St. Ives in Cornwall

THE  TATE  IN  A  STATE

Ummm, is this some kind of Art installation!

Our recent visit to Cornwall had to include a visit to St. Ives.  

Wandering around I happened upon this narrow lane 

(one of many narrow lanes, St. Ives is full of them)

and a couple of locals stopped to tell me a snippet of history...

(you get the idea)

Here's some useful Links you may like to see about St. Ives

Wikipedia

Cornish history

History and Heritage

The mixed weather in Cornwall

Following on from my previous posts, here's another look at the weather.....the one thing we are good at in the UK is talking about the weather isn't it.

Having time to explore, we went to Praa Sands

but the weather was not totally on our side

the waves were really crashing on those rocks

I did have a moment when I thought, should I be standing here!

some properties were under threat and would likely be lost eventually...

the boulders and rocks put there would have helped a bit, but not totally...sadly

The weather improved a couple of days later, so we went back and walked the other part of the beach...

reading this, but it has suffered from weather erosion...

The Beach Tree

Once I stood so proud above the sea

Majestic, green and proud to be

The tallest magnificent old garden tree

I watched for months as the storms got stronger

Until my roots could hold no longer

Day by day more cliff gave away

I was moving closer towards the bay

I rocked and swayed like never before

I could feel myself heading towards the shore

The garden I left was to be no more

In came the wave that crashed overhead

And down I slid towards the sea bed

Refusing to fall I ended upright

The sand round my roots wedging me in so tight

Touching the cliff I held on so hard

Now here's where I stand still proud but scarred

My bark has come off and my leaves have all gone

But I am again that proud tree that is still hanging on

There were a few Portuguese man o'war, so we were careful to keep William away from them

Glad we got to have a good walk in the sunshine after all that stormy weather

🌊  🌊  🌊

Mixed weather

Our recent visit to Cornwall saw sunny days, but also brought horrendous gales too, in the form of Storm Brendan.   A slight concern as we were staying in this Grade2 listed building in Penzance...

With that Huge tree next to it...

However, storm and trees apart, we had a good stay 

Plus I got to do some plein air painting (as per previous blogpost)

During one day of storms, we did some Wave watching, and nearly got blown off our feet

You see!

That’s St. Michael’s Mount out there in the spray and mist. 

 No plein air painting in that, but I did some quick sketches for reference later.

This small painting on art panel was done alla prima.  I hope it conveys a sense of the atmosphere.

Another blogpost soon, with contrasting weather we enjoyed during our stay in Cornwall.

🎨🎨🎨

Completed painting....

From my previous blogpost, Work-in-Progress - I completed this actually working on it plein air.

We went down to Cornwall and I had the great opportunity to paint the view across to Godrevy Lighthouse - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/godrevy - been wanting to do this painting for ages, how could I miss this chance when the weather was on our side (if only briefly).  We ended up having horrendous storms coming in, but I relish in the fact I was able to do this painting whilst the sun shone.

and here's a photo of me painting it....

I think William wanted to be in the painting, but I refused to add him 🤣

I had on two warm jumpers under that coat and I was still cold!!! ❄️

On the easel today

Work-in-progress

I couldn't resist doing another version of this.....

Although, this time it's on a 12" x 12"  (30x30cm) Canvas

instead of an art panel

Oil painting 

Title:  "A Little birdy told me"

Completed painting

From the Work-in-Progress in my previous blogpost,

I have now completed this painting

Oil on Canvas 12" x 12"

Title:  "BELIEVE IN"

Here's another Oil painting on the easel at the moment

I used a vivid green background, painted in acrylic and allowed to dry, so eventually some of that will show through on the finished painting.

Still a ways to go on this painting, but thought you may like to see a snippet of the

Work-in-Progress

A Work-in-Progress

I've been busy working on a couple of paintings recently, these will be for a friends family who runs a charitable foundation.  Can't say more at the moment as they haven't seen the first completed painting, but suffice to say, I have enjoyed doing these paintings.

On my easel at the moment is this one, the Work-in-Progress

The "Purple" colour is merely Background for the Oil paint, soon to be added.   Then there will be Details to add and then drying time.  This all takes a while to complete from idea to completed painting.  I think most of the work for an oil painting goes on before paint even touches canvas.....

* Choosing a scene to paint

* Choosing a suitably sized canvas (or panel)

* Thumbnail sketches to decide on a pleasing scene

* Sketching the outline onto the canvas

* Deciding on the colours to be used:

~ Warm tones

~ Cool tones

* Mixing said colours on the palette in readiness to paint :

~ this includes the various Tones for each colour

*when all that work is done, 

then comes the fun part,

Adding paint to canvas

👩🏻‍🎨