paintings prints and stuff

Bamburgh Castle from the dunes.   Watercolour and mixed media in Stillman and Birn Delta sketchbook Another sketch from the break in Northumbria.   The view of Bamburgh castle from the dunes is great - it is huge , looming silhouetted on its headland above the sweeping beach. The textures of the marram grass, thistles and other plants interested me equally.  Working fast was essential  as we only had limited time up there.  To get the textures, the luminosity of the sea and sky and the looming power of the castle, I ended up using watercolours, a little grey ink, a little gouache, conte pencil, white acrylic ink and some coloured pencil. The first (very quick) sketch was from lower down and further back in the dunes, done where I parked the car, and done using grey ink and charcoal.  I used twigs to draw with the ink - it gives a lovely range of marks that are freer and looser than pens.  And they are free : >) Bamburgh cas...

Across the bay, approaching rain, graphite stick and watercolour in Stillman and Birn Beta hardback sketchbook. The weather has been what the Scots call dreich - grey. rain, sleet, cold wind, grim - and it seems to have crept into this work! It's done from memory of watching the rain approaching across the bay, making the sea and headland almost disappear.   The foreground will soon disappear as well as the rain arrives but for the moment shows more clearly. I put a few pale washes of watercolour down and then worked over it with a graphite stick from Derwent, something I haven't used in ages.   I really enjoyed the veils of tone and drawing back into it with an eraser.   I don't know if you can read the elements in it?  (Sky, headland, sea, waves, beach) The new XL tinted graphite sticks would be great for this, I can't wait to get them .  Has anyone tried them yet?

Mawgan Porth, Moonrise, coloured pencil and gouache on a deep buff paper Originally the cliff top showed more clearly against the dark clouds, paler.   It jarred, I didn't like it, so I sat down to create a lost edge - the cliff top edge barely visible against the dark cloud.  I like it better. This is another in that sketchbook with the deep buff paper - you can see it in places in this and the other images. I also added  a little white gouache to enhance the gleam on the water, moved the moon (with the flick of my hand!), added a ring around the moon and I'm happier with it now.. The clouds haven't scanned well  - they are softer with more subtleties and changes of colour than is picked up here.   I think it's finished. details:

Phew it's all finished - well apart from putting things away.   This was the exhibition with a little group of friends - we meet up once a month to discuss work in progress, critique, sometimes arrange to visit exhibitions or sketch plein air and a couple of times a year put on these shows.   You'll probably recognise the work here. 3 intense days, lots of visitors, lots of nice things said, lots of interesting conversations. My browser - the portrait behind is the work of one of the friends. so ...... here are a few images from the show.

detail of the sketch below   A quick sketch on a very windy day with Rotring pen and watersoluble ink, with a little brush pen (waterproof ink) and a touch of gouache.  I do like watersoluble ink for those lovely washes.    The Crowns, Botallack, pen and ink sketch in Canson sketchbook.  Vivien Blackburn And turning 180 degrees this was the skyline, with another ruined mine engine house in the distance. This one was done in carbon pencil.

  Across the bay, blue afternoon, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook pale pearly dawn across the bay, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook  Two more colour/light studies of the view across the bay.   A vivid blue afternoon and a pale pale morning (which was almost impossible to scan because it really is very pale).

Another in the series that looks at the changing colours and light across the bay at different times. This one is very early in the morning looking north west ish.   At that time the sun is slightly to the right and the cliffs are silhouetted, colours pearly pale, clouds burning off in the risen sun and the promise of another lovely day.

Colours of Cornwall. Afternoon light Sennen Cove.  Coloured pencil in moleskine sketch book Just back from a week in Cornwall - with family, but some painting :>) This is one of a series of colour studies of the bay at different times of day, recording the changing colours.  This was the afternoon light - sunny, bringing out the intense turquoise/viridian/prussian blue in the water.  More to follow ..........

