"A Breezy Afternoon at Camber Sands"
Back from France for a week now and my good friend and colleague in the Wapping Group, Karl Terry, invited a group of friends down to Rye on Sunday to paint together around Rye and nearby Camber Sands. We all met up afterwards at Karls house for a Barbecue and had a great evening getting to know each other and of course the conversation topic revolved mostly around painting!
Camber
Looking Westward, 8" x 16" Oil on panel
Looking Eastward 8" x 16" Oil on Panel
Just back from "La Belle France!"
I have just recently returned from a painting trip which I organised for the Wapping Group and some friends to Normandy and the Loire Valley. We had guests from Ireland and Holland and the USA and I will try to show some of their work later.
These are a few of my paintings as the hard work is done by my wife Kate who acts as the Tour Manager once on the coach. Motor Coaches nowadays are so comfortable with reclining seats and air conditioning that this is the only option for short trips abroad. The large basement swallows all the painting kit, in this case for more than thirty artists and of course the suitcases for them and some of their partners who made the trip to enjoy the other delights of our French locations!
We started the trip at Portsmouth and some members of the party were already painting in the harbour before we left. First port of call in France was the little harbour n Honfleur where we stayed for a few days.
This little subject was fun and the music from the Carousel, the warmth and the bustling crowds gave my hand a lively rhythm!
Oil 11"x14"
Then it was off to Saumur on the river Loire where I completed about a dozen paintings but haven't had time to scan them all yet! This was a narrow lane leading to the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Saumur and another member of out group (Corry Kooy) arrived in her orange dress and towing her bag of gear just in time to provide a colourful accent! The mood of peace and tranquility seemed to guide me towards a softer and more gentle painting. For the technically inclined this was painted with a very limited palette of Naples yellow, light red, terre verte and cobalt blue in order to restrict the tonal value range. It would have been very easy to overdo the contrasts!
Oil 14" x 11"
This is a homage to Trevor Chamberlain, seen here painting a scene of punts under the trees at Chinon. He is not very talkative when painting and holds a brush in his teeth so that he can only grunt to interested observers!
A fishing boat in Ouistreham harbour. Must clean the scanner!
Oil 14" x 11"
