Second Year!

After a year of mentouring through the essential skills and requirements key to survival during the course of my Fine Art degree, I was keen and ready to tackle the challenges thrown my way during my second year!

The first semester (to my delight!) consisted of purely a photography module and a painting module…however, what seemed like an easy, mostly creative semester, left me questioning the crucial factor of a theme to base my work on. During the first part of the painting course we were given the subject of ‘On Location’, for which we were to base our work. For this I had to complete drawings and paintings from observation, and not being familiar with using the landscape as my source, I was apprehensive as to what I could produce through painting this subject.

I decided to start by sketching numerous areas to familiarise myself with recording landscapes and analysing the best ways to compose this type of imagery. In the studio I painted the landscapes using my sketches and notes of colours I recorded through observation.

Wishing to create a more accurate depiction of the landscape, I decided to paint directly from observation. Due to the transition into the winter months, I was initially reluctant to do so but I was able to use my car as my portable studio; it protected me from the strong winds and the declining temperatures! Working in this way enabled me to create a true, individual impression of the scene I saw. I was now mixing colours to correlate as accurately as possible to the scene I saw, instead of previously relying on notes and my memory when working from just drawings.

Painting from observation at Bwlch Nant Yr Arian

Preferring to paint on location, I made several studies of drawings and paintings in different locations to determine the most effective composition.