Some sketches from the Gower - June 2012

Here are a few selections of sketches I did during my week on the Gower peninsula, south Wales at the end of June 2012. Most of these were done in an from my A4 sketchbook, often spread across two pages, using watercolour, water soluble pastels, pencil and pen.

Clouds breaking over The Mumbles, 24/06/12 - done of the first day of the holiday, walking from Mumbles, around Mumbles Head to Langland Bay

Pennard Castle from Three Cliffs Bay - walked to Three Cliffs Bay from the cottage at Langland Bay on the Monday, 25/06/12. Colourful wild flowers growing on the vegetated dunes of Pennard Burrows and the backshore of the bay.

Three Cliffs Bay, Pennard Pill in the foreground view from Pennard Castle ruins; a stream fed by springs issuing from the Carboniferous Limestone to the north. The headland in the far distance is Oxwich Point. 25/06/12

Pwlldu Head from the West. A wave cut platform of Carboniferous Limestone exposed as the tide ebbed on my walk back from Three Cliffs Bay, 25/06/12

Pencil sketch of Worms Head from Rhossili, 28/06/12, walking from Fall Bay to the coastguard station (hut on the cliff top). Carbonfierous Limestone Cliffs with variable dip. The thick sea fog we'd arrived in cleared at lunchtime revealing the view of the islands at Worms Head. Tide in during the afternoon, so island off-limits.

Carboniferous Limestone in the cliffs at Fall Bay near Rhossili, 28/06/12.

Another visit to Three Cliffs Bay, this time walking along the shore at Pennard Common, 29/06/12. The tide was coming in, giving a more limited view of the beach than there had been on Monday. Brighter and clearer weather than we'd had during the middle of the week, though it felt chilly drawing into the wind.

Another visit to Three Cliffs Bay, this time walking along the shore at Pennard Common, 29/06/12. Brighter and clearer weather than we'd had during the middle of the week, though it felt chilly drawing into the wind.

Art on the Gower

View west from Langland Bay, with steeply dipping strata of Carboniferous Limestone in the cliffs. 40cm x 30cm, 24/06/12

Dipping Carboniferous strata in the cliffs between Langland and Caswell Bays, 27/06/12. 40cm x 30cm. Drawing done on the spot, in a sea mist. Watercolour added later, on the beach at Langland Bay, when it was sunnier and warmer.

Rhossili - watercolour on stretche watercolour paper, 30cm x 15cm approx.

Here are a few outdoor paintings from my week on the Gower peninsula in south Wales at the end of June. They are a mix of watercolour, water soluble pastels / pencils. The weather was very mixed, with some very wet days. It was cold in the winds by sea for June. Some days, too, I combined art and walking, meaning I was limited in what I could carry. Most of my work, then, was sketches in an A4 sketchbook; usually pencil sketches or water soluble pencil / pastel.