cjessop – Marloes Gallery

Musselwick

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Musselwick
How one often sees swimmers at this beach, in summer – silhouetted against the sun-sparkled sea. While you see a figure, I did not depict one. This is a panel of marine plywood cut from a piece of wrecked boat found on Marloes Sands; the “girl” is an area of varnished veneer, nothing more. But your eyes and brain have no doubt that she is there! Used as an illustration in my book of poetry and songs, “To Marloes With Love”.

Oil on panel Painted May 2015
7 1/2″ x 10 1/8″

Kete Cottage

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Kete Cottage
An attractive house, beside the lane which runs down to Saint Anne’s Head: wonderful views, but open to every wind! Now it is surrounded by farmland; its immediate neighbour used to be HMS Harrier, a “stone frigate” as Royal Navy shore establishments were called. Here, Fleet Air Arm pilots and air base personnel were trained in navigation, communication, and air traffic control. To an untrained eye, little evidence of Harrier is to be seen now.
Oil on panel October 2016
12” x 12” Private collection

Lindsway Bay

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Lindsway Bay
The local beach for St Ishmaels: quite a tricky descent, but well worth it! Good for swimming, nearly always smooth sand as shown here; pretty good for beachcombing. It lies opposite the entrance to Milford Haven; this view looking south-west shows Dale Fort on the point at the far side of the Dale Roads anchorage. Painted in May 2017, during a spell of remarkably artist-friendly weather!
Oil on panel
12” x 18”

Wild orchids

I thought I would feature these as general inspiration regarding what Nature is capable of. These orchids are flowering right now in a local meadow which used to be a monoculture of coarse modern grass; Southern Marsh Orchids have been seen there for many years, but never before in 25 years have Early Purples appeared.

Picture Raffle

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Picture Raffle
An opportunity to win one of my oil paintings! The poster below tells you what you need to know; for good measure, there too is the sign which will be going on my gate later today. This is a “formal” raffle: so, if you cannot attend the fête but your ticket wins, the picture will be posted to you.

Good Luck!

Crystal Rollers

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Crystal Rollers
Painted in high summer, quite a few years ago. When the water is gin-clear and tall waves are coming in to break with a tumble close to the shore, the sea takes on such a glassy look, in each luminous moment before that crashing collapse turns all to snow-bright foam. The sound is distinct at such a time, too: especially crisp, it seems, carrying well inland on the breeze.
Oil on canvas
Private collection

Peregrine Poster on location

Our talk poster featuring the wonderful Peregrine Falcon sketch by Paschalis Dougalis is on display around the village; we are hoping for a good turn-out tomorrow evening.
Here’s the poster at the start of the footpath down to Musselwick Sands…

Let’s zoom in on the headland, Towers Point: you can see why people call it the Rhino’s Nose!

Now let’s concentrate on a detail in the sketch and, allowing for some artistic licence plus the state of the tide, enjoy a moment of serendipity…

Marloes Sands greetings card

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Marloes Sands greetings card
This card used to sell well in the Village Stores. It is now on sale again, at Runwayskiln Café; hopefully it will prove equally popular. The original picture is now in a private collection, i.e. someone bought it! I painted it on location in early autumn 2017; the back of the card features a photo of the finished picture on my easel, on the spot. I was lucky to have calm weather for each painting session; mind you, that’s a relative term at such a position.

Oil on panel
16” x 24”

Reluctant Sun

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Reluctant Sun
Shortly after I sketched “The Red Costume”, in rolled quite dense clouds. Later that day, the sun was briefly showing; that inspired this sketch. I was remembering childhood beach visits when Mum didn’t want us to go in the sea because, our accommodation being pretty basic, she worried about not being able to dry our rinsed towels and costumes. So the deal would be, ‘You can swim if the sun comes out.’ And, of course, any faint glimpse of brightness up there and one of my sea-keen sisters would be racing towards the ocean!

Pencil, graphite stick, coloured pencils, and Conté pencil
Size A4

From my imagination

A picture frame from recycled wood

I am experimenting with posting entries in the style of hand-written postcards. See below images for a text version.

Small amounts of poster tack bedded between the picture edge and the frame suffice to keep everything in place during assembly.

This is the painting I have donated to be one of the two prizes for the annual church fête picture raffle. It will soon be going on display at Runwayskiln Café, Marloes Sands: they will be selling raffle tickets through June and July. The raffle will be drawn during the fête at St Brides Castle, Thursday August 7^th, opening at 6 pm.
This is my standard framing style, using reclaimed timber – not beachcombed, as it happens, but planed down from cedar cladding ex an old shed. The top and bottom rails are cut from longer runs; it takes time to work out the best arrangement, so that knots and/or nail holes do not distract the onlooker.