" Cross that Bridge " Painting instinctively.

9 x 6 inches Oil on Board £100

" Sometimes ,it's really enjoyable to paint with half closed eyes, just to get a spontaneous feel for colour and shapes. I love how it knocks all the detail out of a scene, which in turn frees you up to paint simpler shapes and concentrate on the colour and tonal value more. This scene was painted at the Lyn valley in North Devon, a beautiful spot!"

" Where the waters meet" - painters in the mist

15 x 5 inches Oil on panel available framed £350 

The Devon 11 ventured out onto the coast for their bi-annual trip to Lynmouth, and despite tricky weather conditions, huge fun and some excellent painting was had. This was my favourite painting from the trip.
See more about the trip here. The Devon 11 blog.

The Harbour

60x16 inches oil on canvas Sold

Painting this large studio canvas up from my small 15x5 study was quite a challenge. You have to stand a lot further back a lot more often when working on this size. This was my choice of painting for the first exhibition of " The Devon 11", last weekend.

You can see the rest of the artists' work here.

Rising Sun

9 x 6 inches Oil on canvas board Sold

Conor Wilson suggested this view point on our recent rip to Lynmouth, and boy!, what a beauty he picked.
The view down over the harbour with it's Rhenish Tower and sleepy Springtime river trickling it's way out to sea, was truly special. the early morning haze burnt off, but lingered just long enough to give some decent atmospheric perspective to the Cliffs in the distance.

Art on the Rocks.

"Seaweed Green" 15 x 5 inches oil on wood panel £160 framed.Sold.

Having a set time limit to paint what's in front of you, can be one tough challenge, but a good one. Trying to find a new take on a familiar scene is also another good test of your compositional skills.
Down on the rocks looking back up at the Rhenish Tower, through the kelp and sea moss covered posts , proved to be testing indeed.
Laying down , big shapes with thick, heavy colour, is a really pleasing way to work and gets that canvas covered in a very short time.

Big Red

15 x 5 inches Oil on wood panel £160 framed Sold.

After painting down in the harbour at Lynmouth , it was a joy to go up onto Countisbury Hill and paint back along the coast, looking west. The sun was slipping low, basking the hills in soft light, and the sea in a sparkley, yellow shimmer. The Devon Red cattle munched their way across the fields in front of my easel, the tops of their hairy coats, lit up with a gorgeous , reddy orange rim light.

Springtime in Devon at it's best!

Spring Valley

15 x 5 oil on canvas. Sold.
The Lyn river winds its way down from Watersmeet through the picturesque village of Lynmouth out into the Bristol Channel, and on a day like this you feel like you've gone back in time a few hundred years.
The panoramic format suited this composition following the river's course down to the sea. Painted up from a dark purple acrylic ground.

" Lynmouth on the Rocks "

15 x 5 inches Oil on wood panel Sold.

I really enjoyed painting this study down on the rocks looking across at the harbour in Lynmouth. Trying to separate the view into easily paintable planes was quite a challenge. I worked from dark up into light from an ochre ground, which I found really helpful.

" The Devon 11"

" Spring Morning at Lynmouth " 15 x 5 inches oil on canvas.

Eleven surfer / painters out on the coast , promised to be an interesting three days. It didn't dissapoint. Tucked beneath the mighty seacliffs of Lynmouth, the warm Spring sunlight lit the picturesque valley and harbour up almost to order.
In such a location, you just couldn't go wrong.
Every direction that you turned was a perfect composition begging to be painted.
Head over to "The Devon 11 "blog to follow the artists on their three day painting retreat. "The Devon 11"

Painters out on the Coast

Today marks the start of something exciting. Over the past month I have been contacting surfing artists/ creatives in the North Devon area , with the aim of getting us together to go outdoors and paint as a group.

So, eleven of us will be heading out today to paint for three days. Hopefully, producing enough work to sustain an exhibition, and generate enough interest to run regular painting trips , several times a year.



The first outing is to Lynmouth on the North Coast, a stunning place described by ;

 Thomas Gainsborough, English painter.1727-1788, who honeymooned there with his bride Margaret Burr, as "the most delightful place for a landscape painter this country can boast".

So keep an eye out next week for postings showing some of the results of this exciting first trip.