IT'S THE WEEKEND: Abergavenny artist David Haswell is inspired by the Gwent landscape

INSPIRED by iconic landmarks that lie on his doorstep, Abergavenny artist David Haswell has established a name for himself since taking up painting as a hobby.

The retired County Architect for Gwent is best-known for capturing landscapes within the Brecon Beacons, Pembrokeshire and Snowdonia National Parks.

His original work is available at four galleries in the area as well as prints sold through Gavenny Graphics.

Mr Haswell, who hails from County Durham but now lives on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park, has no formal art training beyond O’Levels but began painting as a hobby after he retired from local government in1997.

“I did attempt to paint when I was a student in Edinburgh, for the Fringe, and Canada. I remember painting the mountains behind Vancouver but other than that I had only previously painted at school.”

“I always felt that I wanted to paint and seized the opportunity to do so when I retired from Monmouthshire County Council in 1997. It was a retirement based hobby that has over time become a small business.”

He was encouraged to show his work in the former Libby Price art shop in St John’s Square in Abergavenny a year after taking up painting.

“Libby became a mini-patron of my work and it went from there,” he explained.

“My interest in painting has developed through wide reading, observation, and endless experimentation. I think my architectural training has probably influenced my interest in creating strong, but balanced asymmetrical compositions and my choice of colours, which tend to be from a limited palette.”

“Through my work I try to capture the moods of the Black Mountains and the National Parks of Wales.”

“We are so lucky to have such fascinating landscapes on our doorstep.”

“Within these areas I am able to capture little barns and farm buildings in the lower landscapes and the peaks in the parks and the iconic shapes of these mountains to give a recognisable sense of place to those who view my work.”

“The peaks are so significant they have become the much revisited centre of my work.”

His work includes capturing Pen y Fan, and The Sugar Loaf, but his favourite is The Skirrid Mountain, Abergavenny.

“The Black Mountains, the source of my inspiration, offer an excellent blend of buildings and landscape – old farms, chapels, valleys and ridge walks, within the larger setting of the Brecon Beacons which bring waterfalls, the canal and some significant mountain peaks.”

" My intention is to create highly textured images of the Welsh landscape presented with contrast and bordering on the semi-abstract.”

The effect is achieved through a combination of textural work in acrylics, applied with a palette knife and overlays of deeply-saturated pure watercolours from Italy.

“I originally wanted to use watercolours and moved onto acrylic which is far more forgiving. I never had the patience to paint in oils. Some years ago I had what you might call a "happy accident" when experimenting with other materials, including mixing minerals with acylic and watercolour and the result is textured watercolours"

This technique has allowed Mr Haswell to create a multi-layered approach using a textured base and palette knife.

He mixes hard and soft, absorbing and non absorbing materials with a paste to bind them together.

“This might be ceramic dust or pumice particles suspended in gesso, or other acrylic based materials. I use four or five ingredients and apply them using a palette knife to shape the landscape. A week later I will begin to apply a traditional watercolour painting over it.”

“Watercolours dry differentially into the base. I cannot predict how that will happen. The beauty of it is that not only is each painting a fresh experiment but I can sponge or scratch bits off to take the process a stage further.”

“It takes three stages; the application of texture, followed by the watercolour and finally the fine tuning to create contrast and add further detail”

“This process lends itself beautifully to the depiction of the mountains.”

Mr Haswell deliberately and carefully selects a palette of three or four colours that he hopes will create a sympathetic blend that feels natural to the eye, " happy to ignore the actual colours in the selected landscape."

He admits he is trying to become more expressive in his work.

“As a former architect I am trying to escape from the tyranny of the right angle- to loosen up and be more expressive.”

“I hope that my work will become more semi-abstract.”

“I have learned a lot about composition and I believe that helps in my approach to creating a picture. It is about picture-making, not the simple replication of what I see.”

Though self-taught his approach has been largely influenced by his interest in the work of three Welsh painters: Kyffin Williams, John Knapp-Fisher, and the late John Blockley, whom he admires greatly.

“These artists included in their work simple farming structures set in the Welsh landscape. They painted dramatic skies and used them to silhouette strong features in the landscape.”

“Living in Abergavenny, I find myself subject to the ever changing atmospheric moods and dark brooding skies of the Black Mountains. This is a landscape similar to that which clearly influenced my heroes and provides the source for my own inspiration.”

“I have developed my skills by watching and learning from the work of others and am very lucky to be a member of the John Blockley group.”

There is no set amount of time it takes Mr Haswell to create a piece. Based on photographs and outdoor sketches of the subject, the work is developed indoors over several sittings in his Abergavenny studio.

" Cowadice comes easy to those like me who see limited added value in painting watercolours en plein (in the open) air in the wetness of the Black Mountains.".

Mr Haswell’s work is on display at The Court Cupboard Craft Gallery, Abergavenny, Victoria Fearn Gallery, Cardiff, Oriel Cric Gallery, Crickhowell and The Ardent Gallery, Brecon. He is a director of The Black Mountains Circle of artists and the Chairman of Made in Monmouthshire, a not for profit cooperative of locally based artists, makers and food producers. Mr Haswell hopes to see his website, david haswellgallery.com, open in the new year.