Seascape – 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

ANTON of Gibraltar

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ANTON of Gibraltar July 27th 2025

A hairdresser? A famous chef? A businessman with a shady past? Actually, an oil/chemical tanker, built in 2010 and previously named HEATH and before that SARAH DEE. She was anchored off Musselwick Sands yesterday, having left Antwerp on July 24^th. IMO number 9514456, length 123m, according to AIS destined for Milford Haven. Not an attractive vessel; alas, few ships are these days. But there, so I sketched her.

Black Conté stick, pencil, and fine black biro
Page size A4 July 26^th 2025

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”

Gateholm and Skokholm

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Gateholm and Skokholm July 20^th 2025

Not so many people know this scene – Albion Sands at high tide, viewed from low level. There’s a simple reason: whilst the water looks so placid, just to my left it was rushing past, creating a fierce tide race you’d never fight, were you to try taking a swim. However, as you will see from my notes, the sea colours made the scramble down and across to this vantage point worthwhile; so, if I can work out a better composition (some foreground interest?), it could be worth hauling all the painting gear to this spot.

Charcoal, pencil, graphite sticks July 13^th 2025
Size A4

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”

The Dark Cliff 1

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The Dark Cliff 1 June 25^th 2025
Its rock is remarkanly hard – hence it endures, and the rest of the coast erodes faster. It looks grim; but it’s lovely to sit on, because it absorbs the sun’s heat. And, when the sea is calm enough, you can swim here when the tide is in. It was calm last week, during those hot days; I came down with this board primed grey to draw the composition in pencil; then at home I used acrylic, in stages, to first balance the tones and then rough in the full colour composition ready for oils.
Acrylic on board June 2025
Approx 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”

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”