Another wall
This painting will be on display at my studio during the Helfa Gelf Open Studio event every weekend this September.
In recent years I've painted quite a few pictures, usually landscapes. A very high proportion contain rocks. I like painting rocks, lots of them, and very often dry stone walls. In open or upland areas they provide shelter from the wind and rain for livestock and crops. Dry stone walls are also of great benefit to the environment, providing micro-climates for wildlife such as insects, reptiles, birds and small mammals like mice and stoats. They encourage flora, from lichens to mosses, ivy and various ferns. A dry stone wall is a piece of history which still serves the same purpose as on the day it was built. It tells us about the geology of the land beneath it and is an effective boundary that will outlast any modern fence. The Welsh countryside would be a stark, windswept and featureless place without our old stone walls.
I'm looking forward to visiting the Helfa Gelf studios next month, my first time - you're so right about these dry stone walls - being a keen hill walker I can't imagine the landscape without them and often wonder how on earth some of them were constructed right on the edge of crags and on really steep slopes - it's an art in itself constructing them, probably not many around who can do it now! Wonderfully detailed painting btw
ReplyDeleteThanks once again for your comments Sharon. After so many years Helfa Gelf is now firmly established and eagerly anticipated by both artists and the public. A great opportunity to talk to painters, sculptors, photographers, woodworkers, potters and printers each one with a unique skill and stories to tell.
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