Misty Mountain

Husb and I joined one of our nieces for a walk today on part of the Black Mountain north of Brynaman. Between the holidays (lots of pyjama days) and the awful torrential rain and storms, we’ve been going a bit stir crazy so despite the dire weather forecast, we thought we’d head on up the mountain and see if we could get a bit of a walk to blow away the cobwebs. On a clear day, the views are spectacular but, although it was quite mild with no rain, there was very low cloud and thick mist so we stuck to a well marked path and had a decent hour’s walk heading north-east from the car park to a limestone quarry and kilns. The path was too treacherous, stony and very muddy, for me to sketch while walking so I took digital photos on my Samsung phone to draw from in the warmth of home. I used simple materials, a white conte crayon into my Daler Rowney Ebony sketchbook (A4 spiral bound). There’s a slight texture to the paper which suits the misty atmosphere and I used the crayon along its flat side rather than the point, using a bit of smudging with my finger in places. It’s a fascinating area, geologically and historically and I’ll do some more drawings over the next few days.