paintings prints and stuff

Ogwen Valley and the little river Ogwen winding through, watercolour/mixed media The Ogwen valley, watercolour and mixed media sketch I'm just back from a week painting in Wales with friends.  Wales + mountains means we knew there would be rain - but it made for some lovely atmospheric scenes to sketch. Friend Ros, that I travelled with, and I stopped on the way in a beautiful valley I last saw about 20 years ago when my daughter was at Bangor university,  I was determined to get there to paint again.  Nigel another member of the group met up with us there and we all got thoroughly wet and bedraggled sketching. The end of the valley was lost in rain/mist and the little river Ogwen tumbles through the valley from Llyn Ogwen (Lake Ogwen) above.  The narrow, single track road goes up and down like a switchback along the side of the mountain.  The waterfalls were beautiful with all the rain we've had.  Welsh black mountain cattle ambled by, with h...

snow ...... I've neglected my blog - I'll try to post slightly more often.  The warmer weather is here - so of course I get interested in snow.  It started because of a trip to the Cotswolds to see a Kurt Jackson exhibition in April - there was incredibly late snow on the hilltops looking wonderful.  That led to one painting and made me revisit sketches I did of a very early snowfall one November and work further from those.  November Low Sun, EarlySnowfall approx 15 inches square, pastel This is from the sketches done when we had and unusual very early snowfall in November, when there were still hints of autumn colour.   As I looked at the field a flock of birds took off,  The light in the sky was glorious and the patterns of the ploughed field - everything just added up to one of those perfect moments.   Dusk, November, Early Snowfall tiny one, approximately 5 inches square, coloured pencil The birds have flown and th...

2 studies from the clifftop between Hells Mouth and Portreath in different light, watercolour/mixed media in S&B Delta sketchbook I do love the changing light and the different colours and moods.   I could paint along here again and again through the seasons and each image would be different.   Flowers, sea colour, skies always new. There was a massive cliff fall at Hells Mouth that I didn't know about until I got home - thankfully!   Video here - do watch, it gives an idea of the scale and drama.  I ended up mostly using my watercolours on this trip for some reason, though I had taken oils and used them  a little.  I made the decision early on to mainly work in the S&B sketchbook and fill it, which I did : >)  rather than try to complete larger works in changing light.   I can work from these sketches at home to produce the larger works, with time to consider format/medium etc at leisure. Already I'm ...

Sunset at Sennen Cove, oil on deep sided canvas, 12 ins square I did a series of sunsets in watercolour and oil of the sunsets and it really brought out how cameras distort the colours of sunsets and aren't really at all helpful.  The silhouetted rocks and breakwater lose all colour as well. They make beautiful pictures in their own right - but they aren't the reality of the experience at all. In the photographs, there is far more red (which there wasn't in reality) and the sun is white.   In fact , the sun was blazing red and the skies were a range of softer reds and peaches and sometimes soft yellows.   So the canvasses were done quickly while the memory of the colours was still fresh.   There were vivid pale blue ripples against the darker shadows and subtle reflections of the reds in the water.  Those electric ripples were beautiful and just didn't show properly on photos.  These are 2 examples - the actual sunset look...

 Detail  I have always liked the calligraphic tangle of the hedges when they are sihouetted against the sky.   Recent snowfall meant even more opportunities with amazing light and the landscape simplified and hidden by the snow, throwing hedges into relief. Above is a detail of a double page sketch in the lovely Stillman and Birn Beta A4 hardback sketchbook.  This paper is so forgiving and the watercolour works beautifully with it.  It allowed me to work through wet washes with charcoal pencil - something that tears many papers, leaving holes.  Some of the hedge is paint, some tinted charcoal. First snow, more on the way, winter light: silhouetted hedges in watercolour and Derwent tinted charcoal in a Stillman and Birn A4 beta hardback sketchbook The earlier warm golden glow of the low sun is covered by clouds, threatening more snow to come.   The spiky calligraphic marks of the hedge and the underlying form of the bank, w...

What interests me in my work is the changing light - in England it changes constantly with passing clouds, changes in the weather and season and time - from minute to minute to the light can vary enormously. Above is a look at a Cornish beach - Mawgan Porth - near to my childhood home and still very special to me. When I win the lottery there is a house with the view shown in several of these photos that I want to move into! These are just a few photographs but they - I hope - give you an idea of why this is one of my favourite places :>)

Fishing Boat at Sennen Cove, photograph: Vivien Blackburn I half feel like doing a painting of this - and half think that the photo already says it all. It's one of my favourites for its simplicity. looking across to Cape Cornwall and the Brisons, blue day, photograph: Vivien Blackburn Cape Cornwall is the hill on the headland and off to the right on the horizon the rocks called The Brisons. Above in blue skied sunny mood and below with beautiful swirling clouds and steely blue-greys. The rocks here and at Porthcurno round past Lands End to the right are quite pale unless they are covered in seaweed but at Priests Cove (see lower down) at Cape Cornwall are very very dark. looking across to Cape Cornwall and The Brisons, rainy morning, photo: Vivien Blackburn Priests Cove, dark rocks and steely colours, a bit misty, Cape Cornwall, looking back towards Sennen Cove, photo: Vivien Blackburn People on the beach at St Ives, pearly light, photo: Vivien Blackburn Isn't...