A few days ago I drove over to the pleasant town of Wymondham, Norfolk, which is home to the Wymondham Art Society. It was an evening watercolour demonstration and I had been asked to do a coastal scene in the Style of Edward Seago. I’m a great fan of Seago’s watercolour paintings, they look so simple, but they’re not. Everything is designed to create the atmosphere that the artist was seeking and executed with minimal brush strokes and a very limited palette of colours. Seago’s skill at making the mark with the brush is legendary, but I did my best to show his techniques.
I was made very welcome at Wymondham and there was a jolly good crowd of fellow artists there, so obviously the Society is thriving. Lots of interest in Seago’s techniques and generally a very lively evening. Thank you all, I look forward to seeing you again in the future!
The West Norfolk Artists Association summer exhibition is running now, in the splendid venue of St Nicholas Chapel, St Ann’s Street, King’s Lynn. This year I have three watercolours on show there, one a beach scene and two very much ‘big sky’ paintings. It’s been a while since I produced any new paintings in this style and I hope you enjoy them – the exhibition continues over the Bank Holiday weekend, closing at 4pm on Monday 29th August. Admission to the historic Chapel is free and it is open each day from 10am until 4pm.
The West Norfolk Artists Association’s autumn exhibition has just started it two week run at the Fermoy Gallery, King’s Lynn. For those unfamiliar with the venue, it is in the courtyard behind the Guildhall in King Street, just a short way along from Tuesday Market Place. Go through the archway and down the courtyard, passing the vaccination centre (unless you need to pop in for a jab!) and you will see the gallery on your right.
I have two small works on display this year, with the titles of Autumn Winds 1 and Autumn Winds 2. Rather appropriate given the recent weather! The paintings are in a combination of watercolour and Indian ink, which I hope makes them quite striking.
The exhibition runs until Saturday 11th December and is open every day from 10.00am until 4.00pm. Margaret and I will be “on duty” this afternoon (Sunday 28th November) and next Sunday (5th December), so do pop in if you have a chance. There are over 80 works on show and the exhibition is really well worth a look.
I’ve been on the road again, this time to the Wisbech Art Club who meet in the Elm Centre, a lovely hall in the village of Elm just outside Wisbech, Cambs. On Saturday 11th March we got together to paint in watercolour and had a really nice day.
You can see my two demonstration pieces here. The first one, which was the Old Barn at Ringstead Downs, we painted through as a group, following my demonstration step by step. I find that this gives me the maximum chance to show and explain my watercolour techniques and for the group to follow them.
Later in the day, I did another short demonstration at the easel, with some of the group gathered round. This piece was a scene of a boat on the mud at Morston Creek. Both subjects are quite simple compositions, but there are plenty of things to learn even from the most basic of paintings. I’ve used both the Old Barn and the Morston Boat compositions before but they are ideal for learning many tricks of the watercolour trade!
My palette of colours was a very limited one in both paintings. Ultramarine Blue Light, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna and Primary Yellow in the Old Barn painting and Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna and Avignon Orange in the Morston work. All these colours are MaimeriBlu watercolours. If you’re using other brands then Ultramarine Blue Light is the same as standard French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna and Raw Sienna are pretty universal, Primary Yellow is a bright yellow tending towards lemon but a little warmer, Prussian blue is the same the world over, and finally Maimeri Avignon Orange is a reddish brown not dissimilar to Brown Madder. For both these demonstrations I used Saunders Waterford 140lb NOT surface paper. All these materials can be obtained from the SAA.
I had a really enjoyable day with the Wisbech group, so thank you all be being so friendly and I hope to see you again in the future!
Further to my last post, we have now made it down to Ocean Grove, on the coast south-west of Melbourne. Here we have a good friend, Merridy, and are staying at her house on Dare Street. The house has a great view out over the Bass Strait and it also has a lovely deck area which I managed to commandeer for a few hours painting.
So, here you can see the “studio” with a painting on my super lightweight travelling easel. The easel is assembled from a camera tripod on to which I have fitted a piece of thin plywood. To do this I used a tripod adaptor which I bought before leaving the UK, from Ken Bromley Art Supplies. The adaptor fits in the head of the tripod just as a camera would do, and screws to a small piece of fairly thick wood which is then glued to the plywood. Very light in weight and quite sturdy.
