Tag North Devon

SANDY COVE IDEAS

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

Recently I’ve been spending time at Sandy Cove Beach near Lee Bay in North Devon and have decided to start a painting inspired by sketches and iPhone images obtained there. My wife and I go to this beach and hunt sea glass for the jewellery she creates then onward to spend time at The Grampus Inn. I use photoshop to create compositions, similar to traditional preparatory sketches, to inspire and familiarise myself with the subject before I start painting. The image above has obviously been photoshopped and will not be painted.

BLACKPOOL MILL BEACH

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I’ve just discovered this painting from a while ago! It is of a rock pool at Blackpool Mill Beach in North Devon. This beach is at the end of an enjoyable woodland walk from the famous Hartland Abbey. Just before the beach is a wonderful old building set in grassy grounds called Blackpool Mill Cottage which featured in the BBC production of Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’, as the cottage in Rosamund Pilcher’s ‘The Shell Seekers’, and in 2016, the location for The Lanyon in BBC’s ‘The Night Manager’ starring Tom Hiddleston.
I particularly like the pebble beach here, it’s rock pools and picking up spectacular pieces of driftwood left behind by the Atlantic storms.

BLUE BEACH HOUSE

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

A favourite topic of mine, beach side huts and houses. I’ve started formally with some loose perspective guidelines and added some acrylic spray can paint to remove some of the initial white of the gesso! Acrylic on hand made canvas panel, 13 x 24″ in old money!
The second in a year and hopefully the end to my lull. This painting is of The Tarka Trail, in North Devon, as it passes through Instow. It was a humid sunny day when I sketched this and was taken by the blue beach house and the red poppies. When ever I see red poppies it always reminds me of childhood memories at Instow. As usual I will sit on this painting for a while then make the final corrective adjustments! Al

THE BLUE BEACH HOUSE

Al Brown Artist. 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve put brush to canvas, the last time being January, so I’ve been taking iPhone pictures wherever I go to try and gain some inspiration. Today I cycled down the Tarka Trail from Barnstaple to Instow and was immediately taken with the seasonal poppies.
Along the trail lie various beach side huts, most of them were surrounded with blood red flowers. I remember them flowering here when I was a boy and wherever I see them they always remind me of Instow. With the sun high in the blue sky I was taken with this blue beach house and the contrasting poppies, I’m sure at some point this image will inevitably be used for a painted composition. I’m presently still not painting but instead playing the guitar so at least some creativity is being done! Al

INSTOW CHURCH TO THE ESTUARY

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We made the most of a gap in the weather today with a walk in the sunshine around Instow in North Devon. The waterfront was closed off to traffic and a right royal street party was underway; my wife and I had the mandatory Hocking’s Ice Cream with clotted cream on the top. The humid afternoon soon began to lose it’s sunshine but not before I managed to take these pictures in the graveyard of Instow Church. I’m struck every year with the cadmium yellow rapeseed fields around the estuary and was very pleased to capture them this year.

SADLY LOOSING INSPIRATION!

Al Brown Artist. 2 Comments

Taking a break from painting at the moment due to family bereavements. I can’t find the motivation to put brush to canvas at the moment but hopefully soon some inspiration will come my way to resume work! The picture above is my favourite linhay on the Braunton Marsh in North Devon, taken on a recent cycle ride to try to clear the mind. Al

Paint stained nails
That I can never seem to clean
Grips a can and a match
If you know what I mean?
To ignite that wasted effort
Nothing’s been so hard
Now to burn a lifetime’s failings
In the seclusion of my back yard.

A LOOK BACK AT MY 2022

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

A selection of some of the paintings I’ve completed in 2022, the year started out with a Bideford Black and ended with a large composition called Secluded Stream. I’ve had the great pleasure of twice visiting the Lizard in Cornwall this year and searched for sea glass with my wife along the North Devon Coast. During the year I was invited by a friend of mine, Adrian Beasley, to join again with the Black Arts for a residential course and worked with clients using the Bideford Black pigment at the Northam Visitors Centre. Having not exhibited for quite a while I ended year at the Burton Gallery, I’m now taking a slight break to plan my 2023 campaign. Al

SANDY COVE

Al Brown Artist. 2 Comments

Acrylic on 610 x 390mm canvas of Sandy Cove in North Devon. This secluded and somewhat idyllic beach is just around the coast from Lee Bay. When the tide is out you can walk to this beach via The Smugglers Walk, a meandering pathway through the rocks and cliffs which eventually brings you to this place. Quite often this beach is very quiet and a perfect place to hunt for sea glass, look through the rock pools or have a relaxing picnic. It is now becoming popular for sea swimming too!

BOTTLE STOPPERS AT HELE BAY

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It seems that a return to glass hunting on Hele Beach was in order today and although the tide was fully in we thought it possible to search the sands whilst the tide ebbed. We arrived, parked in the fee carpark and walked onto the beach, the tide was dropping quickly revealing shining wet stones and glass. It’s quite odd how searching in one direction you see no glass yet you can turn around and see everything, we believe it’s all in the angle of the reflective light and the wetness of the glass. You also have to crouch down quite close to the sand as sea glass fully reveals itself to only those who search intimately.
Today we found two bottle stoppers which are quite rare and some equally illusive blue glass. We managed to fill two small bags with our endeavours all the more with which my wife can continue to make her jewellery.

COMBESGATE BEACH

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A quiet day at Combesgate Beach near Woolacombe in North Devon. With most of the summer visitors gone the beaches have now finally been reclaimed by the locals. We spent the day sitting in the sunshine on Barricane Beach drinking mugs of tea from the beach hut owned by the now locally famous Sri Lankan chef who supplies curries on summer evenings. In a week this curry house will be craned off the beach and stored marking the start of the approaching winter season.
Of course sea glass was found at Barricane but not so much at Combesgate around the corner although the rock formations there were outstanding. It’s on days like these, when you have the beach to yourself, you appreciate living in such a part of world.