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ORIGINAL
OIL PAINTING
OIL PAINTING
About
"Artist" Frames
All Paintings & Prints
can be supplied in
"ready to hang"
handmade and
hand-embellished
All Paintings & Prints
can be supplied in
"ready to hang"
handmade and
hand-embellished
"Artist
Frames"
When
we first came to the County some neighbours, keen archaeological
enthusiasts, and one of them had been an engineering during his working
life, invited Peter to go on a day trip with them and he spent some
time drawing and sketching around Snailbeach Mine which at one time
was the biggest lead mine in Shropshire in the UK, which has a
fascinating history, producing the greatest volume of lead per acre of
any mine in Europe and possibly dates from Roman times (where they
worked mineral seams that came closest to the surface} and the surface
buildings that remain today are perhaps the most complete in the
country. The
Romans eventually left, and although possibly the area may have been
worked in the 12th or 13th century, it really got going again
in Snailbeach in 1552 and then was worked over the years by
various owners under various leases, who mined calcite, barytes, zinc
and silver (and white grit at the Bog Mine not far away) until,
eventually, in the 1930s, the mine was acquired by Joe Roberts
trading as the Snailbeach Barite Company, who eventually stopped
working underground in 1955. It
was a lovely sunny day during the visit, the butterflies basking on the
foliage of what appeared to be Soft Rush and grasses and this Red
Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta - previously also known as Pyrameis
Atalanta) caught the Artist's eye. Probably Britain's most popular
Butterfly, the name Admiral is sometimes said to derive from
"admirable" but that is also disputed, the alternative suggestion being
that it derived from a military connection. It is a migrant to the UK
originating from northern Africa and southern Europe, and also exists
in North America and exists in a vast variety of habitats, almost too
many to mention, everything from woodland to moorland, municipal parks,
building sites, the list is almost endless. In any
event, it seemed to the Artist a "gentle peaceful scene amidst the
remnants of an area which, back in history, would have been anything but
peaceful".Each summer now, we do a bit more research in the area, always looking for something interesting to paint and this particular picture forms part of the Rural Dreams book we publish.A small oil painting it is charming in its simplicity executed"Alla prima" (from the Italian, literally meaning "at once") a technique where the painting is started and completed in one session with minimal preparation. The French refer to the technique as "premier coup".
See it in this
Collector's Edition book
