Andy Downes organised yet another Landscape Open competition but in Leigh on sea this time. I used a homemade concertina sketch book again. It is a timed session and I have now worked out more or less the number or size of pages I can complete in the time given. St Clements church and graveyard offers plenty of inspiration.
That was last weekend, this weekend the Southend Plein Air group met up in Sutton Road Cemetery.
I went on a three day course with two friends to the Newlyn School of Art. It is a beautiful part of the country that I hadnt visited in at least 50 years. Spending time with friends and being challenged to try new ways of working was a great experience.
The first day we were taken to Cape Cornwall.
Porthgwarra, on our second day, physically challenging as well as a different way of painting.
I knelt on the edge of an outcrop to paint this!
Our final day was at Pendeen Watch, I had help from the tutor with this one!
I was reluctant to use the white gouache but he slapped a load on which really made the painting!
Southend Plein Air painters met up on Sunday to paint in Priory Park. The weather was glorious and the park filled as the morning wore on with families having picnics, lots of football games and children running around. It was great to see such a pretty park so well used.
I expected to spend some time sketching whilst in Tuscany but it rained virtually the whole trip so the few sketches that I managed to do were in dry spells or sitting under the eaves sheltering from the weather outside my hotel room or in the hotel grounds
The promised rain held off for our @Southendpleinaire meet up today by the Queen Victoria statue on Clifton Parade. It was also significantly warmer than our last session, though still coat weather!
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Saturday, 1st of March 2025 marked the third anniversary of Southend been given city status. The high street was packed with various events, music, dance and a group of us who painted. The day started out really cold with a frost but the sun came out so we warmed up a bit. I made a concertina sketch book and managed to fill it quite quickly. I landed up staying on the Royal Terrace and doing a panoramic view though my original intention had been to draw some of the lovely buildings on the high street.
We met up in St Johns Church yard on what had started out as a bright sunny morning. The sun disappeared, the wind picked up and the day just got colder and colder.
