Abandoned Slate Quarry and Cottages, Llanberis.

Great abandon with your painting, I like the roughness of the landscape and the stoic nature of the little cottages, Alan. It's amazing that the red is used so well in the distant hills - breaks a few silly rules so that's what I like about it. Reminds me of the old mining villages and towns in Yorkshire, just a stones thow away from brilliant countryside.

Wonderfully atmospheric - a super painting.

Thank you Pat, Thea and Helen, I'm not sure if it's completed yet, still working out if it needs a bit more colour.

Again a very powerful painting

This shows the very essence of the brutality, explotation and suffering of the people that lived and worked in these conditions Alan, not only in this industry. There is a raw quality about the colours and brush marks which mirrors the harshness of the times. Superb!

Yes a powerful painting and much more Alan. There is a story developing

Thank you Kevin, Fiona and Dennis, some excellent comments and observations. I've had this on the go for quite a while now, somewhat stuck, and with very little reference to refer to, but gave it my all today and I will perhaps call it complete, possibly just adding a couple of figures at the base, you can see the start of one, he's in blue.

I&#39;ve just been looking at this painting sat on my easel and what would improve it is to introduce that orangey/red into some of the cottages, as in where the rendering has dropped off in places, but I don&#39;t think that they built in brick or did they, does anyone know?. I know that many of the new houses that I see being built in Wales are rendered grey breeze - block.<br /><br />Can anyone help on this, as I need to keep it reasonably authentic...

I think the figure in it&#39;s ghostly appearance suits the mood, a fading past ? In that context would it be better left as a suggestion? Ref the cottages; would they have been built mid to late 19th century, I thought brick would have been a fairly expensive commodity, unless there was a local brick making industry. Would they be of local materials, ie stone, then rendered? I lived in an old Scottish croft house from around the same period and it was stone and harled. <br /><br />Leaving the cottages without colour gives the impression that everything was about the mine, not the people that lived in, and around the mine. <br />Just a guess about the architectural bits Alan.

Reminds me of the great John Blockley, he used to paint these subjects. Lovely marks and textures Alan.

Thanks Carole, and yes, I recall having a book of his many years ago, long gone now and there were many of this type of scene in it. He has a great style although his paintings are on a very small scale, which doesn&#39;t suit my approach.

I like them as they are. Fiona has described the feel well. It all depends what you want to emphasise; the mine as the force that has ultimately brutalised the landscape and the people, or the mine that created the community, now gone.

Very well put Gudrun, thank you. I decided this morning to leave alone apart from introducing a small amount of that reddish colour to the middle cottage door just to create a link. It was indeed a very comprehensive statement from Fiona and all useful, thanks once again.

... that final attention to &#39;detail&#39; that will dot the eye. Detail. I looked at the prize winners of the BP Portrait award. There seems to be a distinct drive towards the photographic. However, it&#39;s not the same photographic as the 17th Century Dutch painters (I hope I have remembered years correctly), for example, where the still lifes of fruit, and food is decadent. The people have life ....

Boy do I like this ! I&#39;m hopeless at saying why; the strong colours, texture, lines ........ but I&#39;d have it on my wall any time !

Very dramatic, and a very effective composition!