thepembrokeshirecreative

Lately the last thing I have thought about was how the current climate of not being out and about so much might affect my personal art challenge. It does of course, limiting opportunities be out and draw or paint with fewer 'location' opportunities and more drawing and painting exercises around the house and garden being the order of the day. No doubt I shall take a sketchbook with me from time to time when I'm out getting exercise, where I can safely linger briefly without risk of contact with others, of course. But for now, here's one I did earlier, as they say - a recent sketch from a short walk around Dinas near Fishgaurd. I now have the perfect reason for practising my oil painting technique indoors, so now is the time to brush-up!

I haven't created as much as I'd intended to in the last few days. I have made a few sketches which were less than satisfactory, but I did break out the oil paints again late last week and started this seascape, which is very much intended as a practice and I don't expect to be satisfied with it afterwards. But I can keep it for later to return to it much further down the line and see how I have progressed - if I bin everything which is not satisfactory, I shall never recognise the progress. The real test will be keeping this simple and not to try and detail the hell out of it and then regret it - I'll give myself one more session on it, trying to keep it loose, then I shall move on to the next thing.

A couple of days ago we had a good spell of weather and not wishing to miss an opportunity, I went for a walk and took my sketchbook. This great little abandoned church, St Justinian's at Scleddau near Fishguard, is well away from the main A40 road, only accessible via a track and then on foot, it is draped in ivy and huddled in a fold of the land, away from the bustle of passing traffic. Yesterday I spent some time in South Pembrokeshire walking on the coast around Manorbier and did some drawing but nothing startling to my mind, so I'll pass on that one until the next time that I produce something worthwhile!

I went for a walk into Fishguard this morning and did a bit of drawing while I was there - which wasn't much to write home about. Battling with the wind trying to flip over the pages of my sketchpad while I worked didn't help much. I was trying to source some more oil painting paper pads and acrylic primer in town, but I didn't make much headway there either. Then I went out for a bicycle ride - largely in the wind and rain. When I got home I prepared a bacon and lentil casserole to put in the slow cooker for this evening, all of this took up a big chunk of time, so the intention of cutting up some hardboard and priming small pieces for my oil painting practice didn't happen today. So I have just spent a little time 'developing' this shot in Photoshop from yesterday's coast path walk - the photo seemed to have plenty of potential to my eye at the time, but then left me a bit uninspired when I looked at it later at home, but today I thought: 'well, mayb...

It's one of those days when some things work and some don't. It was a great morning for getting out today, so I went for a walk in our lovely corner of Pembrokeshire, which included a stretch of coast path. The coast always inspires me, but doesn't always mean I create what I hope to do. The tree-lined path near the start inspired me, but my sketch ended up a little bland, so I'm skipping that one today and going straight to the photo that I liked the most of these ferns cupped in the crook of a big old moss-coated tree. Then after I got home, I messed about a bit more with my oil paints, trying to find my way towards the style that I'm after - just a bit of practice really. It's hardly finished or accurate, but simply an exercise in mixing colour, trying to get the right brushstrokes and so-on. And because I wasn't so happy with today's pencil sketch, here's a pen drawing I did a few days ago of Fishguard Square and the Royal Oak. ...

This morning I walked down to Lower Town, Fishguard, where there was a good high tide, promising much watery inundation of the car park (normal at very high tides) and backing-up along the river valley. It was a blustery and mostly a grey morning, but mild. I stood close to the edge of the lapping sea on the car park and used black biro to draw this scene in front of me - featuring 'TS Skirmisher' - the base for the local sea cadets, being an old warehouse and the over-wintering boats on the car park. The squiggles in the lower left are the car park slip road's double yellow lines under the water.

This is me committing myself to do more creative stuff with my spare time - specifically more painting and photography in these fabulous surroundings of Pembrokeshire. Not that I haven't been doing so already, I sketch very regularly and go out to take 'serious' photos only occasionally recently and painting - rarely. I know where I want to be in this regards - but my standards are (probably stupidly) high - can I do it and be satisfied with the results? I'll find out I guess. Meanwhile I'll fall back on some sketches and photos until I turn out some  (hopefully)   decent examples of painting. Enjoy!  Julian Jefferson