Well I couldn’t resist these images. After a long walk on New Year’s Day around Crow Point in North Devon I photoshopped these images of WW2 aircraft onto some of my pictures taken today.
At the top a Bristol Beaufighter coming in low over the Burrows. Below Spitfires flying over the concrete landing craft used to train the American troops for D Day! Al
These are a few of the paintings I’ve completed this year! I would like to say thank you to all the encouragement I’ve received and those that have purchase a little bit of me! I will return to the easel in 2021 with a vengeance and hopefully with new found enthusiasm after an odd 2020! Oh and yes I now realise there are two of the same pictures in this collage, my wife’s so smart! Al
The end of a rather stressful year at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, England. This collage is of sketches completed by myself during this year’s Covid Epidemic! We’re all hoping that 2021 will be better for everyone, in the last few days most of us have had our Covid Vaccinations. This post is dedicated to those we’ve sadly lost during 2020, although not related to Covid, memories of them will remain ever present! Al
A few pictures of mine inspired by Baggy Point in North Devon. I’ve shopped some Hercules Transporters in the first and a Spitfire in the second. In the distance you can see Croyde Beach famous for its surf. I’ve climbed Baggy Point many times over the years with one of the climbs oddly titled Kinky Boots as seen in the picture below!
I’ve recently taken a few weeks out of my painting schedule to have a break and gain fresh inspiration. I’ve been fighting with my usual illustrative techniques and have been attempting to find new directions, sadly to no avail. I hope in the New Year to start with fresh optimism and enthusiasm. See you in 2021. Al
Again this is me playing with adobe photoshop to created some form of composition. The images that comprise this picture are from a visit to Two Bridges on Dartmoor at the beginning of this pandemic in March. I use adobe as a form of preparatory sketching to finalise the painting to be. I love these wind blown trees and often when I use them they allude to those Yes albums by Roger Dean, unintentionally I may add! Al
I discovered an old postcard image online from North Devon’s Athenaeum of the old lighthouse at Crow Point in North Devon. This building is no longer here but I’ve tidied up the image and photoshopped it onto one of my pictures of Crow Point taken earlier this year.
On the Explore Braunton website there is a great account of the history of this long lost lighthouse http://www.explorebraunton.org/memories-of-braunton-lighthouse.aspx it states, ‘Sadly the keepers were withdrawn from the lighthouse in 1945 when the tower and dwellings became unstable. The light became redundant in 1957 and both the high and low light were demolished. All that is visible today are some remains of the main lighthouse. A modern navigational light is now situated about half a mile to the south of the original site, which is operated by Trinity House.’
Below is a few images I’ve discovered on the internet I’ve also photoshopped a Spitfire on one just for good measure! Al
Spent a rather enjoyable walk along the beach at Westward Ho in North Devon and met up with some old friends and caught up on old times. Similar to many years ago when I painted the watercolour below of the same friends when we had our children with us!
A completed painting 900 x 600mm acrylic on canvas. Woody Bay in North Devon. I’m trying to create an atmosphere of shadowy warmth created by the oak covered cliffs around this beach. Al
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/heddon-valley/features/woody-bays-victorian-heritage
I was taken by an image, on Facebook, of a couple of old fisherman’s huts at Crow Point in North Devon and decided to sketch them in leu of a painting. I made my way to the White House at Crow and walked left along the thorn ridden breakwater; this is now the only way to get to these huts as part of the inner wall has collapsed. I arrived and marvelled at their rustic charm, rusty orange corrugated iron, weather bleached wooden doors and crude cobbles which remained from years ago.
Quickly I took a series of photographs and made a few reference sketches eventually the dark clouds forebode and soon it began to rain. Luckily one of the huts wasn’t locked and I weathered out the storm in it’s solitude loving that sound of rain on iron.
The smells of the estuary mud and seawater filled the air as I made my way back slipping on the mud and pebbles. Perhaps a painting to come? Al
This is picture of Broadsands on Northam Burrows looking towards Appledore and Instow in North Devon. Experimenting with drybrush technique acrylic on panel 460 x 610mm. Original photograph by James Gooding on facebook. I quite liked the pastel colours and have used Turner’s Yellow for the first time. Al
Al Brown Artist. 