Karoo Winmill

A few notes on my artwork

Rob Davies is an accomplished wildlife and landscape artist. A committed conservationist, his sketches and detailed studies in pencil, pen-and-ink, watercolour and gouache communicate a sense of place and experience and celebrate the natural world.

The subject matter of my work is most often wildlife especially birds of prey, emblematic of the wild places I love to visit. In my sketches and paintings I like to find the lines which show movement and ‘aliveness’ and if possible, a strong element of freedom. I still feel I have a lot to learn about abstracting shapes, colours and tones to create those magical impressions of subjects in their right place.

With medium, I have moved a bit from those detailed watercolours with gouache to looser oils and acrylics and I am doing more landscapes and seascapes than before: we have a good supply of these in Pembrokeshire!

I still love pen and inks and I am currently doing line drawings depicting a lifetime of observations of Spotted Hyenas for a forthcoming book by my old office-mate Joh Henschel from the Mammal Research Institute in Pretoria.

Recently, I ditched most of my photographic gear for binoculars and a telescope as I realised how much more could be absorbed by observing, sketching and painting what was happening.

In my artworks, I like to show how living things exist in their environment: how trees are sculpted by the force of winds, how birds behave in their habitats, which plants flower when and where, and how life adapts where water is in short supply.

“The wildest places captivated me from the start”

The wildest places captivated me from the start: at first just the hills north of my home town, Cardiff, then the gorse-strewn stormy coastline of west Wales; mountains as I discovered them; the never-ending dwarf shrublands of the Karoo; and ultimately the wild and dangerous savannas of Africa, reaching to true wilderness where heat waves and the warm temperature of the light etch out beasts and great beauty. On the plains of Africa, one can feel some way down the food chain and, with heightened senses, a more vital connection to the landscape.

I prefer to paint what I can see, capturing clean singing colours and underlying tones in the landscape and subject and adding a sense of movement or energy with interesting lighting and compositions. I am most impressed by those artists who say so much with so little.
Animals and birds don’t keep still, and line drawing enables me to capture movement and aliveness in the moment. I like to sketch to achieve the right line, finding this the most expressive form and then seeking to make an impression using paint.
I admire the rock paintings and artistic creations of earlier inhabitants who felt a closer connection to nature, and I wonder at the ancient clues to what went before in the form of fossils.
water colour painting Dowrog Common, looking towards Penberi
In less wild places, I am still fascinated by the untamed elements such as the area partway up a mountainside where walls and hedges give way and nature takes over or finding three big stranded tugs broken apart on a storm beach. Painting the natural world appeals to me most, although people, their ancient creations, and machines, such as boats and windmills, blend well into this environment.

“There is such ecological beauty in the scavengers, vultures, and other fascinating creatures under threat, and I would dearly like my artworks to contribute to their conservation.”

Despite the ravages of drought and denudation by overgrazing, I am always in awe at how the desert can bloom after rains. The fact that nature can be sublime and bounce back from adversity is reassuring and provides hope. However damaging to our world in the short term, we are less significant geologically.

I do not mind painting unattractive topics, preferring storms to sunny scenes. There is such ecological beauty in the scavengers, vultures, and other fascinating creatures under threat, and I would dearly like my artworks to contribute to their conservation.

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