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As
a landscape painter living in this area I need and love the freedom of
Snowdonia. When I first came to live here, I walked or cycled from my home
in Bethesda up onto the hills to draw and paint. This meant that my subjects
were restricted to the immediate countryside and by my stamina. With a car I
was able to widen the scope of my work - to draw and paint further afield,
to widen my choice of subjects in this endlessly inspiring area.
I
am no mountaineer. I walk on the lower, quieter slopes, away from the
well-worn paths; I have seen from the top of Snowdon and Cader, the Glyders
and other well trodden precipices, but I prefer views from places where I
can be solitary, and I can share them with others through my work. I like
the woods and rivers as much as the open mountains - it is the rich
diversity of the landscape which makes it so rewarding to the artist - and
to the visitors. During last year's Foot and Mouth crisis, when visitors
stayed away in droves, I had a taste of what it would be like with parking
restrictions and a park and ride system, trying to find somewhere suitable
to park, and paint. Empty hills, empty roads, no lay-bys, no parking areas,
cones everywhere forbidding roadside parking - no joy. A taste of things to
come?
One
of the things which inspires me is the example of artists in the past -
those who have wandered the hills before us; I often try to find their
viewpoints and perhaps try them for myself. The accounts of their travels,
and their sketchbooks, make fascinating study. Try Turner's North Wales
sketchbooks in the Tate Study Room there is hardly a place or view he didn't
draw - despite the summer weather in the late 1790s. Most lived in an age
of fewer restrictions regarding parking of course, and no public transport
to speak of - they mostly came on foot, or horseback, until the advent of
the railways. We live in a different age, and can travel great distances in
a short time in our heated cars, responding to a change in the weather or
just a whim, to be on the hills enjoying fresh air, peace and solitude -
still not too difficult to find.
Up
on the hills one is completely unaware of motor vehicles - occasionally a
farmer uses his 4 x 4 to get up on to the tops to round up his sheep, or, a
few years ago there was a problem with lads on motorbikes - I remember once
how disturbing the approaching noise of one of those machines was on my way
up to Carnedd Llewellyn. And the aircraft can be momentarily disturbing.
Generally, the hills are quiet. My painting brings some of this
indescribable quiet into people's homes presumably. It is a reminder of
those brief moments up out of the world, away from our troubled daily lives,
where we can contemplate things too difficult to put into words. It should
not be rationed in this mean-minded way, hoping to squeeze every penny out
of the reluctant visitor in Gateway centres, or through costly short-stay
parking charges. This approach to regeneration is blatantly self-seeking and
misguided. What is called for is a more sympathetic and consultative
approach. We all need to refresh our spirits, that's why the National Parks
exist. What is needed is a little more imagination and insight into the
aspirations of the human spirit to allow people to do this. In the meantime
there are many more acceptable ways of sorting out what is in effect a
little local parking difficulty without going to great expense. On the other
hand, regeneration of urban and village areas is imperative - but not by
using the 'mechanism' of tourism control to obtain funds.
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