OIl Paintings – Marloes Gallery

Winter Surf Fiends

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Winter Surf Fiends July 31^st 2025

I sketched this idea back in late winter: on a lovely afternoon down at Marloes Sands, I hadn’t been the only person for whom the lure of the surf proved irresistible. By happy coincidence, I found that a piece of marine plywood beachcombed from the Sands suited the composition; at last, I’ve got round to realising the scene in oils. No point, this time, in taking the panel down to the beach: summer sea and sky colours are very different!

Oil on panel Original sketch February 22^nd 2025
16” x 32” Painted July 2025

Dive

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Dive July 25th 2025

You could say, another in my Blue Series – if that doesn’t seem too pretentious! Admittedly we don’t ever enjoy sea water clarity such as I have depicted around these shores; and, I think that such conditions would be bad news for some marine wildlife, So, this is where Artistic Licence has a part to play. I know that an expert watercolourist could create this visual effect, but I’d be afraid of overworking, and turning the colours muddy: oils let you gradually find your way.

Oil on panel July 2025
Picture size 18½” x 7½”

Midsummer Midnight

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Midsummer Midnight July 24th 2025

This started as “found art”: me, trying with some pre-mixed colours from my palette on an already well-covered panel. Very soon the idea you see here solidified; it then took a long time, with much adjusting and checking, to arrive at this impression of the night-time “neverdark” we sometimes get here, which is much more common in the Hebrides, Orkney, and especially Shetland. I hope you like the frame finish: that took some finalising too.

Oil on panel Painted late June 2025
Picture size 8” x 12”

High Jump

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High Jump July 19^th 2025

The irregular shape gives it away: a piece of plywood from a wrecked yacht, found on Marloes Sands some time back. The blue paint spattered on it unevenly had suggested bubbles, streaming up; one recent hot afternoon I set this board up on my easel in a shady part of the garden, and got to work. Getting the compostion right took much standing well back, and checking with a mirror; I don’t think the figures want any more detailing, as this picture needs to be viewed from a reasonable distance.

Oil on panel Painted July 2025
27” x 15”

A painting overhauled

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A painting overhauled July 9^th 2025
Of course, I should have taken a “before” photo; but, c’est la vie. I painted this picture, Saint Brides Haven, in 1991; I think it was a spring evening, and my best guess is mid May. Anyway this week (actually last week now) I brought it into the Works for an overhaul: here you see it good for another 30 years or so, hopefully. I wasn’t happy with some details, but the important thing is, the colours have not altered – proving that it’s worth using professional quality materials. Now, I’m happy with the sea and the sky.
Oil on canvas May 1991/June 2025
Overall dimensions 12” x 18” (Now in a private collection)

Aegean Morning

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Aegean Morning June 30^th 2025
This particular blue takes me back to holidays in the 1990s – and time spent on the island of Symi, especially. Some artists extend their pictures out over the frame as a matter of course; I don’t, but I think that here it works wel, painting the sky and that distant yacht on the upper timber piece. And while I wouldn’t describe my art as minimalist, this does seem to be all that’s necessary to transport one to a warm, calm quay somewhere in the Dodecanese.
Oil on panel June 2025
Overall dimensions 17” x11”

The Dark Cliff 2

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Postscript: the distant sea in the original isn’t as vivid in the original; nevertheless, that blue still might need “killing” a bit.

Dark Cliff 2 June 29^th 2025
Unusually for me, not painted on location: while the weather remained very warm and clear-skied, the wind rose. Working on a sea-smoothed intertidal rock (my viewpoint) would have been impossible; and anyway the water was now rough, and nothing like as clear. So I set myself up in a sheltered garden corner and worked from memory, glad of all those colour notes mostly still discernible through the earlier underpainting stages, the previous day. Does the composition now nee figures? Swimmers? I’m mulling this over.
Oil on panel June 2025
Nominal 14” x 14”

Albion Bay

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Albion Bay June 19^th 2025
It has suddenly turned really warm; I painted this picture during similar weather in June 2018. Marloes Sands is to your left; the tidal island of Gateholm closes this bay in to the south; across the sound is Skokholm. You can easily look up the Albion’s story: that black post rising out of the breakers is one of her paddle shafts. Not a beach to be visited casually: access is tricky, with much boulder scrambling after a scratchy descent; and, the tide cuts it off in grand style!
Oil on panel
12” x 18”

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”