Sam on the beach, evening, high tide. Watercolour, mixed media This is another illustration for Sam's book. We were on the beach as the light faded - looking to the left the sea was bleached of colour a symphony of silvers and greys but to the right it was still aquamarine and viridian. The tide was high. Sam was playing with his much loved new yellow spade, which was luminous with the light shining through. The harbour wall a silhouett against the light in the distance. Shadows were long. A perfect evening.

Gwenver (White Sand Bay) from the cliff top, watercolour/mixed media, 24 x 10 ins, Vivien Blackburn Sorry for the absence - life got in the way. This sketch of Gwenver (Whitesand Bay), next to Sennen Cove, was done in the Canson watercolour sketchbook that I like. The paper isn't so good if you want to do an even wash over a large area as it soaks up the paint - but English skies aren ' t often a plain colour so I find it no problem. It was a wild and windy day, though warm, and there was a lot of foam and wild white breakers. Details: It really is a beautiful place.

Sam and Lucky at Bosworlas Cottage, illustration Vivien Blackburn I've done a couple more illustrations for the book - this one is of Sam outside the cottage he and his parents were staying at (ours is 20 yards to the left) and Lucky the farm cat. His parents are peeping out of the windows. Sam collecting shells, illustration Vivien Blackburn And this one is him collecting shells on the beach. Both are watercolour with touches of coloured pencils, oil pastel and pencil. Loads more to go ......

Dawn: Lavender, Viridian and Amber. 12 inch canvas. Acrylic. Vivien Blackburn Still in Christmas present mode! This is a present for my eldest daughter. She's moved into a new home and decided she wanted white walls and seascapes ..... a hint????? I did this one from references you've seen before but decided to combine elements from several. detail detail detail The colours aren't showing up quite right in the complete image. There is more of that viridian/eau de nil green in the water. The clouds are a slightly more subtle colour. Unusually for me, it's done entirely in acrylic - acrylic paint with some acrylic ink. I may yet add small touches of white oil paint with a palette knife to improve the sparkle on the water and the waves. What do you think?

Apricot Sky at Dawn, Calm Morning, oil, approx 9 ins across, Vivien Blackburn Dawns are more subtle than sunsets but can be utterly beautiful. I always mean to get up and get out to paint dawn landscapes/seascapes but only occasionally manage it, usually on holiday. Staying in Sennen Cove, right on the sea front, meant that I could sketch the dawn before the rest of the family woke up - cup of tea by my side, quiet, just sketching happily :>) View out of the side window, Dawn, watercolour/mixed media. 10ins wide approx. Vivien Blackburn Dawn at Sennen Cove, Calm sea with gentle swell. Coloured pencil in 'large' Moleskine sketchbook. Vivien Blackburn Dawn at Sennen Cove, Quiet still morning, apricot blush on the horizon, Pearly colours. Coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook. Vivien Blackburn These were all done on quiet still mornings when the sea was calm. For paintings and sketches of wilder days check out the links below - click on images to be take to the re...

Windy Day, Sennen Cove, coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook, Vivien Blackburn This was a study in (to borrow Tina's phrase) wave mechanics. Waves roll in and break at certain points due to rocks/depth of water etc so it's possible to watch subsequent waves in repeat patterns and begin to analyse - the movement, how they break - in a steady line across the bay? or breaking in several places with the lines of surf meeting up with a splash of spray? The spacing of the waves and perspective (waves further out smaller? this will depend on the steepness of the beach and the weather) direction of travel - this can be surprising as they can angle unexpectedly across the beach, crossing waves from another direction how rocks or sand affect the movement and spray the way that foam is formed and the patterns it makes the colours of the underside of the waves light and shadow of waves the darkness of water over rocks or deep water the translucency of water over pale sand changes in w...

