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Painting Kidwelly Castle Window overlooking Kidwelly Village Church involved picking out a colour from the actual scene and using that colour or hue in the main. In this case it was purple and its various shades. And I prefer to make my own colours from the primaries. I made my own purples from blue and red pigments rather than using a commercially made purple straight from a tube. Doing it this way helps to tie in everything together.

I enjoy painting with a Trompe de L'oiel or trick-of-the-eye method of which this painting attempts to follow. The illusion in this respect is to make the painting look more 3D rather than two dimensional with the seating and the view beyond the window.

The illusion works well at the painting's original size of 20 inches by 16 inches. It would undoubtedly work better too at a much larger print size and which is possible as I photographed the completed picture at a high resolution.

The castle window overlooks Kidwelly village church. I felt inspired to paint the natural daylight effects bouncing off the medieval castle walls from this ancient 13th Century fortress window.

In particular I liked the balmy afternoon light outside the window and how the direct sunlight came in from the right and bounced off the left wall and reflected itself on the right inner wall. This in turn created interesting supporting shadows and which help to make the painting come alive.

Also, I liked the way in which the sunlight clipped and highlighted the edge of the window opening on the left hand side. It was quite intense. And it showed a few nooks and crannies that have obviously developed over the many centuries from Welsh wet and windy weather erosion.

Quite a few faces appeared in the painting but you have to look on the walls to find them. I didn't purposely put them in; they just appeared; as they often do within my paintings.

Outside the window was quite tricky to do as I needed to convey depth. I used a watery acrylic to achieve this and used complimentary colours to support the purple and to some extent the blue.

The castle is situated along the Gwendraeth river near to Carmarthen and on route to Llanelli. It is a Norman stronghold imposing much power in its era.

Copyright (c) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.

I have always been fascinated by steps and doorways as to where they might lead. I have a dedicated section on my art web site entitled Doorways and Steps where you can see relevant paintings under this category. Look under Galleries.

This particular painting of a set of stone spiral steps in one of the turrets at Carew castle was quite difficult to achieve realistically. The hard part was getting the spiral perspective correct in pencil sketch form first; and then mapping that to the canvas panel I chose to paint it upon. This was an intentionally small canvas as I wanted it to fit onto my scanner in its entirety to take a high resolution photograph of it rather than digitally stitching more than one photo together; from which I could make much larger reproduction prints.

Normally, I paint in Artists acrylic paint but on this occasion I used a water-based oil to try the pigments and to see how easy or not they would be to apply. They worked well eventually. It took a few hours of trial and error of learning when to use the modified water based mediums of linseed oil and a thinner. At least these modified mediums are kinder on the nose in that they do not smell too much and they tend not to permeate the air in all rooms of my house.

As the painting finally got underway, with thin glazing techniques, I found a preference for painting straight from the tube and with very little medium added to each pigment.

I changed the original colours of the steps and surrounding walls because these were essentially a drab grey. The colours chosen still look plausible and are kinder to the eye.

Carew Castle Turret Steps is also a metaphorical painting. It describes a possible journey through life for the average person.

Starting at the bottom of the spiral stairwell, you slowly climb to the top with the option of abandoning your ambitions some way up by escaping through the illustrated doorway and treading a new path. This may seem to be a good idea at the time but as you can see there are more steps to climb beyond the doorway. So the saying of, the grass is often never greener on the other side of the hill, seems quite apt here.

As you can see from the main spiral steps, they get lighter in colour the higher up you climb. This could equate to wealth or wisdom or indeed anything else depending on your intentional ambitions or goals.

Copyright (c) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.

My Carew Castle aerial painting shows an interesting perspective and which was achieved by flying over it several times in a light aircraft. How many artists can say they do that?

I wanted to show the castle in its entirety rather than just a face-on part of it although I have since painted parts of the castle medieval interior; such as one of its towers spiral turret steps and a stone staircase in shadow and leading up to the light - this being the way to a Medieval banqueting hall. (I have added their links to the bottom of this blog so that you can see these paintings).

The aircraft cockpit was cramped and which made sketching the castle quite difficult. My knees were up by my ears seemingly as it was impossible to get my long legs under the cockpit dashboard.

My view was hampered too by low wisps of cloud that resembled flying Candy Floss! In the end, I resorted to taking many digital photos from a compact camera which I take with me when my pilot (a client and friend) takes me flying over the Welsh countryside. Hence having to fly around the castle several times to sketch and to take many photos.

Carew Castle is located in Carew (near Tenby) in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales (UK).

Building the castle from local stone started around 1200 AD and continued to the 14th Century. Its location had a strategic element to it, apparently.

