Interior business commission

I was thrilled to recently complete an interior commission for a collector in Hampstead who is also a business owner. Alex is the owner of Alexander’s storage and removal company, with a facility based near Heathrow. We discussed which elements he wanted to appear in the piece, then I spent a few hours Art directing the warehouse, having crates moved from here to there and employees posing for me chatting and moving boxes. It was all a huge amount of fun and I’m thrilled with the result.

Alex started as a man in a van a few decades ago and it’s amazing to see what he’s built the company into, it was a honour to encapsulate it all in oils.

If you’d like a interior painting of your business, get in touch.

Albany Gallery & Sugarloaf

I delivered my paintings to Albany Gallery this morning, six paintings for the their mixed Xmas show. I haven’t shown there before but the Cardiff location seemed like a natural fit, seeing as I’m painting the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains. The staff were all lovely, hopefully we’ll have a decent show despite these uncertain economic times. If you’d like to go, it runs from 11 November - 7 January with the private view next Friday 11th Nov, 5-8pm.

After visiting the gallery I drove up to Sugar Loaf mountain, near Abergavenny. It marks the start of the Black Mountains and provides some spectacular views across to Pen y Fan. I took my new mountain bike, a titanium framed Sonder Broken Road. Sonder is the bike department of one of my favourite outdoor companies, Alpkit. It’s designed for Bike Packing, with very wide 2.8” tyres and a pannier rack on the rear which means I can take all the painting gear, food and clothing I need for a full day in the hills. It’s all pretty heavy when fully loaded, but you can cover a lot of ground far quicker than you can on foot and the descents are incredibly fun. Combining my love of cycling with painting is something I have been wanting to do for ages, so it’s very satisfying to finally make this happen.

Sugarloaf is steep. I managed to ride about 70% of the way up before getting off to push to the summit. It was all worth it though, the weather was doing exactly what I wanted it to; scattered cloud and bright sun, casting gorgeous purple shadows across the Black Mountains. Perfect. I met some lovely hikers up there and a few even took my picture for me. I love outdoors people!

I set up my plein air stuff and got to work on a painting. Working outdoors is always challenging, but on the summmit of mountains, it’s even harder! Weather changes very quickly, it’s cold and windy and I chose to paint seated because I didn’t bring my tripod to save weight on the bike. The clouds were moving quickly across the hills so the painting was more an approximation of what I was seeing rather than my usual direct transcription. It wasn’t my greatest piece, but it was good fun.

I decided to wrap up when I could no longer feel my hands and throughly enjoyed the incredibly steep and rocky descent off the summit on my bike. Woo hoo! More of this!

Black Mountains by mountain bike

I have been waiting for a “dramatic weather day” to venture back into the Black Mountains, but this time on my mountain bike. I wanted to see that low cloud that literally touches the hills and have mist swirling around me, some real atmosphere! I kept an eye on the weather and picked a day that had a forecast for intermittent rain and set off to South Wales with my bike on the roof rack.

It was raining when I arrived in the Black Mountains, thick grey cloud covered the hills and was worried I wouldn’t be able to see a thing. I took a right after Crickhowell up the A479 which runs right up the valley, but after a few hundred metres it was closed, sod’s law! I managed to take a side road which runs parallel to the main road and zoomed up the single track, past farms and cottages. I got some great reference photos along those roads and managed to get all the way up the valley to the lay-by at the base of Mynyydd Troed and Mynydd Llangorse.

I rode (pushed) my bike up Mynydd Troed and rode along the plateau, taking photos as I went. It was incredibly peaceful up there, alone in the mist with just sheep for company. I really do love being alone in the mountains on my bike, it brings back wonderful childhood memories of walks with my parents on Dartmoor, slightly wet, slightly cold, but totally exhilarated and happy.

I did meet one person up there, a lovely chap collecting mushrooms, or “mountain medicine” as he put it…

After Mynydd Troed I rode back down to the car, stocked up on snacks and pushed up the other side to the top of Mynydd LLangorse. The stormy sky was putting on a real show while I rode alongside a sheep farmer, chatting to him about training sheep dogs. When I got to a good vantage point, I sat down and just watched nature do it’s thing for an hour, before riding back to the car.

Just as I set off, the sun came out (obviously) so I had to keep stopping in lay-bys and jumping out to get some reference shots of the incredible autumn light show that nature was putting on for me. What a treat!

Brecon Beacons by gravel bike

I thought for a while that a bike would probably be better than my just my feet for accessing the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains in South Wales. You can carry a lot of stuff on a bike and going downhill is an absolute riot. I have a lovely Titanium framed Planet X Tempest gravel bike that is perfect for bridleways and country lanes, so rode down to the station and got the train up to Abergavenny.

There’s a long hill with a spine on the top that sits near LLangorse lake that has a good view of the Beacons and Talybont on Usk. I started there and rode/pushed the bike to the top. It was a glorious day, perfect for sketching, so I found a comfy boulder and did a few pencil sketches.

I then headed down onto the road and pedalled my way to Cantref, which has some stunning views of Pen y Fan.

I got a bunch of photo reference, before heading North to Brecon and up Coed Fenni Fach. I don’t think the trail up there gets used much as it was incredibly overgrown and tough going, it felt like pushing through a bracken jungle at times! All good fun.

After Fenni Fach I went up the very steep Pen y Crug. The trails were far more open and easier to navigate and the views were better from the top! You can see 360 degrees and right across Brecon to the Black Mountains and also back towards Pen y Fan. Lovely.

I was pretty exhausted after all that, so it was back to Abergavenny station and the train to Bristol. A very satisfying day, with loads of new spots discovered for future paintings. Hurrah!