What I've been up to of late...
I have completed three larger paintings of Cader Idris, two looking towards the summit from Mynedd Moel, and a third view that emphasises the slopes and cliffs of the mountain. Stylistically, the paintings are crisp and accurate, though they differ in their mood. I’m searching for a looser technique that is still literal, and I’m not there yet.
I visited the English Lake District last year and undertook a commission. The Lakes are a stunning environment, and while the hand of man is everywhere, the lakes and mountains preserve a stern beauty that is utterly beguiling.
I have been doing quite a bit of experimentation in the studio of late, though my propensity for detail remains. Chiefly, I have been attempting to find an honest route to abstracting landscapes and seascapes, without losing their identity. All painting is an abstraction, as is all experience. For me, the difference in what I am attempting now is that I am deliberately looking to achieve a greater level of abstraction in my paintings, rather than focusing on realism. I am now creating an amalgam of feeling and imagery, creating paintings that are multi-faceted, where several views and moods merge together.
Finally, an incomplete idea that I’m still wrestling with. I sometimes look at the sky and I see vectors. The way the streams of clouds flow, avenues carved by the wind, lines of contrails bright against the blue, skyways leading to far away lands. I’m interested by how the world flows. Water and air, even the earth itself, ideas, energy, and people.
One last thing, a tidy little watercolour of a Swedish Folk Boat, the lost love of a friend of mine. The picture is a scaled up copy of a photo of him and his boat on a still winter’s morning.
