"Incoming Tide, Woolacombe Bay" time lapse oil painting demo

I have just finished this 6ft x 2ft oil painting of the beautiful vista that is Woolacombe Bay in North Devon. It was painted on a canvas supplied by a new business called Fine Art Canvas, here in Devon. I have to say that it was a joy to paint on, definitely the best quality canvas that I have used yet. The wooden stretcher frames are all hand crafted and the joints are linked by an adjustable system made in Italy that takes an allen key, brilliant! They will make you any custom size that you require as well as a range of textures and thicknesses of canvas. More importantly, the price was very reasonable.
The timelapse movie was filmed using my iPad and an app called  iMotion HD, a really simple user friendly app.

You can see the finished painting on the Steven A.Pleydell-Pearce Fine Art website along with many other plein air coastal paintings.
Have a great day!
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" 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!

"Indigo Sparkle" - surf mixed media

"A little late night, wishful thinking. With the ocean being flat for what seems like a month now, my creative inner surfer wanted to come out and play."

Prints available £20 unmounted. Image size 9 x 7 inches.

'Tip-time" - noseriding on the iPad

Mounted unframed print £20

Sat on the sofa, working out an oil study for a fun little surf sketch without getting paint and thinners all over the furniture. Another plus for anyone undecided about having creative freedom with an iPad, this was drawn as a charcoal sketch using ASKetch then painted up in oils using Artrage. I'll paint an acrylic version on wood later on today.
Here's the ASKetch drawing.

Have a creative day!

Warm up sketch on the iPad- literally!

A quick little sketch/ study using Artrage on the iPad this morning sat in the car, after walking the dog, the sunlight was beautiful slipping over Potter's hill down onto the sand through the dunes, the wind was bitter cold, and I was enjoying the warmth of the sun heating up the car. The ipad is so useful for quick little studies like this when you are on limited time, and feel the creative urge.