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take a walk
Click on the links opposite to walk along the Mawddach estuary in Wales, UK

This is a walk following the route of the old railway line from Penmaenpool down to the sea at Barmouth Bridge. The walk starts by the toll booth on the A493 West of Dolgellau. After parking my car on the free car park I followed the road past the hotel/pub (the old Penmaenpool railway station) through the gate with a sign saying 'The Mawddach Trail' and we're on the main trail.This is really an easy and very pleasant walk, there are benches along the way and signs to tell you about the wildlife and local history. After about 2 miles I started to get views of the distant Barmouth bridge.Contrast and compare the guide book picture and real life picture. Ok this is real life, it's Wales, it's raining and I'm trying to take the picture and be in the picture. From here you can choose to take the road down to Morfa Mawddach Station (formerly Barmouth junction) or follow the route down the track on the right and past a disused platform. Then cross the estuary using Barmouth Bridge. You can then retrace your steps or walk along the road back to Penmaenpool. I decided to walk back up the trail. It took me about 3 hours and in spite of the typical Welsh weather, enjoyed it very much.

Ken Hurd, Kenneth Hurd, Kenny Hurd, ken hurd. kenneth hurd. kenny hurd. Artist. Fine artist. Fine art. Original fine art. Fine art printmaker. Printmaker. Printer. Digital media. Original paintings. Mixed media. Acrylic. Watercolour. Watercolours. Water colour. Original Watercolour. Screen printing. Silk screen printing. Serigraph. Connections, fascinating, secret, unspoken, sense of wonder, innocent, sexuality, identity, perception, masculinity, naive, undiscovered, land, provoking, familiar, landscape, exotic, explore, exciting. Landscape. Abstract. Semi-abstract. Abstract landscape. Semi-abstract landscape. The expressive quality of colour using gestural brushstrokes and hand-made marks. The figure. Human figure. Male figure. Female figure. Male and female figure. Nude figure. Nude male figure. Nude female figure. The landscape and the figure. The figure in the landscape. The figure on the landscape. Landscape and figure. landscape and the figure. The landscape and the figure. Figure and landscape.screenprints, semi-abstract, contemporary art, imaginary landscape, pop art, male art, acrylic paint, mixed media, serigraph, screenprint, silkscreen, stencilling, monoprint, cut-ups, cutups, cutup, cyanotype, gum-bicromate, gum-dicromate, etching, zeeclay, giclee, giclay, fine art print, print edition, Artist. fine artist, fine art, original fine art, fine art printmaker, printmaker, printer, original paintings, mixed media, acrylic, water-color, water-colors, watercolor, original water-color, water-colour, water-colours, watercolour, original water-colour, screen printing, silk screen printing, serigraph, for sale online, for sale on line, for sale on-line, landscape, abstract, semi-abstract, abstract landscape, semiabstract landscape, the expressive quality of colour using gestural brushstrokes and handmade marks, gay art, heroic male figure, the figure, human figure. male figure, female figure, male and female figure, nude figure, nude male figure, nude female figure, the landscape and the figure, the figure in the landscape, the figure on the landscape, landscape and figure, the landscape and the figure, figure and landscape, images, encyclopedias, history books, health and fitness books, magic, magnetism, surreal, experience, stories, puzzling, photographic, style, posing, manuals, classic, heroic, aesthetic, male pins ups, secret, William Burroughs, My work draws on images from encyclopedias, history books and old health and fitness books that were around when I was a child. I used to pour over the images in these books as a boy, but never really learned anything. Nothing seemed to make sense. These books were meant to be used as reference books, at the beginning of each volume subjects are listed along with page number references of were to find the information. I didn't look up anything, instead I dipped into the books at random, so after 'Magic', the next subject would be 'Magnetism' and so on. It became a kind of surreal experience making up my own stories. The fitness books were even more puzzling to me as a child. The photographic style of the men posing in the fitness manuals related to a 'classic' or 'heroic' painting style from the 19th century. Ostensibly to illustrate the various fitness regimes, these men were actually the first to make money for posing for purely aesthetic reasons. They were the first 'male pins ups'. I felt attracted to these images as a boy, and felt as if there was a big secret that I was yet to learn. The work of the author William Burroughs has always interested me. In describing a technique called 'Cut-ups' in which text from different sources are spliced together, he talks about '...establishing new connections between images, and how one's range of vision consequently expands....whether great literature or the latest fanzine, ideas slip into your work and influence you....Cut-ups take over that invisible control and never fail to surprise'. It's ironic that my work draws on material from encyclopedias and 'books of knowledge' because my work is more about a lack of knowledge or not knowing about the way things work. It's about the world being a huge fascinating puzzle. It's about a world that doesn't exist. It's also about a secret world or about something exciting and unspoken. In my work I try to produce images that attempt to create a 'sense of wonder' about the world from a child's point of view. In combining these images I re-create feelings from my own childhood. Feelings that relate to being different, about an innocent sexuality, about identity and the perception of masculinity. These ideas are then combined with a curious or naive view of the world or about a secret or undiscovered land. I use the technique called 'cut-ups' as a starting point, or as an element in my work, together with images that should generate both feelings we can instinctively relate to, and feelings that are beyond our understanding. Like a surreal poem, these thought provoking images combine to create an strangely familiar landscape or an exotic and puzzling world seen through a young boy's eyes. I like to explore exciting new ways of combining contemporary painting, traditional printmaking along with the use of modern technology.