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Most of this day was spent walking the coast path after a very wet start. Sometimes it’s important just to look and not to see everything as a subject in\u00a0waiting or through the lens. As well as the watercolour I did find the time though to do this tiny 7in by 5 in of Nevern church.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Monday was advertised as the best day of the week so I set out south to Bosherton to paint the famous lily ponds. The ponds are quite hard to paint\u00a0with no place to set up an easel on the very paintable low bridges that cross the ponds so I set up on this very exposed rocky outcrop that gave a\u00a0wider view. Quite a difficult subject with no obvious composition I just tried to catch the beautiful colours of the ponds and trees. It was astonishingly\u00a0windy and I had to tie a large rock to my easel and nearly had my palette whipped out of my hands a few times.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n I was on my way to try and get a view of the ponds from a different angle when I spotted this, which unlike my previous subject had a composition as\u00a0plain as could be. Nice quiet spot in the sun after being blown to kingdom come on the previous painting I felt I deserved a rest and this was a real\u00a0pleasure to paint. The only really tricky bit being to get the various levels of detail working together. It would have been easy to simplify into masses\u00a0and still have made a nice painting but not I felt really true to the charm of the scene.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n I just had time to do this quick sketch of Pembroke Castle. I must return at some stage to paint this again as there are some lovely subjects with the castle\u00a0standing dramatically over the water. It was very cold and the paint wouldn’t dry so a sketch only.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n A very grey day, I did have plans to do this scene once every day… but I only managed twice being seduced away by other scenes… never was good at\u00a0plans. This was a real challenge, completely flat light with a constant drizzle, but I enjoyed painting it. It was a relief to go off and read a book for\u00a0the rest of the day though as the rain set in and didn’t let up at all.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n My last day and off to St Davids It was another grey day. My sister in law Judy and I wandered around the town and cathedral and I sat for a while\u00a0and drew this. A little girl was fascinated and kept coming back to see my progress at one point telling me I was very<\/em> slow!<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n The day cleared up at the very end and my final painting was a subject I have painted many times. It didn’t disappoint with the last light of the day becoming\u00a0quite magical until it faded leaving me on a cold dark hillside packing away my paints and setting off down hill for a well earned beer.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n This is an addendum with “tiddles” which is what I call Plein Airs that I’ve fiddled with after the event. I sagely advise beginners not\u00a0to do this then ignore the advice myself entirely…<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n