Preparation for Northumberland Coast _a workshop at Coquetdale Art Gallery 23 May 2015

For the watercolour workshop I choose to do the scene looking north from the Rumbling Kern at the Bathing House of Howick Hall looking towards Dunstanburgh Castle.

To practice further Northumberland landscapes I did a view of Dunstanburgh Castle looking over the houses at Craster.

This is a conventional painting in the top third then cling film added to the rest pulling the film taut at the top and leaving larger marks at the bottom to give the allusion of perspective. A puddled wash was applied to a soft line in the middle of the field to form the top of wall . This puddle was allowed to run down to form the individual stones. Negative painting and some lifting out were used for the undergrowth.

I did find some old workshop phase paintings I did some 16 years ago so I decided to finish one of the off. The sky was heavily influenced by John Cartmel-Crossley with whom I took lessons in Alnwick involving a 100 mile around trip after work. (I had a company car then so paying for fuel was not a problem).

I have two other paintings to complete sometime.

Same sky with more foreground showing the fissures that run into the sea.

Softer sky.

Original sketch.