Plein Air !!- Plain Freezing
- Mark East
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Original Post 2024
It's not often that the weather beats me, but today it did. I knew before I left home I was taking a risk but my wife is away in Chesterfield, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to visit one of the National Trust locations I hadn't been to before.
Croft Castle is just outside Yarpole near Leominster. Situated on the English-Welsh border, "Croft", according to the National Trust web site,"is a quiet, ancient place steeped in British history and politics with a picturesque castle and medieval parkland". Sounds perfect, I thought, I could do with some fresh air. Fresh air, it was bxxxxy freezing after sitting in one spot for two hours. Being the little soldier that I am though, I pushed on. Don't be a whimp Mark you've got on two layers of "Rab" jacket and a flask of Aldi Tomato & Chorizo soup. If you haven't tried it, do so, it beats Heinz tomato hands down.
I was bodily warm, but eventually I just got to a point that I couldn't feel my fingers to draw, let alone paint.
Note to self, get a pair of finger less gloves for future trips into country.
Location Croft Castle
I have to be honest I walked around quite a bit, before choosing the location to sketch and getting the right composition was important. I wanted to pick something that wasn't the obvious front of castle image that's on every picture of Croft. I toyed with two. A composition which included the entrance gate and took a nice route through to the castle itself, inviting the viewer in, or a more traditional landscape, but from the back of Croft which takes into account the castle and St Michaels and All Angels church. Built in the Early C14th with a bell tower added in the C17th it is certainly worth a visit if you do decide to visit Croft. I haven't done a building scene for quite some time and this just looked like a challenge.
No sooner had I picked my spot than the wind began to blow and the temperature really started to drop. I persevered though and managed to get the basics of the sketch down. Croft really is a stunning location if you like landscape painting. The view looking out across the valley and parkland is one to add to my painting bucket list. Sadly not today.
By the time I got the sketch to this point I was really struggling to draw a straight line. Plain Air in Wales in February !!! Mark you must be mad!
I will be back..... To be continued when it's warmer, at least I know where to pitch my equipment this time!
Ps. Bought the gloves ... Battery heated fingerless. I will report back once field tested :-)
I have a feeling these might be useful on the golf course as well :-)
If you are interested I've included the link to them on Amazon.
Update on the blog “Plein Air - Plain Freezing”
Unfortunately I haven’t yet been back to finish this painting and in truth I don’t even know where the sketch went. One day I will return, start again and pick the correct weather window. Croft with its gardens is a great painting location.
I did address the entrance gate as a quick nod to remind me to go back and I will.
Well I finally got around to finishing the line drawing I started 2024
Here is the line and wash after the first wash V1.0 and then below the final version V2.0 neither I am happy with so I'm going to do it again in the art-club. If you want to see what's wrong, what changes I make and see the final version why no join the Art-Club below. The good news is it's free.
Honest Self Assessment for any artist is a valuable tool. There are times you get it right and there are times you don't. I will be writing a blog about where this artwork went wrong and how, eventually, I produced an artwork I was happy with so please keep returning to the magazine as I will be posting it soon.
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Watch Marco revisit this artwork and make the necessary amendments to change an average artwork into something you would be proud to display.
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