HOLKHAM HALL AND HUNSTANTON in NORFOLK

Back from our time with family in Luxembourg and, as promised, here are some more sketches from my weekend trip with Anita to the north Norfolk coast.

We spent the whole day Sunday at Holkham Hall finishing with a yummy pub/hotel dinner on the way back to our caravan.

This is a sketch of part of the mansion I enjoyed doing in pen late afternoon seated on a rise above Holkham Hall and sharing the bench with us amongst the trees was a magnificent bronze seated figure of Thomas Coke (pronounced Cook) the founder of the family fortunes and builder of the house in the 1750's. This is a classic 18th century Palladian style mansion with many artistic treasures and home to seven Earls of Leicester. Other delights are the deer park with many interesting architectural features from an obelisk to an ice house and church and a large lake.

please click to enlarge for detail

Here are the last two sketches on Saturday evening as the sun went down, leaving some delightful skies. We stopped off at Hunstanton lighthouse and walked down onto the beach for a quick standing up sketch and some photos of the sunset but it was getting cold and blowy.





We walked up the slope to see the lighthouse in more detail and found this little expanse of clifftop grass with a round flowerbed and a wolf made of twigs beside three slim young silver birch saplings. When Anita kindly went back to fetch the car, I sat on a bench and quickly put this next sketch together as the light disappeared leaving a pinkish glow.

I added the colours to both pen sketches when we got back to the caravan. They were sketched in my new soft cream suede bound journal, rather like a Moleskin to look at but made by Derwent I purchased from my village gallery for £7.

WEEKEND SKETCHING ALONG THE NORTH NORFOLK COAST

Got back around lunch time from a wonderful sketching weekend with Anita, meeting up at the Norfolk Lavender Centre for tea and cakes (of course!). Managed a quick sketch in the gardens before driving onto our weekend accommodation. We stayed in a caravan at Heacham Beach and toured along the coast road stopping at various little harbours and beaches to sketch on Saturday.

We started at Holkham Beach - very, very, very, very WINDY!!!!but found a spot at the edge of the pine woods looking out over the vast beach with the tide way way out in the distance. There was this unusual red plant growing alongside the sand adding to the wonderful soft colours.

Here is a double spread in my Saunders Waterford Artcoe spiral 11" x 8" pad . Got too cold to trouble to add lots more of the pine trees along the bank in the left front before heading off to our next port of call.



We then travelled back along the coastroad stopping at Burnham Overy Staithe for this next double spread. Afraid the right hand page scanned rather darker for some reason, but laying them side by side still gives you the effect of the panoramic watercolour sketch of this busy little harbour and jetty.

Sorry, but this has all been done in rather a hurry, as Clive and I are off tomorrow for a trip to see our son and family in Luxembourg.

When we get back will post sketches from our Sunday at the wonderful Holkham Hall, when we had a stunning bright day sketching outdoors and touring the warm friendly family home.

CONTEMPORARY IRISES

Need your help folks. The Norfolk Contemporary Art Society are running a Biennal Auction to raise funds (50/50 sales to society and artist). So I decided to rummage through some of my older work and found two rather large iris acrylic paintings I did a few years ago but (I thought) I never completely finished.

Now I have had a good look at them with all their textured, basic raised shapes I feel I rather like them as they are. Maybe these past few years I have seen so much 'contemporary' work I feel there is no need to put in too much botanical detail but just hint at it. DO YOU AGREE??

I am adding a close up of a small area as well as the whole work to give you a better idea of the style of work.

No:1 IRISES IN EARLY MORNING LIGHT

24" X 30" STRETCHED CANVAS

No: 2 IRISES IN BLUE LIGHT

36" X 14" STRETCHED CANVAS

I also have a smaller framed Iris painting on silk from many moons ago using gutta paint tubes. Its the only silk painting I have left. Do you think I should enter this as well?? I like the idea of just submitting the one subject.

No: 3 IRIS ON SILK

20" X 16" FRAMED AND MOUNTED

Now I have put all this together, I rather like the idea but will wait for your comments but please note I need to deliver to my pal next Tuesday for submission to the NCAS, which I recently joined and looking forward to their next monthly meeting on Chinese Art.

The auction is at the Old Bally Shoe Factory, Hall Road, Norwich , which is often used for large art events, on the 27th November viewing from 6.30 pm and a catalogue will be available in advance.

MAGIC THEMED ACRYLIC WORKSHOP

We were rather low on numbers this month due to various understandable reasons, but the four workshop group members who turned up I feel had lots of fun with acrylics on Saturday.

We started the morning discussing the various acrylics available on the market from Liquitex Heavy Duty and Soft Body both available in good size pots and their latest edition of Liquitex inks and the creamy Finity created by Windsor and Newton in tubes. Then onto less expensive fairly thinned paint ranges such as Inscribe for £1 a time!! We discussed the use of the various gels and mediums from crackle, pearlescent, modelling paste and the lovely texture range of beads, pumice and sand gritty pastes. I know there are plenty more such as the mica flake and black lava, but I did not have samples of these. I also supplied some sheets from confetti presses to give circular patterns layered upon previously dried acrylic.

So the morning progressed using various tools from soft and stiff brushes large and small, palette knives, toothbrushes, trowels and rollers. Everyone simply applied paint in various thicknesses, layering and cutting back patterns just to get used to the feel of acrylics and their versatility. Before lunch break I asked each one to produce a background with mixed colours or tones that could be used for images to be added in a thicker application. Here are some examples of their ideas.

