Day Four - Art at Budleigh Salterton

DAY 4 - BUDLEIGH SLATERTON - FINAL DAY

 

The first thing to do was to have a walk around
and choose where to paint.

We were parked at the end of the seafront near the cliffs,
so that became my painting view...

Again I started with Thumbnail sketches 

 

thumbnail sketches help so much

I was considering this view,  perhaps making more of the sky.  The only thing was I would have to change the horizon line. Never do a painting that separates the view half way down the paper....

This would make a better painting...

the horizon line is lower and not in the middle of the picture

although I could have chosen to have the horizon higher

One thing about painting en plein air, especially where 'tide' is concerned -
You have to remember that the view will 'change'

as it did here, when the tide came in

Not only did I do some thumbnail sketches,
I also did a quick painting-sketch to warm up my paints ;)

and finally decided on this scene

step 1

waited for paint to dry before 

step 2

Final painting....

By the time I got to this stage, it started to rain,

so we returned to Ray's Studio for a cuppa, 

added some more paint to our work

and then displayed the paintings and talked through our work

Oh, and Ray's dog ended up being sketched by me...

I sneaked this sketch, so nobody saw this on the day

Had a great time on this 4 day Art Course

Many thanks to Ray Balkwill

this was a very inspirational en plein air experience.

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) ~

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 ~