New paintings and regular art updates.
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was history. I decided to draw the pool at Bodnant Gardens, a house and gardens run by the National Trust near, Llandudno in North Wales. Its well known for its beautiful laburnum walk and many flowering shrubs and plants. The upper part near the house has lawns and perennial plants while the garden slopes down to a river and has lovely wooded areas.
Leaf like a skull, seen in Wales, four years ago. I kept the photo and never forgot it. Seen at Holywell in North Wales. In the church yard there. I liked the shades of colour. Grey and cream. The veins in the leaf like joints in the bones. A tongue, mouth and nose and eye could be recognised? Like a wizened wolf.
Rhyl is in the North of Wales and is an old favourite of Midlanders in England and people from the North West who want a seaside holiday.
There are holiday flats, caravans, and hotels. Lots of work is being done on the coastal defences. The sea view includes a windfarm of about 200 wind turbines. They are far enough out to be not too visible. You can see them in my drawing but not so much on the photo…
I’m happy I took this photo some time ago early one morning in North Wales. I know the horizontal is off. I remember turning round, seeing this and snapping off a quick shot. The clouds seem to mirror the sea. I love the brilliant blue showing through. Memory of happier times…
We were going to the seaside
We were going to the sea.
We were going to have icecream
We were going to see seagulls
Tides
Waves
Beaches
Fish and chips
We WERE going to Wales
We’re not now
Sadly lockdown is here
Now
Sad
Over a year ago we visited Llandudno and walked along the pier at the seafront. This is at the far end looking back at a magestic hotel. We also went up the Great Orme mountain in a tram car (there is a chair lift too). We went back to North Wales at Christmas and stayed for a couple of days, but that’s the last time we had a trip over there because of covid 19. I would love to live over there but we would never be able to afford it and I would miss all my friends here. But once life has got back to a more normal situation I think we will start visiting the beautiful countryside of Wales again. 🏴
Rhyl Air show, the red arrows. A lovely sky in August. Exciting to watch some expert pilots fly amazing planes in death defying aerobatics.
Standing on the beach, watching them swoop overhead, white horses on the sea. Puffing white clouds scudding overhead. Flat landscape, until you reach the inland hills.
Of course these are memories, not necessarily exact, but I remember, I remember……
Driving through Wales last Year. My sister took us out into Snowdonia, past lakes and mountains. Along streams. Through wooded valleys, over mountain passes. Seeing the scree tumbling down. Sheep climbing jumbled piles of broken slate. Then down steep hills back to the coast, along tunnels bored through the mountains, back to the flatter lands of North Wales (flatter not flat, its not Cheshire!)
The beauty of the country of Wales is amazing. I’ve only really explored the North of the principality, I would love to visit Cardiff for instance, which is in the very South of the country.
by duplicating and mirroring a photo of a North Wales beach I took on Christmas day I came up with this surreal image. Hope you like it.
I know the plants at the back but what are they at the front? Spikey little rosettes with little red flowers. Like little hens hiding in grass! I know a lot of things but not this and didn’t see a label to explain what they are. Seen at Bodnant Gardens in North Wales last Thursday.
X
Mallaband-Brown