Friday 11th July 2025
Using my 12”×10” canvases, I painted 8 small seascapes with no specific location. I may add some headlands or titles to locate them or may not. I enjoyed playing with paint with subject matter out of my head. These little seascapes tend to sell well. I can also paint a couple during my limited studio time.
On Wednesday we put Luna in Doggy Daycare, giving me a whole day painting. I had a 75cm×75cm canvas. I initially intended to do an abstract painting. I keep telling myself I want to paint some abstract stuff just for the he’ll of it. When it comes to doing it I always bottle out and end up doing something else. I ended up doing a sunset painting of Alnmouth Estuary. I used to witness this when we went to The Alnmouth Beer Festival at the Red Lion. Their rear decking overlooked the estuary and we loved watching the sun go down over the water with the boats gradually turning to silhouettes.
I spent all day on this painting. The sky was a mixture of colours. Sunsets are always tricky as they can become very garish and unrealistic.
It is almost impossible to paint some of the sunsets we have up hear. It’s best to keep them more subtle than in reality. The boats in silhouette are more tricky. Painted in solid black they look like cut-outs. They have to be painted subtly with a mixture of hard and soft edges. I tried to keep the whole thing fairly loose and hazy. I was reasonably happy with the result but not entirely. Painting oils wet into wet can be tricky. Accidents happen, some good, which can be used , others need correction. I kept the sky fairly blended using a soft make up brush. I used the palette knife when possible but it can scar the soft, wet paint and can be frustrating. Using a brush can leave unwanted marks as well. I spent the day tip toeing through the picture.
With a couple of hours of freedom left I grabbed 2 ,14”×14” pre- prepared boards and just as Natasha had advised me, chucked some paint on. I did 2 semi-abstract seascapes in bright colours using brush and palette knife with big skies, mountains and coast reflecting in the water all painted quickly and loosely. Every time I do these exercises, I have the propensity to fiddle. This can ruin to effect you’re trying to achieve. It has been a failing of my throughout my whole painting life. Painting without over-thinking is certainly liberating and I really enjoyed this session.
We are off to The Lakes this weekend in George, specifically to take several large paintings to Beckstones Gallery, including the 2 “Ullswater “ exhibition paintings. I was really thrilled this week to see the Beckstones post on social media using my large Ullswater painting to advertise the exhibition. They also sold 2 watercolours which is always good news. We are camping nearby for the weekend and look forward to The Lakes as usual.
On Sunday Natasha and I arranged to meet my “Woodland painting” clients Martyn and Maureen for coffee at The Dunstanburgh Castle Hotel. They must be getting used to my liaisons there by now. They brought their daughter Leanne, with them who had purchased my previous woodland painting last month. They absolutely loved the pictures to my relief and I can’t wait to see them framed up in their house. It does sound like I will get another request from their other son for another “woodland” commission. They are the family that just keeps on giving. Later that day I received a lovely email from Kevin(Leanne’s husband) to say how wonderful he thought the 2 paintings for Leanne’s parents were and that they would have been happy to have all 4 of the paintings I’d done for the family.