Sketch of Pen y Fan from Dare Valley

Pen y Fan

This is a fairly distant view of the Mountain from near Aberdare. Pencil and watercolour on mountboard. Experimenting with base materials that won't warp. Approx 4 inches x 2 1/2 inches.

Darren y ysgol walls

Sheep folds mixed media

Beautiful old dry stone walls near Dare Valley Country Park, gradually collapsing

Bwllfa Dare

Bwllfa Dare cottages with Farm on left

Mixed media  sketch.

Bwllfa Farm

Bwllfa Farm at Dare Valley Country Park

Plein air sketch of Bwllfa farm from opposite side of valley. Mixed media, wax resist and acrylic ink.

Wind Farm above Bwllfa Dare

This plein air sketch was made a couple of weeks ago. Oil on hardboard approx 7 x 5 inches. Yellow ochre ground (PY 42 pigment).

On the beach near Burry Holm

Mixed media sea shells

Lots of sea shells including these and razor shells. Large numbers of washed up jelly fish too.

Port Eynon Collage

Port Eynon

View of Port Eynon from earlier this summer.

Horton

Also sketch from earlier this week of Horton

Penarth Pier

Penarth Pier;  pen and wash

Between Penarth and Cardiff Baylooking towards the barrage

Penarth Pier

Looking toward the barrage

Mixed media sketches on a cold November afternoon

Latest sketchbook

Above Abergavenny

Towards A40 and Raglan from the Blorenge with oil seed rape

Latest sketch

Old ash tree exploded by lightening near Lower Pen y Graig

An old ash tree split in 2 but still sending up new shoots.

Sketch book latest

St Elvan's Sketch

Mixed media sketch of St Elvan's tower and spire. Approx 8" x 5" on paper.

Latest sketchbook

View towards Newport Docks from St Brides
 

The coast between Cardiff and Newport is a great place to go and sketch with its big sky and mix of wilderness and industry.

Church Drawings and sketches

Llanelli near Gilwern ink and wash sketch

Llanelli near Gilwern, ink sketch

Llanblethian ink sketch

Pendoylan Church. Ink and wash.





John Piper, The Mountains of Wales



Jagged Rocks under Tryfan



If you like the work of John Piper then you will love this exhibition at The National Museum of Wales Gallery till 13th May 2012. It features mainly paintings of Snowdonia made during and just after the second world war, as well as some other work including a couple of collages of landscapes and chapels and a sketch of Hafod.

Accompanying the exhibition is a full colour catalogue with an introduction by David Fraser Jenkins. He says

'It was in Snowdonia in the years after the war that John Piper made what many people have thought were the best of all his paintings'(p11). Its difficult not to agree with this statement but he then goes on to say 'Not one of the drawings looks like it had been made on a sunny day, and the sky is always a mottled grey...'(p12). This seems a strange comment from such a scholar as Fraser Jenkins, as Piper had a reputation for dark melancholic wartime paintings that disregarded the weather, for example his depictions of Windsor castle. 

Interestingly the first item in the catalogue is not a mountain but an oil painting of Llanthony Priory. Like the other oil paintings presented here the canvas is heavily gessoed and then marks scratched out to create patterns that are subsequently highlighted with washes of paint. The dark sky and foreground contrast strongly with the pale yellow towers of the church, so much so that the lighter colours almost shine out. This effect is repeated with striking effect in The Rise of the Dovey and Rocky Valley, North Wales. The Rise of the Dovey looks almost like a furnace when viewed from the other side of the room and must owe no small influence to the techniques of JMW Turner. 

Only 3 of the works in this exhibition are oil paintings, the majority being watercolours and pen and ink drawings with pastel highlights or resists, on paper.  Piper often returned to each drawing and re worked them either using the same media or turning them into oil paintings. The Head of the Nant Ffrancon Pass, Tryfan, Snowdonia is the same view as the Rocky Valley, North Wales.
'By comparing the two works it is clear that the composition and viewpoint are identical. Piper tended to execute his sketches and watercolours on-the-spot outdoors, so it is reasonable to assume that this work, along with other sketches, provided the reference for the oil painting the following year.' (p60)
If these large drawings are indeed done on the spot they are remarkable because they show Piper's faculties of concentration and focus. I have tried (and failed) painting in the mountains and for me the most difficult part was knowing where to start and how to get the vast and awesome mass of rock with its ever changing patterns of light and shade onto even a large piece of paper. 

As well as the large drawings there are some lovely small sketches such as LLyn Dinas, Gwynedd and Stone Wall in Snowdonia. Again black ink dominates and Piper makes good use of wax resists. In these images we can really feel his energy, Piper doesn't waste time, once he has eyed a suitable composition he draws frantically with the wax to infer the lighter masses and outlines. Then he follows this with ever darker washes of black ink followed by scribbles and marks made with ink pen or thicker brush. He is not afraid of reworking and overlaying so that one has the sense he is more involved in looking than accurate drawing. Sometimes he finishes off with splashes of colour, some of which may be there, but perhaps on a much smaller scale, such as patches of brightly coloured lichen.

There are two monotype prints in the exhibition called Trawsallt, Cardiganshire and Pistyll Raeadr. They took me by surprise as was not aware Piper had done monotypes. Although not to my taste they do show his willingness to experiment and the strong influence that nineteenth century guidebook illustrations had made on Piper.

According to Fraser Jenkins after 1951 Piper stopped painting mountains and his colours started to intensify at this time, 'The change in his painting was in its colouring, which became much warmer and brighter.'(p20). However the screenprint of Cwm Graianog did appear in the Stones and Bones portfolio of 1978, also shown in this exhibition.

[All page quotations from the catalogue, John Piper, The Mountains of Wales, Paintings and drawings from a private collection. National Museum Cardiff. 11 February-13 May 2012. David Fraser Jenkins and Melissa Munro.]

Llanthony Ideas

I am starting to think about some more lino cut designs based on sketches of churches done in August. I want a simple 2 colour image that can either be done from one block and then hand painted or using 2 blocks. After I did this I immediately remembered looking at Richard Guyatt's  Ralph Allen's sham castle design for Shell which he did in 1936.

Cwmyoy Church

This sketch of Cwmyoy contains some of the vitality that I wanted to get into the final painting but it didn't work out that way.

Llanfihangel Crucorney Sketch

Following the initial sketch on site I like to do a rough sketch of the sort of colours and techniques I want for the final painting. Often the rough sketch has more immediacy and life than the finished painting. In this case the camera has lied as the marks under the paint are not as bright as suggested here.

Piper's Llanthony



Llanthony 1940 by Piper



This is the same view that I chose to sketch the West front. In between the 2 towers used to be a large window. The arches visible on the left supported the roof over the nave. The large grey structure was part of the central square tower.



Llanthony 2011 My sketch



 What is interesting is what Piper has left out, namely the details such as the arrow slits to the corner of the nearest tower and  any decoration. He has concentrated on simplifying the building so it becomes a series of monoliths. Colour and contrast are used to create a sense of drama.   



Llanthony 1941 by Piper



In this study the towers have become even more like concrete blocks. The proportions of the tower and the shapes of the arches have been changed, they even appear a little bit face like. Again the emphasis is on colour, contrast and drama.