New paintings and regular art updates.
Which do you prefer? I’ve used a friends photo and duplicated it as it was a interesting image. These are a couple of the resulting ‘layouts’. I do not intend to use these for anything other than an example, so I hope my friend will forgive me. If there is a problem I will delete the photo or use a stock photo to create a similar effect.
The roots of trees penetrate the ground, anchoring the tree in place. Sometimes in windy conditions a tree can be shaped. Especially if there is a prevailing wind, like at the coast, where the wind blows mostly in one direction. Then the tree is sculpted and sometimes stunted, growing horizontal, pushed inwards towards the land. Like someone’s long hair blown back by the wind. Wild looking. The same can happen on high moors and mountains. Shaped and transformed.
And January sea, up in North Wales. Wide views looking far away to the Snowdonia range of mountains. How I miss driving along the A55 west, climbing past Chester and Queensferry. Then coming out high above Prestatyn and Rhyl, looking over to the mountains. Swooping down the road to St Asaph, then right over the flat ground towards the coast. I first saw that view when I was about ten or eleven when we took a coach trip to a caravan park near Rhyl. I remember catching a crab on the beach and putting it in my plastic bucket. The crab crawled out and nipped my toe when I put my shoe on in the morning.
We were at the back of the caravan site where the trains from Chester raced past on their way to the station. Holidays were walking along the back and paddling in the sea. Collecting razor shells and other classic shell type shells (still don’t know what they are called), strange how a single view of the sea can drag up so many memories.
A little bed and breakfast, or a caravan, somewhere quiet where I can hear gulls calling early in the morning. The smell of salt air and the sound of crashing or gurgling waves. I’m not bothered which.
Waking up to sea breezes, maybe opening the door to a beach view. Somewhere to chill. Feel less stressed.
Going to bed as the moon rises, looking out at dark skies glinting with stars. Maybe a small glass of wine.
Oh, I would just would love to safely get away from it all. Lockdown and life are getting me down.
In August last year we were at Rhyl watching the red arrows flying over the sea, with THOUSANDS of people watching the show on the seafront.
The thought of warm Welsh sea breezes really makes me sad that I can’t go there at the moment.
I remember seeing something like a helicopter, an auto giro I think it was called? And an air and sea rescue helicopter. There were all sorts of different planes doing aerobatics.
The thing is though, I could live without the planes, and the crowds. I just wish I could go and look at the sea again, with its constantly changing waves. To see white horses as the wind whips up the waves. Or a flat calm with blue ripples.
The town must have suffered because of the lockdown. How are people coping? A little town on the North Wales coast, where most of the income is raised from holidays and tourism.
But the sea, that’s what calls me. Great storms, gentle tides, boats and ships, but mainly sea.
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My artistic block seems to have ended with a sea theme now emerging.
These are works in progress. The latest is an homage to the famous japanese artist Hokusai. Based on one of his most famous works The Wave. Mount Fuji is sitting calmly, surrounded by a stormy sea. I’ve left the boats out as this is a small canvas and I’m struggling with the breaking wave. It is not going to be an accurate copy as I say. More a homage.
So why can I suddenly paint again? I think all the art work and drawing in doing might have helped. But I think it’s the thought of having a craft stall this Saturday that I’ve been invited to display my work at. I’m hoping things will be safe enough to do it. If not I will have some new art to display somewhere else.
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Bovisand Bay, painted from life several years ago. Acrylic on canvas. This is what I remember…
The beach at Bovisand.
Warm sand beneath my feet.
Gritty rock, specks sparkle in the sun.
Water laps my feet.
Feet sink into soft sand…
Cove enclosed by cliffs.
Blue sky and tiny clouds.
Close growing plants are sheltered.
Back of the bay, a valley nestles in the hills.
A golden grass snake basks in the heat.
I remember.
I remember the thunder storm.
Lightening strikes in dark night.
Watching flashes over the sea.
Awesome beauty.
Remembered.
With a cold sea breeze,
I started to freeze,
My feet getting wet,
A few dogs we met,
The waves were crashing
The sea was smashing,
Beach holiday?
Not today!
Back inside
By the fireside.
To get warm
Away from the storm.
I took lots of photos of our walk on the beach but the WiFi I’m using isn’t very good so here are just a few shots. Obviously the dog walkers like the beach. It was clean, with lots of sea shells and stones and we didn’t see any plastic there which was great.
A lot of sand had washed up onto the promenade. I asked a local and they said there have been some severe storms recently. Luckily today there were white horses on the sea (rolling white waves) but the tide was out.
Build your castles on the sand and they might be washed away. Water creeps or washes in. It sinks down under the sand. The beach quakes. The rocks fall….
What is sand? Silica, ground up rock and shells. Sand can be melted into glass, a solid once liquid. Fused in heat either through vulcanism, lightening (did you know when lightening strikes damp sand it can melt a branching path through it, like plant roots?). Humans also build kilns and create glass to be blown or fused or slumped.
The sea washes or crashes in to a beach. Longshore drift pushes sand and rock sideways and along a coast. In a severe storm sand can be stripped off a beach completely, and yet it can equally be washed back again.
The world warms, water rises, sand washes away, cliffs crumble, castles crumble.
Life changes and evolves.
