The Tin Mine

I finished the Cornish Tin mine painting a couple of weeks ago, thought I would post the results on here. After some painstaking dot action I was able to complete the grassy foreground area. I was most pleased with the (subtle) results. No one will probably even notice the dots, I am however quite happy to know they are there and that there are literally hundreds of them. Next painting I do it on I should really keep a count and mark it somewhere on the canvas.. Anyway here are some pics:

This is the whole painting, my normal camera lens went haywire so I used another camera. After 5 years it has lasted surprisingly long, especially considering the bashes it took. Anyway hence the vignetting on the image. I added in a few details - the shadows and the moon. This was to add some more dimension to the painting.

Dots in the sky, dots on the ground...

I was back in Cornwall recently and was within a stones throw of the site this painting represents. It was interesting to go back and see the area again after over a year.

The moon and shadows.

Arsenic Mines

Here's some pictures of a large scale painting I am working on. It's of Tin Mines in Cornwall and is based on the strange structures left behind on the landscape after the centuries of mining in the area.

The remains of what were arsenic mines and processing buildings were dotted all over the landscape close to Lands End. Cornwall was once the world's biggest producer of arsenic, besides copper and tin. See http://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/story/earlymod.htm for more info if you are interested. Now all that is left are strange structures rising out of the orange soil like standing stones. The landscape is bleak but beautiful with a strange mix of windswept cliffs and half buried mines dotting the cliff edges. The soil too has a weird colour, the heavy metals present prohibit any type of farming.

In this painting I am working on it in oils, ink and gouache. I intend to have it finished in the next week or so ready for exhibiting and will buy a few more canvas/board of a similar size to do a few more. The subject matter fascinates me, a 'wild' landscape that when viewed closer reveals centuries of heavy industrial activity.

A close up of the concrete pillars. The weathering effect of the Atlantic Ocean made these very beautiful and aged. More detail to come..

Tin Sea