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Furnace falls

oil on canvas, 1830mm x 1190mm

 

 

In central Wales in the 1750's a furnace was built next to a waterfall to smelt iron ore using fuel from the local woods. A waterwheel drove huge bellows, pushing oxygen into the blast furnace. The top edge of the fall was raised slightly to create a reliable feed pool above the wheel.

This visible, raw harnessing of nature in the landscape is a feature of the very early industrial revolution.

 
 

video clip : head on, the fall has a striking shape that makes it look like an emblem. The effect is stronger if you climb down to match your eye level with the middle of the fall and then to the middle of a study.

I scrambled down the rocks and worked from a ledge. All I heard was the sound of water.

Oil studies

Made on bright, overcast days in summer with the fall in medium spate with clear water showing a big range of coloured whites and greys. This study records colours recurring over several visits:

 

 

making the painting :

 

 

 

 

about half way to completion

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photography

A set of spot-metered photos were taken, some for light areas, some for dark. Human eyes quickly adapt as we look from dark to light, but a single photo has only a single exposure; so several exposures are needed to account for the appearance of a scene with contrasting areas of brightness like this one.

Different exposure times were also used to give options for painting the range of sharp or blurred passages of water that we experience.

For visual effects of water at different speeds click here.

 

colour-textures

Examples of colour-textures, extracted from digital images, used in the painting.

For method click here.