"The Gate"- Woolacombe Watercolours

"The Gate" - the passageway to salty pleasures and aquatic nourishment.
One of my favourite views of this spot.
Have a great day!

£145 framed.

"Spring Surf Checker" - 12" x 9" watercolour painting

Sometimes that Spring urge gets you all suited and booted  and waxed up, only to get to the beach and find out it's still freezing in a fresh onshore wind and the surf is junk.

This guy was keen as mustard today, I think that he stood there checking longer than he actually surfed for. Don't worry my friends, warmer weather is just around the corner.

Have a great day!

  £145 framed. Sold.

"Slip Slider"

Today is one of those days. Sunny, clean surf rolling into our Atlantic shores and it's warm, well warm for the end of November that is!
This one is fresh off the easel, I love painting glassy sparkly days. Now to get the board out of the garage and slide a few myself. Have a great day!

"Slip Slider" 32 x 12 inches Acrylic on canvas. £400 Sold

How stylish is your slide?

Back in the day , the old guys used to say "it's all about the style...either you've got it or you haven't!" 
Slide with style !

#Painting 1

"Fast Eddy" #watercolour 17 x 13 inches framed 

#Painting 2

" Herb" #watercolour 21 x 10 inches framed

#Painting 3

" Skipper " #watercolour 17 x 13 inches framed 

#Painting 4

"Splashy Surf Sister "  #watercolour 17 x 13 inches framed

#Painting 5

"Single Fin Simon "#watercolour 17 x 13 inches framed ,

#Painting 6

"Splashy Soul Surfer" #watercolour 17 x 13 inches framed 

#Painting 7

"Power Turn Pete"  #watercolour 13 x 10 inches framed and delivered for £

#Painting 8

"Stay Dry All Day Jay"   #watercolour 13 x 10 inches framed and delivered for £70. Sold.

#Painting 9

"Roundhouse Ron"   #watercolour 21 x 17 inches framed and delivered for £195.
Sold

#Painting 10

" Laidback Luke"  #watercolour 21 x 17 inches Sold £195.



Have a great day!

"Downrail dom" watercolour surfers

Aching arms, salt baked skin....yep, "Downrail Dom" just checked in. Watercolour 12 x 9 inches. Framed.

£120 Sold.

"Four dudes ride out" - watercolour surfers

"Laidback Luke"

£295

"Dave the Wave"

£65 Sold.

"Jive talkin' Jo

£65 Sold.

"Freewheelin' Fred"

£145 Sold

"Laidback Luke","Freewheelin Fred" , "Jive talkin' Jo" and "Dave the Wave" are all hanging out at Eddy's in Woolacombe this week. I'm really enjoying these splashy sliders, and the watercolour medium just feels perfect for loose , stylish dudes on sticks.

Have a great day!

Splashy Sunday Slider- watercolour surfer

 

Our old friend the wind returned to groom us with it's presence today, whilst the huge surf looked spectacular with it's exaggerated rooster trails of spray, it was a day for studio painting. I thought I'd try a Splashy Slider on the Hahnemule panoramic watercolour paper. What do you think, does the extended width benefit the composition?

"Splashy Sunday Slider #4 50 x 20 cms.

£145 Sold!

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The sun's come out! "SplashySlider #2" watercolour

Well these new style "SplashySliders" are starting to have a strange voodoo thing going on. It was cloudy and raining when I started painting this one , then halfway through, the sun came out and now it's wall to wall blue skies! Maybe I should keep on painting these, what do you think? Maybe if I paint enough of them, it might go offshore and glassy too!
"SplashySlider #2" 12 x 9 framed.

£120

Sold!

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"Splashy Slider" -is it time yet?

 

With the sun out and the sea looking a better shade of blue, I start thinking of warmer days and splashy ways! Trying a something a little bit different.
"Splashy Slider No.1" watercolour 12 x 9 inches.

£120 Framed.Sold.

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"High Tide, Woolacombe Beach" 5/12 Bays of Christmas - watercolour

On this beautiful December day, I'd like to share with you No.5 of my "12 Bays of Christmas" watercolour series. "High Tide" , it's the view painted from the very end of the point looking back across Woolacombe Beach down to Putsborough Beach.
12 x 9 inches framed and available for £120.

Enjoy your sunny Sunday!

"Jelly Arms" watercolour . Win a framed print of this painting!

After two days of beautiful surf and gorgeous hot and sunny weather, I now have the surf malady known as "Jelly Arms" yay!
Watercolour framed 13 x 9 inches £65.

Sold.

Subscribe to my blog , by entering your email on the right, then clicking on the verify email that gets sent to you and get a chance to win a one off framed print of this painting! The winner will be drawn on Friday 27th Sep.
Last week's winner is; Carando Wendy, congratulations! Your framed print of "Mid afternoon dip" is on it's way to you!
Thank you!

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Baking in the sun, the perfect wave rolls on!

Well June has blessed us with true Summer weather and the mural is coming along a treat, here are a few photos to show you where I'm at today!

Painting the perfect wave!

Ten years ago to this very month, angus Ashford invited me to paint the wall of The red barn car park   in Woolacombe. With a blazing start to June kissing our shores, it seemed an apt time to give that mural a makeover , here's day one in progress, check back to see it evolve throughout the week.

" Going LARGE!"- mural painting at Braunton Academy

 Sometime's we have weeks in our lives that just make everything worth while. Last week was one of those. I had been approached by Lorna Britton, one of the art teachers from the Braunton Academy here in Devon, to work with their Gifted and Talented art students on a large mural.

This would involve working with Primary School age children up to Year 9 students. The brief was to design an image that comprised of  " Coastal Sports" that a lot of the children of the area enjoyed participating in. We chose Skateboarding, surfing, Surf Lifesaving and Beach Volleyball.This would then be fixed on the outside of the art building for all the world to see.

I began the project with a digital sketch on my iPad using the Paper app. Once this was approved by Lorna , I started working it up in much more detail in a wonderful app called Procreate, not a great name, but a brilliant art app.

 Using layers I built up an outline sketch that could be drawn onto the 8ft x 4ft boards of marine ply.

When that was complete, I worked into that using an iFaraday stylus and a separate layer for each colour. We then chose a selection of colours from the Dulux Weathershield paint range and that was our palette, from these eleven colours plus white we would mix everything that we needed, something that the students found really enjoyable and challenging.

After a quick chalk up by me to scale up the outline sketch onto the boards, the primary school children did a fantastic job blocking in all the main areas of colour.

After each day, I took some photos with the iPad and worked on them in Procreate that evening to prepare us for the next day's painting. So useful as you can experiment with different looks and colours before the children got the brushes flying.

 After the final class of art students on Friday feverishly finished their work , I sped around and tidied a few outlines up, but in all honesty I can say that they carried out 95% of all the artwork that you see in the finished paintings. I have to take my hat off to them , they were such a talented bunch, I learnt something everyday working with them, not too mention splitting my sides with laughter at some of their antics, they were real characters!

The project was funded by the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and Braunton Academy, both sterling ambassadors for the development of art in Schools! Thank you to everyone involved that helped this happen, especially Lorna Britton, Bridget Oliver and Zoe Bateman, they provided heaps of support and the best tea and cakes any starving artist could wish for and their humour made sure that the week rolled along with a smile, "Thank you ladies!" You can read Bridget's review of the week on her excellent blog "Skipping over Quicksand". Most of all a huge " Thank you!! " to all the wonderful students that made my week a truly memorable one. 

Enjoy YOUR mural!