I love visiting castles and there are many medieval castles in Wales but not all are as complete as Carew castle.

The greenery behind the castle is not sky but that of the Carew river. Perhaps, I should have painted the river bank plus the fields beyond to illustrate better its current perspective? Too late now unless I do it again but there are so many other castles to do first and before second attempts of completed works.......unless of course someone commissions me to do it again!

Carew castle, as it stands now ,is quite drab looking with weathered limestone and so I lightened the colours to make it more appealing. I used quality artist acrylic paint throughout. The colours of the Tudor stone window frames are similar to the colours I used (for the castle) these being imported Cotswold stone and so rather akin to a light yellow ochre colouring.

From memory, I think we flew over the castle several times at about 1,000 feet. My Carew Castle painting suggests a lower height but that is only as a result of using the zoom lens on my camera and basing the painting composition on that view.

As mentioned above in paragraph two here are the two links to view two other paintings of a Carew Castle interior. The first is a picture of spiral stone steps in one of its towers and which was painted in oils. The second painting was painted in acrylic paint and shows a straight set of stone steps leading upwards from the dark to the light into the castle banqueting hall.

Copyright (c) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.

My painting of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire Wales entitled Into the Light is not just intended as an illustration showing an interior view inside It doubles up to suggest a spiritual pathway through life in a metaphorical sense. It suggests a better way of life can be achieved by following the light. As then this will bring you out of your own darkness; whatever those troubles may equate to.

As you are the viewer of this painting, you are at the bottom of the stone steps. You can choose to stay where you are in the darkness or you can rise up into the light. You cannot rush though as you are still in the dark and rushing in this respect will teach you little. Also trying to get to the light quickly may cause you to trip on the uneven stone steps. You may even be engulfed in further dark shadows if you do not choose your way carefully.

Instead you are advised to choose your footing in a way that suits you but with your goal or target in mind. Once you find yourself in the light you have further choices to make regarding how you wish your life to go. This is illustrated within the confines of this painting by the choice of doorways, corridors and arches.

You could of course choose to turn right at the top of the steps. It may be like stepping or walking into the unknown but it is full of light and so you should fare well providing you opt to stay within the light that you have found and which suits you. Your light may be different from other people so it is best for you to accept what your light means to you rather than trying to compare with other peoples reasoning We all seem to have free will in this respect and we are all different.

In a historic context this painted view shows one of the ways up to the medieval banqueting hall. Walk up the steps and turn right and you will be in it.

Copyright (c) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.

Painting Pembroke Castle Doorway was painted in watercolour and on cold pressed watercolour paper of substantial weight. It was painted in many layers of pigment in various tints of Yellow and Burnt Umber. Blue was used sparingly to make the occasional grey hues. The white light was achieved by not painting the particular areas and just allowing the whiteness of the paper to show through.

Choosing the right sort of support or ground (ie the paper) is crucial for this type of painting as I did not size the paper by soaking it in water first. A heavy weight paper allows various washes and layers to be made without the fear of the paper buckling. Although as a precaution I did tape it to a backing board at the time of painting it.

Using cold pressed paper allowed me to take off some areas of paint to achieve coloured highlights. Trying to do this on hot pressed paper invariably works to satisfaction.

I painted this picture of a Pembroke Castle Doorway about 20 years ago following a visit to the actual scene inside the castle keep. I had intended on painting it in situ but the only place I could comfortably stand was in the spiral stairwell and even then I had to bend a bit as my head kept hitting the stone steps above.

There were not that many tourists at the castle that day but there were enough to keep bothering me so in the end I made some quick sketches and took several photographs with an analogue camera as good quality digital cameras in those days were in their infancy and I did not have one.

To give you an idea of size and a sense of proportion, I could not stand tall in the corridor. I had to bend low in order to walk it. I doubt that two of me could walk side-by-side either. So how Norman soldiers managed it makes you think that they must have been quite small in stature. Wearing armour or indeed any form of leather jerkin or overcoat and perhaps carrying a shield, spear and a sword to get up onto the battlements above would definitely have been a great hindrance.

At the time of my visit and which was an early afternoon one Summer day, this particular corridor was quite spooky. I imagined many ghosts up there. I have tried to convey the spooky atmosphere within this painting and especially with the reflected lights.

Copyright (c) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.

Painting Eilean Donan in one sitting was a challenge. And I chose to do it on a small panel and solely with a painting knife using heavy bodied artists acrylic paint. I did not sketch in any under-drawing either. It was all done on the fly in about two to three hours'.

I did make a few marks in burnt umber pigment with the edge of the painting knife to plan where the various aspects of the composition should sit; such as the Eilean Donan castle and its bridge plus the distant hills.

