Dragon Paintings - What Happens Next?

Showing off the new paintings to the brutally honest art critics at home

The dust has settled but before I start the clean up, here's a bit of abstract art, the foundations and remains of my Welsh mountains - my palette from the Dragon's Back.

I completed many paintings on the mountains and in the campervan en route. My studio is small but doing this in the van with no mains electricity, worrying about the lights going off and painting by headtorch (thankyou Petzl!) was a big challenge in itself.

My first task on returning, was to photograph all of the paintings, to enable me to add prints to the gallery shop and to then take the sold originals to my framers in Durham (Seasons). All of the shots are taken at very high resolution for professional quality prints up to and beyond A1 size. Most of my paintings are now done on A1 sized canvas boards, making this even better.

Lottie trying to steal the limelight.

The majority of Dragon's Back Race paintings done en route have been A3, so I could carry them up to the mountain tops and not have them blow away when I'm painting up there. They also needed to be a manageable size to transport for the week in a campervan alongside all of my muddy, wet and stinky running gear.

Llanberis Valley and The Pyg Track

Photoshop is then used just to crop the edges. The original painting/image is not altered or enhanced in any way, so the prints are as true to the originals as possible.

The Original - Tryfan and Llyn Ogwen, Acrylic on canvas board 16.5 x 11.7" (A3), 2025

Final images are then sent to my fine art printing company where various sizes and frame options are added. All of my work is of gallery quality (Giclée on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 320g). Once ready, they are uploaded to the gallery website, details about the paintings are added and they are then ready to view and buy in the gallery shop.

The Prints - A4 white frame, A3 black frame, A2 oak frame and A1 white frame

I work by print on demand. Each print is only created at the printers when an order comes in. They also handle the framing and delivery to my customers worldwide. This is why I don’t generally have a stock of prints in my studio and that print orders all go through my online gallery. The only stock that I keep is for display purposes and sales at ultra running events.

I was very pleased to have lots of interest in these new paintings and prints, so scrambled to get them in the gallery as quickly as possible. I have to say that I much prefer just doing the painting, so I am thankful for the help of my studio manager in some of these other processing tasks.

Hopefully, you will now have had a chance to take a look in the gallery and reflect back on your memories of Wales and the Dragon's Back Race or to use it as fuel for your dreams of stepping out on the Welsh mountains in the future.

I really appreciate all of your interest and support

Have a great week.

Elaine.