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David and I are opening our exhibition at Art Matters in Tenby on Easter Saturday, if you are in the area please do come and say hello.

The western fringes of the British Isles, have always exerted a strong influence on my painting. The stories, myths and legends, the ancient stones and the marks left by prehistory are evident everywhere. The cottages and farms, hunkered down among the rocks in their struggle to survive the Atlantic fury, show clear evidence of the ingenuity of past generations. Even today, in many places, the same building methods are used to protect homes from the violence of the weather.

Farm above Dinas Fach, Pembrokeshire

In Pembrokeshire especially, the buildings have a unique character, that  makes them a gift for the artist. Like many other painters I am bewitched by this charm. The rugged coastline provides a never-ending bounty of subjects. At every twist and turn of the shoreline another inspiring view appears.

I am fortunate indeed that Pembrokeshire is David’s home county. Through his intimate knowledge of every nook and cranny we have explored fascinating and stimulating places and although we have travelled the world together, it is to Pembrokeshire that I always long to return.

The Secret of Speckles

I've been asked many times how I get the fine speckles of colour in my paintings so I am going to let you into the secret. I lay the painting flat on a table and using the edge of a palette knife I scrape flakes of pastel on the surface where I want to create the effect of small leaves, seed heads in a field or sea spray on rocks etc. I than press the flakes into the painting with the flat of the palette knife. If there are some stray flakes which you do not want, you simply don't press them in and they will either fall off when you place the painting in a vertical position or you can blow them away. 

Scrape flakes of pastel on the painting.

Press flakes into the surface with a palette knife

Step 1. Lay the painting horizontal on a table and using the edge of a palette knife, scrape flakes of pastel from a pastel stick on to the surface of the painting where you want to create fine specks of colour.

Step 2. Press the flakes into the surface of the painting with the flat of the palette knife where you want them to stick. Blow away any unwanted flecks.

This technique is most effective if you use contrasting tones and colour.

It is almost impossible to achieve these fine marks with a dotting technique and the random effect is particularly pleasing.  However, I will issue one word of warning. This technique is addictive and it is easy to get carried away using it all over the place and then the effect is spoiled.

This technique is described in my book Painting with Pastels and demonstrated on my DVD of the same name. Or you can buy both at a Special Offer Price of £20. 

Watercolour sketch of Llyn Gwynant

Below is the demonstration painting that I did for Sandpiper Studio last weekend. This event was organised by owner Julie McLean who also teaches painting. The subject of the demonstration was water and reflections so I chose this view of Llyn Gwynant which I had sketched on a damp day. (Above) You can see the speckles where the rain has fallen on the sketch whilst the wash was still wet. I quite like painting watercolour sketches in the rain. It keeps the washes fluid and prevents you fussing about with the detail. I emphasised to the audience the importance of sketching to capture mood and atmosphere. Something that is difficult to capture in a photograph.

Llyn Gwynant, pastel by Jenny Keal

The painting was done with Unison Pastels on Fisher 400 Art paper, which is an abrasive surface and extremely good for creating mood and atmosphere and for portraying reflections. The distant mountain was kept cooler in colour, lighter in tone and without any detail. These three tips will help with the illusion of recession. The autumn colours on the foreground trees also help with this illusion, as their bright, warm colours  and stronger tones stand out well against the soft blue grey background. 

If you are anywhere near Llandrindod Wells this week please come along to Art in the Park on Wednesday 22nd August where I will be demonstrating in pastel and on Thursday 23rd August where David will be demonstrating in watercolour. You can even join in and do your own painting of the Rock Park for the exhibition at the weekend.

Pastel Painting Demonstrations

'River Wye above Erwood', Pastel by Jenny Keal,
painted as a demonstration at the Summer of Great Events in 2011

August is a busy month this year. I will be doing three demonstrations, two of which are free. 

1. 11th August at Erwood Station Craft Centre and Gallery near Builth Wells, as part of the Summer of Great Events. I will be at the station most of the day, demonstrating in pastel and leading a walk to the River Wye to sketch the scene above. This event is free.
2. 17 August at The Sandpiper Studio on the Wirral. An afternoon in Julie McLean's lovely studio learning how to portray water in pastel. I will be sharing my secrets on how to achieve atmosphere and recession in your landscape paintings. There is a charge for this session.
3. 22 August at Art in the Park in Llandrindod Wells as part of their Victorian Festival. You are invited to come and watch me sketch and paint in the Rock Park and to try your hand at producing your own painting. Materials will be provided. This event is free of charge.
   
   If you want to improve your painting, or if you just want to get started, then come along to one of the above events and join in the fun.  The painting above was a demonstration at last year's Summer of Great Events at Erwood Station Craft Centre and Gallery. We had a lovely sunny day last year, let's hope it is fine again this year.
   
   

   

   Demonstrating at Erwood Station last year.

    
   
   

Sketching on Marloes Beach, Pembrokeshire

Marloes Beach, Pembrokeshire

Here I am again harping on about the advantages of sketching in front of your subject over taking a photograph.

