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Burnham Overy Mill

by on July 15, 2011 in Painting on Location

Burnham Overy Mill is just a short walk from Burnham Overy Staithe in Norfolk. It’s a delightful area for any landscape artist to paint with the low lying land, estuaries and big skies. We’ve stayed there as a family for the last two years and I’ve seized the opportunity to paint on location, rising early to capture the early morning sunlight and often disappearing after our evening meal to take in the fading summer light.

As we were driving into Burnham Overy Staithe for the first time in September 2009, I noticed the windmill and decided to do a sketchbook study later that evening. The light was fading, so I only managed to do the first couple of washes of Lemon Yellow, Rose Madder and Manganese Blue (which was essentially the sky and foreground) before the light made it impossible to paint any further. I returned the following evening to render the windmill and distant trees. A carefully placed application of Raw Sienna in the foreground enabled me to pick out some of the bales.

A few days later I decided to do a day time scene, adopting my usual method of working on a sketchbook study and a watercolour on a 14″ x 10″ Arches Block of rough paper which is available from many good art suppliers. I’ve posted a link to the Heaton Cooper Studio website which is worth a visit.

This time the light was more consistent even though the cloud shapes were constantly moving. Again, Lemon Yellow and Raw Sienna featured, this time for the first wash. Once dry, a mix of Manganese Blue, French Ultramarine and Payne’s Grey with a touch of Purple gave me the cloud colour. I had to be careful to leave a blob of white paper for the roof of the mill and a sliver of white for its sails. Once the sky was dry, I was able to knock in the rest of the windmill, trees and bales as before.

Whilst doing this post, I’ve had fun just flicking through my sketchbook, remembering the trip and feeling inspired to paint again on location. The 14″ x 10″ original watercolour can be seen at my studio & gallery in Ponteland and is also available online.

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Sketchbook Painting in Norfolk

by on March 15, 2011 in Painting on Location

One of the greatest thrills as an artist is to have a painting trip where one can paint a variety of subjects on location. My last two trips to Norfolk have been just that. As you can see from the small gallery selection, the subjects range from the estuary at Burnham Overy Staithe to the lavender fields at Heacham.

My preference is to paint early morning to capture the light rising. Imagine my disappointment when I arose to be greeted with a rather dull, flat mist. I still pressed on and decided to tackle the buildings and boats overlooking the estuary. The scene came to life when a lady decided to take her boat out on the right hand side of the study which provided some added interest.

The beach huts are great fun to paint. An array of assorted bright colours set against a backdrop of green foliage. The dark clouds threatening rain compressed the scene, keeping the focus on the huts. As I don’t use a pencil for these kinds of studies, it was important to really think through the composition before putting brush to paper. I liked this one so much, I decided to put it on the homepage on my website.

This harbour scene at Wells-next-the-sea was very complex. I was waiting for the rest of the family to show up and had some time to kill. I decided to tackle this sailing vessel berthed by the harbour wall. The figures on the right provided a sense of scale to the composition as well as some extra interest. The multiple rigging by the main masts was indicated by a few brush strokes, however I had to take a little more time with the ropes on the bow.

Most of the lavender had been harvested by the end of July, but I managed to find this particular field looking into the afternoon sunlight. The sun was reflecting off the sea in the background and kept bursting out of the clouds. A few deft flicks with my brush whilst the watercolour paint was still wet helped to suggest the rays of sunlight.

I have another four sketchbook paintings from the same trip which I’ll show you another time.

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Oil Painting of Norfolk

by on March 5, 2011 in What's on the Drawing Board

Oil Painting of Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk

Oil Painting of Burnham Overy Staithe, Norfolk

What’s on the Drawing Board?

I have been asked recently to do an oil painting for a particular client. As I usually work in watercolor paints, I thought it would be prudent to get back into the swing of painting in oils (as it is a completely different painting technique) by doing a quick practise painting.

For the last couple of years, I have spent a week in Norfolk painting on location. The place where we have been staying is Burnham Overy Staithe, a small village on the coast not far from Wells-next-the-sea. I’ve painted several watercolours there, two of which you can see on my drawing board above the unfinished oil painting. Using the two location studies and some supplementary photographs, I’ve tackled the subject of small sailing boats berthed at low tide, early morning.

The frustrating thing I find about oil painting is the time it takes for the paint to dry, so I’m leaving it for now until early next week when I will be adding detail to the boats. I’m thinking about buying some water based oil paints instead of having to use turps to clean my brushes and the smell, so if any artists out there can recommend any particular brand, please let me know.

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Painting on Location

by on January 6, 2011 in Painting on Location

One of the most satisfying and rewarding disciplines I do as a painter is getting up early to capture the early morning light in watercolour. Over the last couple of years I’ve been fortunate to spend a week in Norfolk over the summer with my family, following in the footsteps of some of my watercolour heros, particularly Edward Seago.
12" x 9" watercolour study of Burnham Overy Staithe

12" x 9" watercolour study of Burnham Overy Staithe

Burnham Overy Staithe is a painters paradise. The low lying land means you get the extremes of either low or high tide and of course the dramatic big skies which are always a challenge to paint. This particular scene was commenced about 6am at low tide with the sun attempting to break through the grey clouds which were scurrying across the sky.
As usual, I tackled two paintings, one in my sketch book, the other on a 12″ x 9″ Arches watercolour block of rough paper. The advantage of doing this is that whilst one is drying, you can crack on recording the ever changing scene with the other painting. One can keep alternating between the two, so the whole process is a very intense painting period. The sketch book study is always the more simple study, mainly because it is smaller, therefore one does not have as much space to fit in detail. There is no pencil work in either study as I prefer to “draw” with the brush directly on to the paper. This means you get a very expressive free brush stroke which brings a freshness to the work.
What I have ended up with is two, quite different renditions of the same scene which I hope to work up into a much larger painting at some point in the future. The photograph provides some valuable topographical information to supplement the watercolour studies. The challenge with the studio painting will be to retain the spontaneity of the location paintings.
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