Coastal path near Castlemartin, Wales

On an early spring break, I walked along a windy stretch of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path near Castlemartin in Wales. April often yields this type of dynamic weather: sea squalls appear from nowhere, drench and freeze the unwary, and disappear in bright sunlight.

I painted loosely, with energy, to reflect something of the weather. I don’t care for working outdoors. When I’m out I want to fully taste everything that is around me, and the focus of painting precludes that. So how can one capture the mood of a place in a studio? The answer leads us recursively back to the original statement. If you can experience a place fully, then you can begin the work of bringing that experience to an image.

Let’s take this painting as an example. Looking at it I can recall the difficulty of walking in the dense tufts of grass, the fierce cold wind and wet of the place, the glory of the clouds and bright sun. If I have not communicated this then the painting doesn’t work.

Unfortunately, this painting proved difficult to photograph, so the clouds appear a bit more blotchy than they actually are.

You might like also like this ‘park-scape‘, or this spring meadow.