Glaslyn Peregrine

Finished Glaslyn painting in the studio, see preparatory work: 26/04/11

Trilling Wood

Hafren forest today has a full set of Welsh woodland specialties: Pied fly-catcher, spotted fly-catcher, redstart and this wood warbler. Easy to find thanks to it's constant singing, I painted the plate for this print on site. The trilling crescendo to the wood warbler’s song resonates around the wood and the idea was to capture this as a visual representation echoed in the repetition of the foliage and light. I hope to make similar pictures of the pied fly and redstart, though they are proofing to be even more flighty than the wood warbler.

Plynlimon Rain

Plynlimon, cloud shadows and hen harrier through the rain.

Drawing Frenzy

From Borth cliffs, close offshore rafts of manx shearwater thousands strong and hundreds of gannets. An endless convey-a-belt of activity moving around the bay and culminating in a feeding frenzy. Diving gannets, bobbing to surface like corks, shearwater less elegantly crash into the water at a shallow angle, almost head over heels and then more mass movement as the gannets take off and the manxies follow to the next attack. Snorkeling around the rocks later, find the water thick with sprat and also grey mullet. Image is a monoprint of the days drawing frenzy.

River Birds

Birds along the Severn (Caersws), linnets bathing and a yellow wagtail amongst highlights.

Glaslyn

Longer evenings and warmer temperatures now, means painting for longer and in new areas that have been inaccessible all winter. Plynlimon, our highest mountain in Mid Wales has taken much of my attention recently. Not so much a classic mountain with any discernable summit but a high sprawling plateau of boggy wilderness. A desert (easy to get lost on) in the centre of Wales, only one teeming with life, subtle character and a variety of discoveries on closer inspection. To the North West is Glaslyn, a lake cut off by steep rocky gorges on three sides. This gives it the strange appearance of floating, especially when it reflects a clear blue sky. There is enough heather here to make the area one of the few good places I know to see red grouse in Mid Wales as well as Hen Harrier. On this day a Peregrine was busy seeing off any buzzards or kites that dared fly through the gorge.

Above, an A1 sketch made at a later date, same conditions of clear blue sky and lengthening afternoon shadows. Preparation for a more rendered studio piece of the same size.

Printing Plovers

These prints are based on drawings of the Plovers I've been watching this week. The top one is of a pair of little ringed plovers which have been busy dancing their mating dance along the shingle banks of the Severn at Caersws. The second image shows one of my favourite birds, the golden plover. I first saw these on a moorland ridge above my house in Carno and I've watched them every winter since, always in the same place amongst mossy hummocks and acid grass. This week was the first time I've seen them in spring with the dark black face and bib of their summer plumage. I hope they might breed. I stayed with them all day in really hot sunshine; mainly they stayed still tucked into the grass, disappearing completely when disturbed by a passing jet. In the evening they became more active, grooming like (this one in the foreground is shown mid preen) then feeding and squabbling - By 19.00 when I left, they seemed to be preparing for something, maybe to roost in a different location.

I'm really into this method of watercolour printing at the moment; It tends to keep the freshness of my original sketches whilst allowing me to use a strong palette - I'm hoping it will help improve my use of colour in the field which I really struggled with on the golden plovers - many subtle yellows and greys.