The challenge was not the physical size of the painting nor the use of a painting knife as opposed to a brush but the paint itself. It was a warm day and the paint was drying very quickly thus making it difficult to mix and blend.

Instead of pre-mixing on a palette, I mixed the various colours directly on to the panel support.

Of course I could have mixed in a retarding medium but I did not have any. All I had was clean water to keep the paint moist but the problem with using water is losing the thick impasto effect. So in the end all I used the water for was to clean the painting knife along with a rag.

At the time of my visit in July 2007, there were only a handful of tourists visiting the castle and its surrounds. This meant my view of it was clear of additional detail and my place of painting was clear of people watching and commenting on what I was doing and which I find quite off-putting, at times.

I started the painting during a mid afternoon and finished it soon after the depicted sunset. I moved the sun a bit too. When I started the painting the skyline was very much blue but overlaid with a white haze of cloud and which changed to cream then peach as the afternoon headed towards the evening. Eventually there was a burst of yellow and orange and which I accentuated to get the final effect as shown in the picture.

I did not have any pre-made orange paint and so I made my own using various hues of yellow and Scarlet Red paint. For some of the yellow I mixed Titanium White into it to lighten the final hues.

The light blues reflected on the water came from the light blue sky directly above me.

Painting the actual castle buildings involved changing the colouring several times as the light kept changing.

I made it look a bit more foreboding to reflect its history. I am sure some horrible going-ons would have happened within its walls during its earlier habitation. And perhaps especially during its medieval era.

I painted Eilean Donan castle again soon after finishing this one but I used a much larger stretched canvas and the sky is somewhat different and there is a lot more detail. To differentiate their painting titles I have titled the newer painting Scottish Castle - Eilean Donan .

Copyright (c) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.

I like to think that I was inspired to paint my Bluebell Fairy painting and I guess I must be right for something very strange happened while painting it.

If you look into the centre of the picture you should be able to see an impression of a dancing fairy and who seems to be on tiptoes.

I did not paint her in consciously. She just appeared as if by magic. It is strange too that you can see her when viewing the Bluebell Fairy picture as a whole but zoom in using the Fine Art America zoom tool and it is difficult to see the makeup of her form, at all!

Many people ask me if the scene is a real place or a figment of my imagination. It is a real woodland and it is known as West Woods at Lockeridge and which is near to Marlborough in, Wiltshire, England. My painting shows a typical composition from these beautiful bluebell woodlands. It is so peaceful there. But alas, visiting is restricted to just two Sundays within a whole year!

My Bluebell Fairy watercolour landscape painting took many passionate hours to complete; partly on location and partly in my studio. I recall that the actual painting-time, back in 2002 when it was painted, took in the region 40 + hours; each layer had to be bone-dry before the next diluted layer could be applied.

This was necessary in order to achieve the various tints and especially on the distant green foliage. Green can be a tricky colour in which to achieve the right hue, tone and transparency, first time round. I rarely use pre-mixed greens in favour of mixing my own colour variations.

Typically, I will work out. in my head first, the type of blue to mix with the type of yellow and how much of each to blend before actually blending them on my palette. This helps to prevent mistakes and which could be hard to rectify as green watercolour pigment can be a difficult stain to remove, with a wetted brush, once the paint has been applied to the paper.

The blues of the bluebells are not really pure blue. They are more of a light mauve colour when seen from afar but this of course does depend greatly on the lighting and shade conditions.

Inspecting a bluebell close up will reveal its mix of hues; blue, white and crimson. English bluebells seem to have a slight waxy or oily sheen to them too. These are not to be confused with Scottish bluebells and which are a different shape. Scottish bluebells are also known as Harebells, I think.

Applying the blues to my Bluebell Fairy painting involved layering techniques to achieve the capturing of the afternoon daylight, strewn across the woodland floor. In addition, I used a technique that involved removing excess paint with a slightly wetted brush. This method helps to get the right tint of lightened colour used to resemble the afternoon daylight. Care had to be taken though as it could have been quite easily ruined by overworking the area; the paper ground might have broken up or I might have lifted off too much colour or some other unpredictable event might have occurred.

Within days of completing this painting I showed it to one of my clients and who promptly bought it then and there. It now hangs in his home in Edinburgh.

Fortunately, I retained the copyright and I have sold reproduction prints and greeting cards of it from a few internet portals and not just through Fine Art America. However, the FAA is the print-on-demand site I use most at the moment (2018) and this blog lives on it.

Copyright (C) Edward McNaught-Davis 2018. All Rights Reserved.