Our 5 day trip to Cornwall had been planned for while and despite the weather, which wasn't great, it was great to switch off, paint and visit places.
We began in Mousehole, arriving in the evening, the weather forecast looked a bit gloomy for the following day so when I woke up at 6am to bright sunshine, that was it, we were off and painting by 6.30 This is often the best time of day, which it proved to be.
I was so excited to start painting and chose too much really, I spent a little too long on it and was starting to fiddle. I stopped looking at the general view and began to notice the details. What I wanted to convey was the reflection on the wet sand, I just loved it and although I first placed the board on its side (its just a small 8 x 10inch board) covered it in a warm ochre, then whilst I got my eye in, and thought more about it, changed my mind and painted it portrait format instead. I was fairly happy with my first effort, but determined to simplify things next time.
The weather changed dramatically after this though, this blue sky disappeared. The clouds rolled in and my next subject was the gap in the harbour. I kept this one much more simple, there were steps, other boats and all sorts of stuff which I left out. I like this one because it is so simple, its all about 'the gap' you hardly notice St Michael's mount in the distance, but if I had painted it standing just slightly more to the left, the whole composition would have changed, the boats filled the gap and the painting would have become totally different.
We set off to Sennen Cove, what a fabulous little place it is, with its tiny harbour and fishing boats and although I would have loved to paint there, we needed to get to Fowey and there is only so much you can do each day.
Fowey was wonderful, and our room overlooked the harbour which was pretty special. The car parks are about a mile away though and as our painting gear was all in the car it wasn't easy to quickly set up our paints. We used it as a base and went out each day.
This was my next painting, it was a stunning cove and after some very wet blustery weather the sun came out and glistened on the water. It didn't come out for long though so there was a mad dash for the camera and I took a photo when the sun did come out. It was very useful to have this to check the lighting once the painting was underway, and the tiny screen means you can just see bold shapes which is ideal.
It was a real fun painting with a lot of flicking and splashing. Great because it didn't matter as the paint just wet into the grass.
This was my final painting and in many ways my favourite. This is Crackinton Haven, we almost didn't go there as it was raining so much. We got soaked as we walked on the beach, but it was so secluded and stunningly beautiful. We stayed and had a coffee in the little cafe to try and dry out then suddenly the skies brightened, the rain stopped and this is the result. The rain seemed to bring out all of the colours in the rocks. Its painted fairly quickly and I nearly didn't put the little figure in it, but suddenly, there he was, walking into my picture and he looked so tiny I thought it gave great scale to my painting.
I came back from Cornwall all enthused with lots of painting ideas. Its now time to catch up on other things though, so the moral of this trip is to get out there, no matter what the weather, paint when you can and don't leave till tomorrow what you can paint today, for who knows what tomorrow will bring!
In our case, 10 miles from home the suspension went on the car, thank goodness it happened when it did, that was SO lucky!
