With the same immenseness as Caernarfon Castle, Conwy is going to be a good balance in the room. With the suspension bridge, modern meets historical – and was most tricky to paint!
Previous paintings in the series:
Caernarfon Castle – Raglan Castle – Criccieth Castle – Dolwyddelan
When I used to holiday near Porthmadog, I joined Cadw – the Welsh Heritage organisation. I then proceeded to overdose on visiting castles – I think the record was 9 in three days. I don’t really know where the fascination started, but it was certainly early in childhood. The bigger, the better in my book… But, as a subject for a painting, Dolwyddelan Castle is pretty much up there, despite being the smallest castle in the series.
Previous paintings in the series: Caernarfon Castle – Raglan Castle – Criccieth Castle
I love Criccieth Castle – less as a ruin, but more because of it’s place on the hilly promontory above the village. It gives such a stark silhouette, reflected in the bay.
Previous paintings in the series: Caernarfon Castle – Raglan Castle
I’ve been painting again today – after I’d potted on my leeks… This time, I’ve gone for Raglan Castle, in Monmouthshire. You might note, in comparison to my painting of Caernarfon Castle yesterday, that the light is coming from the opposite direction. There is method in this madness – the paintings are to hang opposite each other on either side of the room. Thus, the light, and the shadows, will look as if they are from the same direction.
Ok, ok, it was a happy accident that I noticed the above before I started hanging the paintings. Now I will go back to my reference materials and check that the remaining four of the series are split 50/50 in light direction. It was one of those ‘oh no’ moments that turned into ‘well, of course, I meant to do that’ when no one was looking…
I’m having fun in the Studio, actually playing with paints and canvases for a change. It’s also been a little while since I have had any commissions. This is the first in a series of six canvases, each requested to feature a Welsh castle. The main colour of the room is grey, and the accent colour is purple.
I’ve loved the ‘purple twilight’ type photo treatment, and there’s nothing more striking (I think) than a castle’s silhouette. It gives a much more solid appearance, and given most castle’s prominence on the horizon, a real immenseness.
My first is that of Caernarfon Castle. It took me a couple of tries to get the tonal shades right – my first go didn’t have enough contrast between the grey and black.
Now that I’ve recovered from TV work and shows, I’ve put pen to pad and created another Pub Carpet tangle pattern. This one is a repeated motif, that can be used as a border, or, as shown, in circles. Add a bit of shading and colour to make it ping from the page.
It’s not long before I am on your screens again, demonstrating the latest release of products from That’s Crafty! To whet your appetite, here are a few more teasers…
I have to get up at silly o’clock on Friday morning, so forgive me if I’m not quite awake for the 8am show – but hopefully by the 2pm show I will have stopped yawning! There’s a lot to pack into the shows, so make sure you record them as I’ll be demo’ing rather fast…
It’s been a bit hectic here at The Studio, prepping samples and show demos for my TV appearance on Friday, on Hochanda (16th June, 8am & 2pm). That’s Crafty! have a huge new release including their own shimmer paints, lots of laser cut embellishments and the new giganTAGs. As usual, I’ve been a bit quiet online as I’ve been hard at work offline! So, here’s a quick peek of the project I’ll (hopefully) show step-by-step beginning to end in the first hour:
This Monday, the art journal session at The Studio has the theme ‘perfect palettes’. For this journal prompt, I picked a colour chart from the ever fabulous design-seeds.com and did my best to match the palette. Of course, this was a little harder when printing out the image – the printer colours aren’t a good reproduction.
And here’s the resulting page (and don’t forget that the colours changed again when I scanned it in…). So the palette isn’t exact, but, as with all journal prompts, it’s what sparks the rest of the page. I also chose the theme to help those who struggle to know what colours might work together.
I recently took delivery of a new Dylusions art journal – the 8×5″ landscape format – and last night I took the opportunity to experiment with a 3×5″ Gelli plate and some DecoArt fluid acrylics. Bubble wrap of two sizes and a mosaic stencil added a bit of pattern, and then rubber stamping with acrylic paint added the highlights. Finally, some cut letters as masks and a sponged layer of acrylic paint finished off the page nicely.
Continue reading 
