Alnmouth Holiday Nov 2022

 

Down Chapel Lane Alnmouth

Back of the Red Lion Inn

End of Crows Nest Lane looking towards Coquet Island 

Riverside Drive

Sun Inn on Northumberland Street

Holiday in Spittal near Berwick upon Tweed

 No painting outside - too cold. Painted after the holiday.

View from the town walls

Palace Green

The Avenue as viewed from the town walls.

Sally Port 

58 Church Street with house numbers a, b, c, etc

A passageway to Palace Green

Painting with Gouache

 Working with three colours of gouache after a demo from Andy Taylor on the subject.

 Andy initial washes.

"Scottish Garden"

 Colour blocks painted with 1/2 in flat nylon flat brush

 Washed under the tap to soften the colour- I liked the way the Prussian blue had run in the bottom left corner to create a possible sky and water.
 

 

Elevation view of Charles Remmie Mackintosh's of Hill House with his stylised roses added to the foreground. Painted weak white acrylic to soft the colour in the house.

Second attempt trying to let the blue paint the landscape. Some brown added to near piece of land.

 Ran the painting under the tap to wash out the blue and let it run from the mountains down into the lake then sprayed the mountains to run into the sky and blotted the clouds with kitchen roll. This was on an unstretched sheet of 200 lb Bockingford not paper which bowed resulting in some uneven marks in the foreground. Timing is critical as some of the wetter marks washed out completely.
 

Sponged out the water and added ripples and repainted the main peak.

"Langdale Pikes from Windermere"

May add some near foreground with stream entering the lake?

Another go on 1/4 imperial sheet using a flat brush with a ruler to create the ripples

Sky Arts Landscape Painter of the Year 2016

I took part in the competition as a wildcard entry on 22 June at Wray Castle on the banks of Windermere in the Lake District. We met with Storyvault.tv for registration at Waterhead Ambleside and then travelled by boat to Wray Castle.

I positioned myself at the top of the designated painting area to view the Langdale Pikes and the Castle. Nearly all the 50 wildcard entrants painted across the lake to the Fairfield Horseshoe. Eight selected artists were positioned in the pods looking towards the Castle with three judges artist Tai Shan Schierenberg, independent curator Kathleen Soriano and art historian Kate Bryan. .

The four hour painting period started at 9.30 and I started two paintings of the same view to Langdale Pikes- one on Saunders Waterford and one on Bockingford- this was to stop me fiddling with a wet wash.

 Saunders Waterford

Bockingford

After the lunch break I did a collage of the castle using newsprint, coloured tissue paper and acrylic. I even stuck some of the buttercups on to the foreground.

The winner of the wildcards who chosen by Tai Shan Schierenberg was James Cope who I had met while waiting for the boat and he introduced me to his girlfriend during the lunch break who was painting in the pods.

James Cope winning picture show the artists painting with Fairfield Horseshoe as a backdrop.

All three judges passed comments on my work and commentator Joan Bakewell also commented while we saw little of Frank Skinner.

 Kathleen Soriano did a piece to camera with me painting the Langdales- well actually two as the first missed out the bling she had on her wrists.

Weather stayed sunny but cool all day and while waiting for the bus back to Ambleside I did sketched the view to Windermere from the picnic tables at the Castle. Filming was still going on to choose the heat winner when we left.

 

Back in cottage at Staveley, where we were staying for the week, surveying the days work with the wristband on the fireside tools.

Overall an excellent days painting and I met some interesting painters both amateur and professional.