Cornwall sketching

New places always inspire me to sketch and paint.  The weather recently wasn't on my side for plein air painting, so I opted to Sketch instead.   

Cornwall full of inspiration and surprises

On the way down, we stopped at Porthtowan,

and I sketched using my Concertina book

This is a good example of limiting what to draw.  There were actually a lot more buildings on the hillside, but the main focus for me is the tall building, so I kept it simple.

Another day we visited Mousehole

(no not pronounced Mouse Hole....it's actually more like

MOUZ ALL)

The little harbour had a lot of boats, but again I stuck with the ones that stood out

On our walk into Mousehole we came across the old Lifeboat Station

I'll leave you to read the following clips from the above notice

Families at the time had several of their love ones onboard the rescue vessel, and I think I'm correct in saying that following this tragic event, the RNLI brought in a rule that people from the same family couldn't go out on a rescue call together.

Here's a bit more info from Wikipedia

Another day we visited a former Mine

Namely Levant Mine - a National Trust property - and I saw an original Beam engine working
Wow! those old boys certainly knew how to make machines back in the day

We got about in Cornwall quite a bit, and I even cycled a few times...No, I didn't sketch whilst I cycled!

This next sketch was from the car (it was cold and windy that day)

in fact I completed this later

The next is more of an observational sketch than scenic.  We parked up and had a coffee

 - well what else would I do whilst sitting there -

Yes you guessed, I Sketched

It's fascinating People Watching

This was at Gwithian 

We then drove further along the road to another car park and walked across the headland

So glad we walked, as there was a spot where you could look down onto a secluded beach

and guess what, there were lots of seals there

Our trip to Cornwall was certainly worth it.

Following on from my previous post - Amanda Hyatt workshop

Now it's time to see my efforts from the

Amanda Hyatt workshop

5 days

at the end of which, I felt exhausted,

but it was SO WORTH IT.

 and, I was there to LEARN...

here's a learning curve example

(in my defence, my back was really hurting me at the time...hence I

Slapped on bright paint quickly)

although it may not look a BRIGHT AND IN YOUR FACE PIECE, IT TRULY WAS

and when I got home I washed out a lot of paint and toned it down.

I enjoyed painting this river view 

and also this quiet harbour

this next painting wasn't painted en plein air, 

(on that occasion I sat back and watched everyone else)

but when we got back into the studio the next morning,

I painted this in about an hour

Then on the final afternoon, I didn't have a painting to work on,

so Amanda found a reference photo for me and I painted this

I was really chuffed when Amanda complimented me and said I really nailed it,

and that it reminded her of home with the gum tree.

 ~ well, colour me happy ~

Amanda Hyatt workshop

Last  month I had the great fortune to be part of a 5-day Workshop course in Sidmouth.  Our tutor was

  Amanda Hyatt from Australia.

We did some work in the Studio and also some paintings en plein air.

All the following paintings are Amanda's work

My fellow students were generally used to using watercolour.

I happened to spot immediately one Professional artist the minute he walked in to join the course

Steve Hall  

That for me confirmed that it isn't only beginners/intermediate artists who go on Art courses,

the Professionals do too.

Small clip of Amanda taking one of the tutorials

Here's a photo of us all at the end of the Course.  I'm at the back on the right (hiding) lol

And talk about Professionals on this Course,
it was great to meet and follow online
Award Winning Artist 

Karen Thomas  
(group pic courtesy of Karen)

This was a GREAT ART COURSE

🎨🎨🎨

Art Exhibition last weekend

I'm pleased to say it was a SUCCESS

@ Arlington Court

We had around 250 people through the door and a lot of those people stopped to chat to either myself

or Graham and, of course, William blog🔗

Sold some paintings and raised a substantial amount of money for Arlington, specifically towards
 the Boudair Silk fund (moths and bugs are always trying to chomp their way through it, hence it needs saving)

on the first day, Saturday, we had our daughter Lil and little Hamish helping out too

before the doors officially opened, I was preparing a canvas

the large painting Sold.....hope it went to a good home

when my back was turned, Lil flipped the painting over and Graham posed for the camera....
Lil didn't tell him the painting was upside down!!!

and

 I completed the painting later in the day it SOLD
(it was the correct way up by then)

the painting on the windowsill was moved onto a table-easel-stand later in the day, when a
landscape had Sold

 at the end of the second day, I had made inroads with the next painting,
this will be completed at home

Yes, we did have a lot of visitors honestly,
but didn't take photos of them purely out of courtesy.


🎨🎨🎨