Well I make no apologies, these two images illustrate the point perfectly. In the photograph the intense light has reduced the headlands and rocks on the beach to silhouettes. The photograph was taken with a small digital camera and unless you are very familiar with all the functions of your camera this is the most likely result you will get.

Sketch Marloes Beach

Luckily I had time to sit and sketch the scene as well as take the photograph and as you can see the eye can discern much more detail than a camera. I moved the rocks around a little to lead the eye along the shoreline and sketched the figures on the side of the sketch so that I could place them in the most advantageous position in the resulting painting.

Pembrokeshire is my favourite area of the UK for sketching. There is so much variety of unspoilt coastal and rural scenery that there is always something exciting to sketch whatever the season or the weather. One of our most popular courses takes place in St David's at the Warpool Court Hotel overlooking St Non's Bay.  The good news is that due to the economic climate we have negotiated a considerable reduction in the price of the course this year. You can find details here. Do come and join us, you can paint in watercolour or pastel as both David and I will be tutoring this course.

Atmosphere

To painters, atmosphere has two meanings; the emotions conjured up by the image you are creating or the effect of the weather on the scene.

In this painting of Little Langdale the esoteric atmosphere I was trying to create was of an isolated farmhouse, surrounded by the mountains, abandoned and slowly decaying, there are no animals, the roof is beginning to sag and the wilderness is returning to the fields. All is not lost though, the roof is intact. Perhaps someone will make it a home once again.

The other meaning of the word atmosphere in this painting is created by the use of colour, tone, and detail. These are the three essential ingredients to help you create a sense of recession in your painting, and I make no apology for referring to them time and time again. Keep the distant features cooler in colour, lighter in tone and with less detail than the foreground and middle distance features and you will be well on your way to inviting your viewer into the picture,

You can read more about this aspect of painting and many other tips in my book, Painting with Pastels, published by Search Press. There is also a DVD of the same name to accompany the book and a special offer on the two together.

Twilight Cottage
In order to develop our painting skills, it is a good idea to experiment from time to time, Often this starts with just making a bit of a mess. A while ago I wanted to try using Mixed Media on the sandpaper, Fisher 400 Artpaper, that I love to use for my pastel paintings, as I was aware that it was waterproof, unlike the industrial sandpaper that I used before Fisher 400 was produced.

This painting of Twilight Cottage, started with an ink outline of the building, followed by a watercolour wash of Naples Yellow and Ultramarine in the sky and Cadmium Orange and Cadmium Yellow in the foreground. I let this all mingle and some of the ink drawing ran into the washes.

At first I thought that this was a mistake but when it was dry the dirtyness of the cottage appealed to me and also suggested a low light. So I worked into the painting with pastel, leaving large areas of the watercolour washes showing and added some undergrowth in the foreground with the scraping technique, which involves scraping flakes of pastel onto the painting and pressing them into the surface with a palette knife. This creates a spatter which resembles flowers or seed heads.

You can read how to create the scraping technique in my book, and you can see it demonstrated in film on my DVD,. The book and dvd are entitled Painting with Pastel and are on special offer our website.

Free Demonstrations at Aberlasney Gardens

I am at Aberglasney Gardens in Carmarthenshire tomorrow, 15th September all day where I am taking part in a joint exhibition.

I will be painting off and on during the day. You are welcome to come and watch.

I will also be there on Saturday 17th and Thursday 22nd .
The exhibition continues until 22nd September

How to cheat with your composition

If you travel down to St David's and explore the countryside below Carn Llidi you will find this lovely old farm called Treleddyd Fawr. However you cannot see it the way I have painted it. I have used a lot of artistic licence with this one.

I like to paint buildings so that they are part of the landscape rather than dominating it and this view of the building is mostly obscured from this distance. To see the view like this I would have had to cut down a mass of overgrown hedgerows, several small trees and demolish a stone wall. I would also have had to hover about 100 feet up in the air to get the crag in this position.

I sketched the building from several angles from close quarters and the roof and chimneys from a 100 yards back (this being all I could see from that distance). I then drew a lot of thumbnail sketches to work out the positions, angles and perspective until I was happy with the composition.

Making the landscape suit your ideas is what makes painting so exciting, so don't be reluctant to change things to how you would like them to be.

This painting is from my new book Painting with Pastels, signed copies are available from the website with a DVD of the same name is also available. Save £5 on the book/dvd offer

My first blog

Blogging seems to be the new way to communicate and it offers many possibilities. I will be using this blog to offer hints and tips on painting and announcing news of events that David and myself are organising. Maybe the odd profound thought might creep in as well.

Visual Art tries to communicate without words and I hope the image above says something to you. This is Barafundle Bay in Pembrokeshire. I sketched this scene on a stormy February day and painted it in pastel later in my studio. I can still feel the salt on my skin when I look at it. I hope it says something to you.

Pastel is a superb medium for conveying atmosphere, and this allows you to put more emotion into your paintings. This painting is from my new book 'Painting with Pastels'


Communication has changed so much in my lifetime and this new way of reaching people, including complete strangers, still seems like science fiction to me. However, it doesn't really matter if you use two tin cans with string between them or zeros and ones clicking down a telephone line, the important thing is the interaction. Please leave your comments - I want to hear them.