Painting Through the Seasons: Colour and the Welsh Landscape

One of the things I love most about working in Wales is that the landscape genuinely changes with the seasons. Not just the colours — the light, the mood, the air. And each season suggests a different approach to painting.

Winter

Winter in the Beacons is blues and greys, with moments of unexpected warmth — a rust-coloured bracken hillside, the pale gold of bare branches against a steel sky. I lean into cool tones: cerulean, Prussian blue, paynes grey. And I leave more white paper than any other season.

Spring

Spring arrives tentatively here. Yellows first — primroses, gorse, that electric green of new growth. In the studio and in workshops I encourage warmer, lighter mixes, lots of wet-on-wet, letting colours bleed together the way the landscape starts to soften.

Summer

Full warmth. Cadmium yellow, raw sienna, the deep greens of the valley. This is the season for landscapes and for painting outdoors if the weather allows. Colours are confident and direct.

Autumn

My personal favourite. Greens turn to russet and amber, the hillsides glow, and there's a richness in the light that is difficult to replicate but endlessly worth trying. I use more orange, more burnt umber, more red than any other time of year.

Whichever season you join us in, there's always something worth painting.