Tree Paintings #8 - Pen-y-fal again

A different view of the trees I posted yesterday - and, judging by the light, later in the afternoon.

I think one of the things that attracts me to painting trees, in spite of my reservations about using too much green in my paintings, is the colour of the treetrunks.

When I was about 9 years old, I had my first male class teacher, which we all saw as quite an event! But there is only one thing I remember from the whole of that year in Mr D's class; it's an 'art' lesson where we were informed that we should not colour the trunks of trees brown. In fact we were offered a shilling - about the equivalent of a week's pocket money - if we could find a tree with a brown trunk.

Looking out now at my apple and pear trees, they do indeed have dark brown trunks and branches but I'm afraid it's too late to claim my shilling!

Tree paintings #7 - Pen-y-fal

 

Just a few minutes walk from my home is a winding and overgrown path along the bank of the little Gavenny (Y fenni) River, which flows into the River Usk in Castle Meadows, giving the town its name (Aber = mouth of, Gavenny = the name of the river). Soon after I took the photo for this painting, someone came and cut back the greenery and spread grey chippings on the path so I was glad I'd grabbed the opportunity before that happened!

There's a picturesque wooden bridge over the river which leads to ......a huge estate of houses about ten years old! They are built on land that belonged to an old hospital, known as Pen-y-fal, and parts of the old buildings have been made into apartments.

But just before the houses begin, there's a very small area that's been left untouched because it was a graveyard for the hospital. And that's where these two trees caught my eye and begged me to paint them! 

They remind me of a couple of young ballet dancers, arms outstretched and their feet in 5th position - what do you think?