Tornadoes in Wales?

Normal service will be resumed in this blog, when storm-torn West Wales returns to normality.

There are times when a house named 'Highview' becomes a very noisy place!

UK

In other incidents caused by the weather conditions on Wednesday:

• Twenty-four homes were hit by a tornado and two properties were struck by lightning during storms in Pembrokeshire, Wales overnight

First there was the frostquake. Then the firenado. Now another weather-related portmanteau has seized the headlines. Thundersnow has been reported in parts of Cornwall, South Wales, Tayside and Teesside. It sounds dramatic. What does it entail?

Basically, it is the same as a thunderstorm, except that snow falls instead of rain. It occurs when the atmosphere is unstable and the layer of air closest to the ground is cold enough to create snow, but still warmer than the air above it. "In this instance, the heating is coming from the sea which is still quite warm," says BBC weather presenter John Hammond. As the warm air rises, water droplets condense to form cumulonimbus clouds. Lightning occurs when these rub against each other, and thunder is the sound of the lightning.

ON REFLECTION - Take #2

Onwards and Upwards ... if at first you don't succeed ... swear a lot!

Back to the Drawing Board!

You recall people who, when retelling their progress in life, say, "I learnt from that"? Well I now have such a story ... I've just ruined the oranges reflection painting, "On Reflection."

I forgot to put on an isolation coat before varnishing it. Consequently the varnish has clouded parts of the painting. My daughter doesn't know what I've done wrong, and is happy, nevertheless it's wrong.

I Learnt About Varnishing & Isolation Coats from that.

I'm not that bothered, believe it or not, as I know a lot more about varnishing now than I did before I ruined the work, and that's what I'm all about: learning to paint. It's a bit like computer programming really, you tend to remember parts of a new language better if you now know a piece of code that you get badly wrong the first time round.

Pat really liked the painting and so I will do another one for her ... making a better job of the oranges, the white jug and ... the varnishing.

So back to the drawin.... 'er ... easel 

I can't leave this post without a picture, so here is my great grandson, Logan John, who is walking at 9 months!

"On Reflection" (painting #45)

My daughter bought me a canvas for Christmas. I thought I would try a still-life and have a go at reflections. 

As she lives on an old Welsh farm (her house is 400 years old) I thought I would paint this for her farmhouse kitchen.

                                                   On Reflection                            John Simlett
Acrylic on Canvas
39 x 20 inches

ANGOLAN WOMAN - Portrait #6 (Painting #44)

I'm teaching myself to paint, and this is my 44th. painting. Portraits are now attracting my focus, and this is the #6 since I started (never tried 'people' before).

I'm rather pleased with this one insofar as the plan, based on the previous experiences, worked out as I'd hoped it would.

Susan Smolensky had told me she liked a light Burnt Sienna ground and it seemed totally appropriate for this painting.

                                                            Angolan Woman                                  John Simlett 2014
30 x 20 inches
Acrylic on Canvas

I wanted the image to 'glow' to reflect the heat and red earth of Africa. The necklaces, etc., that the woman wore already had a reddish orange hue. I therefore wanted the burnt sienna ground to 'bleed' through of it's own accord to influence the earth colours: raw umbra, burnt umbra and yellow ochre. The photograph doesn't show all the glow but isn't too bad

I also used a Zinc White (Open) which I mixed with a Titanium White (Heavy Bodied) to keep the latter from drying too quickly. The Zinc White I also used as a 'mixing white' for the tones.

A dab of Mars Black and Cad. red competed the palette.

I confess that I find that I like big canvases ... which is an expensive thing to like.

PS Father Christmas bought me a bunch of Black Sable brushes!!!!  Woo Hoo!

PORTRAIT #6 Work In Progress

I've just started on an African Lass (From Angola, where, a long time ago, we nearly got shot out of the air). 

It's a bigger painting: 20 x 30 inches, because I'm still feeling my way and want to try out what it's like to paint at this size.

   Colour mixing isn't coming naturally yet, although I get the basic tones fairly accurately the fine tuning of skin tones is more of a struggle. Practise, practice and more practise.

Christmas tomorrow, I'm hoping Father Christmas brings me some Black Sable Brushes!

  

JAPANESE GIRL

                     Japanese Girl          John Simlett
Acrylic on Cotton Canvas
31 x 12 inches