Above Cwm Mynach Cribyn Lampeter

by Edward McNaught-Davis

Title

Above Cwm Mynach Cribyn Lampeter

Artist

Edward McNaught-Davis

Medium

Pastel - Oil Pastel On Paper

Description

Above Cwm Mynach near Cribyn, Lampeter is an oil pastel painting on specially prepared paper of light weight. Cwm Mynach is Welsh and means Valley of the Monk.

The undulating and winding Maestir road on the B4337 takes you through the painting in the direction of Cribyn village.

The farm buildings on the right and in the middle distance are a quick and simple impression of my previous home; this being known as Cwmmynach. The farmland was managed by its owners at Capeli farm. Part of their land is shown in light green in the foreground. It is mostly used for sheep grazing and for growing grass which is used for winter silage.

Beyond the farm buildings is a thin woodland that straggles a small stream. The orange coloured fields are on a steep incline and belong to a hill top farm which grows potatoes. The Maestir road disappears from view at this point. It follows the hedgerows between the orange and green fields before turning away again to Cribyn.

I was inspired to capture the light and shadows of the hedge in the foreground. In particular I liked the purple and pink hues on the hedge itself plus the way these colours seemed to compliment the orange and browns. I thought the specific blue shadows on the road looked interesting too.

The painting was achieved in one sitting on a Boxing Day afternoon in very cold conditions. It was achieved very quickly outside because the freezing cold Winter’s day was playing havoc with my fingers and my oil pastels! The cold air made my pastels hard and brittle when not in use.

By the time I got to applying final details to this painting, the light was starting to recede into an early stage of a sunset. You can see this happening on top of the foreground hedging with its bright colours and in the yellowy clouds above.

Originally the paper was white and so too bright. To dull its whiteness I made an under painting in grey ink of various strengths. This helped to lay out the composition accurately although some artistic license was used on the far hills. I made them look slightly taller than you would see from this pictures viewpoint.

Uploaded

June 13th, 2015

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