Glorious Xmas

After a raucous and nail-biting Monopoly marathon with friends (congratulations to Ruby and Elizabeth for an evil win!) to celebrate Den`s birthday on Xmas Eve, we had lovely peaceful Christmas day. We had some glorious Xmas walks, across the snow-covered fields to give our friend`s chickens their Xmas dinner, (the irony didn`t escape me) and then a wonderful, bitterly cold, night walk up to Cerrig Lladron complete with a shooting star!

We woke to a very pink sunrise on Boxing Day….

We went walking with friends on the beach at Whitesands and Porth Sele in a brisk wind, we could feel the change in the weather.

The rock formations never cease to amaze me…

It was fabulous to see ice on the sand, even though it was melting…change in all its various paces..by this morning the snow was all gone, the skies were overcast and we had the first rain for over a month. Not such a stunning spectacle, but better for encouraging visitors to brave the wilds of the Preselis to come to my New Year Show.

Newport Freeze!

Another exceptional walk in a transformed landscape today, this time at Newport, Pembrokeshire. We left the grumpy teenager in Mor Awelon Cafe sipping hot chocolate and nursing a dental extraction, and walked Alfie round to the beach. It was amazing to see frozen spume and piles of ice shards on the sand and sheets of ice draped by the falling tide…

Again the ice is an inspiration, covering and revealing the landscape, layering texture and colour.

It is almost too much visual excitement! It will take a while to process it all, let it gestate and emerge in my work…

I am thinking about my glass casting and embedding landscape detail all the while…

Then there is the colour, the frozen foam like a river of marble flowing to the distance… as you can see it is difficult not to get carried away!

After warming up with a fine parsnip soup back at Mor Awelon, I collected three paintings to complete my New Year Show which opens on 27th December for one week.

Join us for a glass of mulled wine anytime until 3rd January at the gallery in Maenclochog in the Preseli Hills.

Turn of the year walk

Fantastic wintry walk this afternoon. You can really feel the year turning on this, the shortest day. Sheets of ice on the river like glass fibre.

Den was very excited to find Barbastelle bats hibernating. Barbastelle bats are very rare and it was his first sighting despite the fact that he has been out checking bat roosts for nearly 2 years with his trainer! He is passionate about bats and is currently training to get a license to enable him to do bat surveys.

Barbastelle bat.