Oil Painting 21 - Pontcysyllte aqueduct

The big one! One of the wonders of the waterways, the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain and a UNESCO world heritage site. This Aqueduct is a terrific experience for any boater, as you pass over there is no barrier protecting the boater's side, and the thin cast iron trough the canal flows through, is pressed against the side of the boat giving the illusion of floating in mid air and a completely unhindered view of the 126ft drop. A bizarre phenomenon for a boater used to weaving underneath cities to now be floating above tree tops and the River Dee with birds flying underneath you.

Now, how to represent it? My gut instinct was to try and capture this drama from a boater's perspective, to sum up the drop from high up, but the feasibility of actually doing this was proving difficult. The popularity of this spot means there are usually boats waiting to cross so parking the boat in middle and trying a quick painting was impossible; then there was the towpath side, possibly a view peering over the barrier similar to Oil Painting 20 - Chirk Aqueduct, except to get the drama of the drop you have to wander to the middle of the Aqueduct and the towpath is so narrow that it is diificult for two pedestrians to pass anyway, let alone with an artist, a large oil paint soaked canvas and all the trimmings that come with producing the works entirely en plein air. 

I might have to swallow the exclusivity to 'on-location' with a painting from the top of the aqueduct and produce a further memory studio painting utilising the pencil sketches and dare I say it - 'photographs'. In the meantime, you get the 100% on location, 100% enjoyable to produce Oil Painting 21, looking up at the Aqueduct from the viewpoint of stood in the River Dee. The water study this year was coming in to play again, this time with more dynamism having a rushing river flowing around my sandaled feet! A big square painting produced during this Mays heatwave. Very lucky to be based in such a spectacular location with such weather.

Oil Painting 21 in situ

View from the Aqueduct of the painting being produced

Oil Painting 18 - Wrenbury Mill

After getting our beautiful Morso Squirrel Stove installed by the Stove Specialists at The King’s Lock Chandlery in Middlewich (just in time for summer!) we set off for Llangollen.

The Llangollen Canal is probably the most scenically spectacular of all the the British Canals and certainly one of the most popular. The two great aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte are well known wonders of the waterways and our reward for traversing the full 44 miles along this branch.

This painting is of Wrenbury Mill, and the hire fleet that is based there alongside the lift road bridge. Wrenbury was a gorgeous place to spend some time, so enjoyable that the process of having to move on becomes regrettable. Mark, a chap who kindly got me a beer whilst I was painting, clearly thought the same. He hasn’t moved for 14 months, largely because his engine had blown up, but I got the feeling that he wasn’t in that much of a rush! Here is a photo Mark took and sent through with his boat in the background –