North Wales

A farm near Cadir Idris. I drew this while most of the University's walking club were up Cadir Idris. I was having a rest as I was helping with driving. We were doing 3 peaks in Wales (aptly named the 'Three Leaks challenge'). I wandered up Pen y Fan and Snowdon (in the Moon light .. unforgetable), so I did my bit in a way.

Before I did this drawing I had my first occurance of the 'sheep chase ' phenomena. I was wandering up a path, minding my own business, when sheep started looking at me. Next they formed up into a group and started chasing me. I was a little scared; I was seriously out-numbered. It all ended in a stand off between me and the flock near a tree; they realised they were beaten when I out-flanked them.

This is a watercolour of the permanently docked ship at Mostyn on the River Dee. Rumour has it that it will be broken up soon.

Nearby is the site of the weekend markets and a Fabric warehouse, otherwise the area is fairly undeveloped farm land.

A quick water colour on the beach, the view across the mouth of the Conwy River.

I painted this sitting in a deck chair on Llandudno beach on a very hot and sunny day.

A view from Tal y Fan across the Afon Tafolog river valley towards Pen y Castell and other friends. In the foreground is a trig point.

In the upper part of the Afon Tafolog valley the electricity pylons march through towards the coast and of course there's the start of the Afon Tafolog. It's a good place to start walking from; if your car survives the mountain roads.

Taking a shortcut across Afon Tafolog is fun - squigy, wet, bumpy and prickly. If anyone finds a walking pole-tip cover there - it's mine!

This is a charcoal drawing of a rock face above Llyn Ogwen in the Snowdonia National Park. I've tried to capture the mist losing parts of the 'structure'. I was partly 'inspired' to draw this by some charcoal pictures owned by my department.

This is my second charcoal drawing. I bought willow charcoal sticks by mistake. I meant to ask for graphite block in the art shop, but asked for charcoal. A good mistake I think. I would have liked to get a bit more depth in the picture.

A drawing on a hot spring day from Carnedd Penyborth-Goch (Drum), just infront of the Cairn. Being hot weather the oil pastels were just that little bit more oily; which it is actually quite nice. It was the first time I used a blender in anger (a freebie from Reenie's Art shop-Liverpool, Bold Street). I didn't know the things existed until the women in the shop offered me a free one.

I spent about 30-50 minutes drawing this, at one point a walker and dog scared the hell out of me by just appearing. It was really quiet, there was no real noise and I was very relaxed. Then suddenly those human beings appear...

In the foreground is Cefn Coch (the catchment area for Afon Ddu). The first hill (running out from the right of the page) is Cefn Tal-llyn-Eigiau. The prominent face in the centre of the drawing is Creigiau Gleision (which I want a closer look at some point - not too close though!)

I quite like the sky (light gray, light blue and white-I used the blender for mixing parts of these colours). I still need to work on those hills and the right greens...

I did this on the same day as the drawing from Drum. It was late afternoon. By this time it was well and truely roasting. I'd also ignored an order to return to base...

The view is South West off Llewelyn, just south of the cairn. The badly rendered cliff-face in the mid-distance is Ysgolion Duon. I used an experiment method to add texture to the face involving a pen and a lot of scratching. In the distance are the peaks of the heart of the Snowdonia National park.

After I finished the picture I found Carnedd Llewelyn had been deserted; everyone had left for tea. I myself headed back to the carpark in Afon Tafolog. When I got back I found 4/5 people packing a full set of furniture up from off the hillside. They had a very expensive looking camcorder plugged into some gear with BNC connectors on it. The guy with the camera asked me whether I wanted to do an 'extreme interview' I asked what it involved...

A view down the valley along which the Afon Ogwen runs from the side of a hill. Tryfan is the mountain that always looks like a cross between a stegosaurous and a squashed cornish pastie to me.

The weather was very sunny.