For the afternoon I had set up a collection of images based on the blue ceramic wizard my son had created for me, together with stars and moon ceramic pyramid, bronze cat, black soft cat, copper kettle, angel booklet, Aladdin's lamp, a wand, all set up at various heights produced by piling up books and boxes and covering with dark cloth with silver stars. After lunch it was great to see each member creating their chosen background from a creamy pink with a 3 inch soft decorator's brush, to blues applied with a soft sponge roller.
Here are some images of the works in progress.

I was able to share my tubes of silver acrylic and pots of sprinkly silver glitter to help create the 'magic' effect for the subject.

With our usual supply of naughty biscuits and cake with copious cups of tea or coffee, we had time to natter and relax in between our efforts and the results show what fun we all had.

SALHOUSE CHURCH AUCTION

Towards the end of last year you may remember a post of a watercolour demonstration I did at our local gallery, where the owner had invited me in order to advertise my monthly workshops at his gallery open day. . I ran a raffle at the December workshop as a gift to my members and it was won by the kind lady who brought the dressing up clothes to the last workshop . This was the watercolour result, which I am showing so you can see how different the same subject can be depending on the media used and whether you want to achieve an exact likeness or experiment with the subejct.

1. Watercolour I have recently been invited to submit a piece of work for an auction to raise funds for a nearby village church fund. As I did not have much time, I thought I would use as a basis the 16" x 16" box canvas acrylic I had started at the gallery demonstration but never finished.

2. Acrylic version early stages Here is how I began to develop the original boxed in layers at the gallery, using thick impasto gesso primer to mark out the circular vase and lithe lady statuette, both of which reside in my lounge. Using acrylic I was able to simply play and use whatever colours I wanted. You can see I have marked out where the orchids will eventually be painted and thoughts of reflections and shadows at the base of the canvas.

3. Finished acrylic This is the finished piece, having softened the background with Liquitex aqua green mixed with white and acrylic matt gel medium, applied with a two inch soft sponge roller in two directions. (I think enlarging you will see the 'squared' effect this achieves). I also developed the orchid blooms from a pot growing in my lounge and worked on the surface of the vase. The final effect was to bring the rollered aqua colours down over the table to bring harmony to the whole piece.

It will be interesting to see how much it fetches at the auction on the 26th September.

DRESSING UP AT THE ART WORKSHOP

Last Saturday was the return to monthly art workshop meetings and I decided to make it a fun day, so requested our Maggie to bring along a selection of 'dressing up' outfits from her enormous collection she offers to local theatrical groups, schools and for fancy dress parties/events. She brought along such variety and colourful outfits for members to take turns in modelling . The idea had been about 15 minutes each, but as everyone drawing got so engrossed each 'model' astounded me in being able to keep still for up to half an hour, with a few breaks for a wiggle or stretch.

We started off with Helen wearing a soft green toned kaftan with headdress, when we started the day with graphite sketches.

early stages of two pencil sketches

We then moved onto using charcoal, white chalk and sanguine conte on coloured pastel paper I had provided including black. Our model wore her own clothes as they consisted of a long navy and white patterned skirt with a deep red long sleeved top.

again early stages before adding sanguine or white chalk highlights

We then came to our full coloured pastel session using both pastel pencils and soft and hard pastels on coloured ground of each member's choice.

two very colourful gypsy pastel paintings in progress on coloured ground

A difficult session next with block washes of watercolours or inks with no underlying line drawing. Here our model wore a fetching number including long black wig and royal blue gown with gold trim, belts and jewellery as Cleopatra.

Finally, in the belief that members had practiced sufficient skills throughout the day not to need my advice, I dressed up as a pierrot and for a change posed standing ( leaning against a tall backed chair I might add for support). Their brief was to work in mixed media, using as many of the previous materials as possible.

Great day with well deserved coffee, lunch and tea breaks thrown in . We voted to work in acrylics next month as they had so enjoyed our first venture into this medium last November.

Sorry such a long post to read through, but wanted you to see how well everyone progressed through the programme I had planned for the day.

LOCAL PARISH COUNCIL COMMISSION

Remains of The Old oak tree beside the boat houses Coltishall Common



The local Parish Council asked me if I would paint a local landscape for them to give as an award and have asked the local gallery/framers to frame it for them. The only criteria was it had to be a local scene but not advertise any business. So I decided on the two boat houses on the common which are privately owned. As I knew the oak tree that had come down in the winter was well known for when the Salvation Army Band used to gather for Sunday hymns and music, I felt I wanted to make this part of my composition.

Two weeks ago I went for a stroll, taking my new camera, to see if I could get any shots that incorporated the two images. It was magic, as when I sat on the grass with the trunk right before me on the higher slope, I could not only see the boathouses, but the river and the fields beyond, with trees behind and some boats moored in the distance and other detail such as the flag pole with the Union Jack. I just hoped I could put it altogether.

Above is the finished acrylic 24" x 12"on box canvas. By clicking to get more detail, you will see I have added foliage and wild plant life on the foreground grass and in front of part of the stump, which I feel helps with the texture.

Here are some photos I took as I progressed

original sketch



added the trees


added first layer of colour of the boathouses and oak stump

and the topmost image shows the following layers and tones and finer detail.