Author Al Brown Artist.

Barn on the Braunton Marsh.

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A rather large attempt and painting an acrylic on canvas (700mm x 500mm).   I’ve tried to paint the clear water and perhaps a few sticklebacks but not too certain whether I’ve actually captured the scene.  It’s not at all ‘arty’ but rather more illustrative.  The more I try to paint freely the more it becomes a rather heartless affair.  I  constantly struggle to achieve a freeness of stroke but usually fall back into my old ways.  Anyway here it is and I’ve now become fed up with it, I just had to see it through so to speak.  Perhaps a few minor tweaks but time to learn and move on….AL

 

The linhay on the marsh.

Al Brown Artist. 2 Comments

Finished acrylic of Hut On The Burrows 405mm x 510mm).  Another painting of the hut on Braunton Burrows North Devon.  Just love this place and have spent recent hours watching the sticklebacks playing in the stream, which is called the boundary drain.  Still liking the cow parsley!  The last picture shows another picture of the same hut I painted during the winter wit early morning dew and ice on the water.

The linhays are another interesting feature of the Marshes. They were constructed as shelters for numerous cattle and almost all of them appear to have been built by the time of the 1842 tithe map. No two barns are the same, although most are of square or rectangular shape.  Some have become dilapidated but around 30 still stand today. The one which attracts the most attention is the round linhay, a grade II listed building on the edge of the inner marsh road, which has been thatched and provides endless photographic opportunities.  This excerpt is by Rowland Dibble on the Explore Braunton Website which is well worth a visit.

http://www.explorebraunton.org/linhays.aspx .

Al

Cow Parsley at Watermouth.

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IMG_3315After a visit to Watermouth Cove in North Devon this painting became.  Mixed media of acrylic, watercolour pencil, pastel & pen.  Along one of the shady walkways I came across a clump of cowparsley and took a quick pic on my iPhone.  Love this plant it always reminds me of spring and the smell after the rain is just wonderful.

Silent Noon by Christina Rossetti
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, –
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: –
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.

Al.

Midday At Bucks Mills.

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18813637_1494718907245504_9195562976165650723_nBack to a little Pen & ink just to change the tempo for awhile.  Midday at Bucks Mills a picturesque village on the North Devon coast in England.  This leads down to a stoney beach where in bygone time there used to be a small harbour and limekilns.  With a little licence i’ve added a few cow parsley plants to liven things up.  The cabin in the middle of the picture is owned by the National Trust and used to be an artist’s retreat.  Still used today although not as a residence.

I dedicate this picture to the memory of an old art teacher of mine, ‘James Paterson A.R.C.A. 1916 – 1986.  Know to us as Jimmy’  who painted some wonderful watercolours of this village and the surrounding area

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On the road to Cobbaton.

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A painting of the road to Cobbaton in North Devon.  A dreary wet afternoon and saw this driving towards Cobbaton Combat, a military exhibition/collection which is well worth a visit if you’re in the area.  Painted using Bideford Black on handmade paper 400mm x 500mm.   I quite liked the wet reflections on the road leading into darkness and a blind corner.  I must say I do so prefer the summer.  Al

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Bucks Mills.

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Bucks Mills on the North Devon coast, England.  A wonderful little village nestled in the trees overlooking the sea.  Once a small harbour with evidence of old lime kilns on the stoney beach.  I particularly liked the small artists retreat house owned by the National Trust.  Next harbour along the coast is a very picturesque cobbled stoned village called Clovelly.  Al

Cobbaton nr Codden Hill.

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13072629_10156866824910717_8606620046189305823_oA picture taken last year on the small roads in North Devon.  Loved this tree and the water highlighting the road ahead.  I think perhaps the use of some more Bideford Black will be in order.  Al

A quick preparatory sketch exploring the tones and contrasts.  It took about 45 mins using charcoal, Bideford Black, pastel & titanium white.  Also a little scraping with a surgical scalpel.

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Durdle Door in Dorset.

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A wonderful afternoon spent at Durdle Door in Dorset England.  Warm spring sunshine and clear blue skies, although in a lot of places in England there was heavy rain.  It appears that this area a Dorset has a microclimate that promotes clement weather.  On one side of the rock is Durdle Door with it’s famous stone arch and on the other Man Of War Bay.  After a few visits I think I prefer the latter.  To get there don’t go to Lulworth Cove and walk, go up to the campsite on the hill and walk down it’s a much shorter walk. Al  ps Paintings to follow!

A boy and a puddle; a journey in wellies. 

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A study in my own Bideford Black of a friend’s picture of her son.  Entitled A boy and a puddle: a journey in wellies.  Loved the composition a little like a previous picture of mine of a boy on Camden Lock in the 70s, also on this webpage.  Overall this painting took about an hour and a half still trying to achieve a more spontaneous kind of composition so every study I do at the moment has to be time constrained.  Just trying to escape my illustrator/draughtsman training and background.  Al