Saturday 30 July 2016

Day Three - Art at Topsham Quay

DAY 3 - TOPSHAM QUAY

Our Third day of painting en plein air ~ Art course with Ray Balkwill ~ took us to Topsham - and oh what a choice we had here.  Very easy to find inspiration for a painting, trouble was there were too many choices.










See what I mean...








The owners of this house were kind enough to offer the art group their garden as inspiration.  Some took them up on that, although I decided to opt for the quay view


 the view I chose

 I did more thumbnail notes and sketches on this trip out...
























 ...and I got stared out by this chap who wanted my lunch!


Although I did more sketches and note taking this time, I have lots of inspiration ready for a large (or small) watercolours in the future.
 

I took advantage of some seats further along this road for my day or art -
definitely another good day
 




Monday 25 July 2016

Second day of the Art course


DAY 2 - LYMPSTONE HARBOUR

Another sunny day, so we met our tutor *Ray Balkwill at the Harbour in Lympstone.




Setting up his easel for a demo - first choosing the scene to paint
This view was chosen, although there were lots of options.  In the end you have to make a decision and stick with it.

Ray decided to include Darling Rock (I found a blogpost by Wayland Wordsmith with some info about it, so click here if you would like to read)
























A mixed media painting :
Watercolour
Ink
Pastel

Perfect



Then it was time for us to find our own scene to paint.
Being such a hot day, I decided to walk around the point to the shaded side



 and chose this view looking across the estuary





Starting with Thumbnail sketches to decide on my subject




This painting needs more work, but this is where it stood at the end of our day en plein air painting



As you see, it was a gorgeous place for painting and everyone enjoyed the day.



* Ray Balkwill art





~ more abut this painting course soon (watch this space as they say) ~








Friday 22 July 2016

A four day painting course

I like to take the occasional painting course, it's refreshing to see a professional artist teaching and also meet other keen artists.  Earlier this week week I took a four day course in Exmouth with tutor Ray Balkwill.

Other courses, with other tutors, have always been indoors but this one was four days out and about on location - that made a change, and the weather was greatly in our favour too.  In fact I had to find shade most of the time, but that in itself meant I had to 'look' for a suitable scene...all part of the experience.

Here's a photo of us 12 students.  Okay, not all were doing the full four days, but here we are at Topsham Quay on the third day.  Ray, our tutor had the bright idea of a group photo...so I immediately hid at the back...I'm peeping through, centre, wearing a hat....lucky they didn't all move back or I would have been in the drink as it were!


Our itinerary...

DAY ONE was at Shelly Gut (Camperdown Creek) Exmouth...


The tide was out all day, so we didn't have to worry.  By the time the tide had turned, we were long gone from our day of painting.


This is the scene Ray chose for his demo

W.F. Holman shed and the blue boat in front of it.  Later in the day I got to meet the owner of the boat shed and apparently the boat had started life in that very shed back in 1934.


Ray Balkwill talked us through his drawing - starting with graphite pencil, pen and charcoal.

Lovely to watch a professional artist at work.

Not a bad view for having lunch either was it.










As you see, there were plenty of boats to choose from and different places to paint.  One of our group was up there on the raised area looking across the estuary.



So what did I draw....







I learned a lot about boats that day -
well I know they all have a
POINTY END and a BLUNT END
but it was great to sit en plein air and observe them.
You 'see' so much more when you are painting and sketching
within the view you are drawing.

All in all it was a lovely day - lots learned,
which is why I was there.

A short clip of Ray explaining adding the dark areas...




 ~ Our other days painting, will be added soon ~