Drizzly grey morning, Sennen Cove. Coloured pencil in moleskine sketchbook. Vivien Blackburn Another early morning sketch, this one in the moleskine sketchbook in coloured pencil. A grey morning with rain clearing - it turned out to be a nice day after this bad start. Even on a 'grey' day there are lovely soft colours in the sea (not shown terribly well here - I find cp sketches quite hard to scan or photograph :>( The lifeboat spent most of the week anchored in the bay as they were building a new slipway and the water was fairly calm. When the winds and waves got stronger, later in the week, it was moved, presumably to a more sheltered harbour. (That's supposed to be the lifeboat in the middle) When I was young and lived on the north coast of Cornwall, all the fishing fleet used to move round to the south coast when bad gales were predicted and shelter in the harbours there away from the wild seas. In one 120mph gale a huge aeroplane was cartwheeled across the a...

Sennen Cove, Dawn. Coloured pencil sketch in 'large' moleskine. Vivien Blackburn Dawn, the sea is calm with a gentle swell rolling in, no surf this morning and the tide is high. A pale amber glow of sunrise silhouetting the cliffs. Colours are soft and muted, no drama. The cove at dawn sketched in polychromos coloured pencils (plus a few odds of others) in the 'large' moleskine sketchbook - they do a really nice larger one now but I'm not sure if the paper is the same. Does anyone know? I really like the surface with cp's. More to follow :>) Other paintings of Sennen Cove can be seen here: Morning, rain clearing Morning Bay Rocks and Waves View of the bay Misty Morning, Sennen Cove tiny canvasses - you can also see them on Etsy graphite sketch of waves and harbour wall Sennen on a windy day (oil painting) or searching on Cornwall shows work on other beaches and Lanyons Quoit

Early Morning, 4 inch square canvas, Vivien Blackburn Here are a couple more from the series of tiny canvasses I'm putting on my Etsy shop The striped cliffs at Hunstanton, 4 inch canvas, Vivien Blackburn The first is the far tip of Cornwall where the weather fronts from the Atlantic first hit land. It's from the same spot as the one in the last coast (stormy one) but turning 180 degrees to look the other way. The second is Norfolk, the east coast, where there is a section of cliff at Hunstanton that is banded in white chalk, brownish Carr Stone and red sandstone - a bit like an Angel Cake :>D I enjoyed doing these and trying to keep a sense of space and light and place and freedom of mark making but on a tiny scale. I need to get on with my big canvasses as soon as I can though. Exhibitions loom. What do you think? What range of sizes do you work?

High Winds and Surf, 4 inch square canvas (deep sided). Vivien Blackburn Instead of working on my planned 40 inch canvas I was in a mood to work with these little 4 inch canvasses I'd bought to do some work for my etsy store . This one is based on a wild day with the surf pouring over the harbour wall and the rocks offshore. Below is a side view so that you can see the painted edges and depth of the sides. It's a little bleached out by the flash - the accurate colour is above, which was taken in daylight. I'm going to be uploading them to Etsy if anyone wants to take a look.

I'm taking a Christmas break but having shown you the photographs of this beach in Cornwall in changing light, I thought I would show you just some of the sketches and paintings of the beach in different weather and at different times of day. for a longer write up please visit our group website watermarks :>) where I'll go into more detail about limited palettes, working plein air, size and medium, light, time and tide ...... I hope everyone had a great Christmas I got some lovely new art supplies to play with :>)

Edge of the Waves, marbling, collage and coloured pencil, Vivien Blackburn (unfinished work in progress) I've been learning how to use marbling techniques to create gorgeous papers - I've got a lot to learn but it was fun! I wanted to use the papers in collage and my first experiments are here. They are done with torn and cut marbled papers, some watercolour and a little coloured pencil. Tides Edge, marbling, watercolour, collage, Vivien Blackburn Oily inks were dripped into a large tray of water, they float on the surface and I swirled them with the end of a paintbrush, breaking up the globs of ink and creating swirls and drifts of colour. Then a sheet of paper was dropped in, sometimes lifted out without dragging and sometimes dragging it to create extra movement of the swirls. I used watercolour paper and cartridge paper, for the effects I wanted the cartridge paper worked better, the ink continued to move for a little as you lifted the paper out. With the watercolour pape...