The painting on the easel is a view from our “home” out towards a local landmark, Berwon Head. There was a terrific sunset over the Head the other evening and I knew I would have to paint it. The next morning I set up the easel where I had a good view and managed to recreate the sunset from my visual memory. Well it may not be exactly like it, but it’s close enough! The tricky part of the painting was the foreground, as I wanted to give an impression of the trees that lie between us and the sea, without doing anything detailed. Hopefully I managed to achieve that, by a combination of painting round negative shapes, and scraping out damp paint with a small, blunt, knife that I carry for that purpose.
The colours used were French Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Scarlet Lake and just a touch of Raw Sienna in the sky. I hope you enjoy it and I will bring you more from the down under studio soon!
This weekend is the opening of the Dersingham Christmas Art Trail, with eight artists showing their studios off to the public. Down here at Alexandra Close we’ve had a steady stream of visitors, with plenty of friends coming to wish us bon voyage to Australia.
Here’s a shot of the studio lying in readiness for the expected hoards of eager art buyers. Well, maybe! I will post some photos of the new work that I’ve been doing a little later, but it’s a mixture of old and new. some Norfolk landscapes, and some of my new “cityscapes” featuring places as diverse as Norwich, York, and Agra, India.
You might remember that my last post showed a group sketching at Castle Rising, with everyone peering into the distance at – what? Well, as you can perhaps see from my own demonstration sketch, it was a distant church that could just be glimpsed between a couple of trees.
That’s the great thing about painting on location. If there’s a tree in the way, just take it out, or move it to one side. Here, I’ve attempted to make an interesting sketch by using several simple devices. I ignored the small trees that were at the edge of the field and let the eye go through to the church, which I emphasised by making it a little bit larger than it actually appeared, and used the pen to give it a distinct outline. I made sure that it made a good light to dark contrast against some trees behind it. I painted quite a lively sky, and then finally added some interest to the foreground with a few dry-brushed marks on the green field.
All very simple, and somehow much easier to work out when you’re actually on the spot rather than working from a photograph. Why not get out with a sketchbook today!
Well, my exhibition has had its two week run and it seems to have been a success. There were plenty of visitors who made some good comments about my work. And yes, a few paintings were sold too!
Something that surprised me was the amount of interest that my early paintings stirred. In particular, this work from around 1995 entitled The Wildfowler was so popular that I had to start making prints of it. If you would like one, just contact me. They are £25 unframed or £45 framed, but unless you can collect the framed version from the studio here in Dersingham it would be better to order the unframed one, which is much easier to mail. Postage within the UK costs £3.
Another early work, which I did at the same sort of time as The Wildfowler is this view of Appleton Water Tower, near Sandringham. At this early point in my career I had already developed a love of simple subjects with a very limited palette of colours. Both these works are painted using Cobalt Blue, Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna.
Here are some more paintings that I am currently showing in my Stephen Martyn at 21 exhibition. They are all scenes of the Northern England landscape, where I love to go hiking and have done so for many years.
Catbells from Skiddaw is a well known Lake District view from the summit of one the the highest peaks – Skiddaw, or Skidder as the locals say it. A long old haul up to the top and a very warm day when Margaret and I ascended this peak. Great views though. I took some photos because there were too many flies buzzing round on the summit for comfortable sketching. Why so many flies on the top of a mountain? Probably someone dropped their jam sandwiches!
Rainclouds and Light says it all. A wild day, with Ingleborough in West Yorkshire in the distance where, maybe, the sun is shining. On another trip to Ingleborough, in 2004, I sketched this ladder stile near the village of Clapham. This painting, made in the studio, was later selected for exhibition by the Royal Watercolour Society in London.
Finally, a view of Great Shunner Fell which is a huge hill on the Pennine Way. It forms the link between Wensleydale and Swaledale and makes a grand walk if the weather is good. Which is rarely, of course! I walked the whole length of the Pennine Way in 2005 and, nine years later, I think my feet have just about recovered.
What did I say about posting every day? Ah well, it’s been busy here, we’ve had plenty of visitors to the exhibition over the last few days and there have been some nice comments. The Shakespeare Barn is a beautiful gallery space and the work does look good.
As promised, here are a few more paintings from the show. This group of four are recent works in watercolour, all showing landmark buildings of King’s Lynn, with the common themes being people and the evening light. I’ve titled them “festival” paintings as to me they suggest the buzz of the King’s Lynn Festival (coming up soon in July), with warm evening sunshine and the chance for folk to wander round the town.