Tag Tarka Trail

ALMOST SPRING AT CROW POINT

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

First paint on canvas since October 2023, so I’m not really expecting too much at the moment but am enjoying sitting infront of the easel again. It may well take a little while to get back up to speed so we’ll see where this one goes! Acrylic on 24 x 18″ canvas.
This was a picture taken on a chilly cycle ride around the Burrows and Crow Point. In the distance is a large storm front coming in and I decided to make a dash for home. I should have stopped for a coffee at The Quay Cafe in Braunton but decided to continue onward on the Tarka Trail back to Barnstaple. As I reached Chivenor Marine Base I was caught in a massive storm with side blown hail stones, I didn’t warm up the entire day after this! Al

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

Linhay on the marsh revisited.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

What to do on a Sunday with a spare canvas and some hangover enthusiasm.  Go out and paint one of my favourite scenes on the Braunton Marsh.  Acrylic on 16 x 20″ canvas.
   This is what the Explore Braunton website says.  No two linhays 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 or even painting opportunities.
I visit this site many times throughout the year and each time it’s slightly different. Sometimes the water in the drain is crystal clear full of sticklebacks and at others fully of weed and cowslip plants. Local swans often glide past along with large dragon and neon blue damsel flies. In the winter it’s always quite bleak here hence the wind blown trees, all in all I prefer the spring/summer seasons.
Below are two pictures I’ve photoshopped from a quick cycle around the marsh today.

Cycling into the storm.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

Moving swiftly on a painting entitled ‘Cycling into the storm’ 600 x 600mm acrylic on panel. This painting is of the many beach huts that line the Tarka Trail at Instow. I was cycling on the Trail near the Cricket Club when a massive summer storm swept up the River Torridge towards me, quickly I took an image on my phone and this was the result. I remember the cyclist speeding by trying to get to shelter before the rain came. On the left you can see the secure boundary fence of the Instow Arm Camp and just out of frame to the right the old railway crossroad that leads down the Instow Beach.

The Dripping Well, Anchor Woods.

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

The Wishing Well as we called it as children when we played in Anchor Woods was known in past times as a Holy Well or Sacred Spring. On the wall there are carved stones on the left 18 and the right 65, date 1865. Above the left stone a colony of bees resides. It has been noted that there was at one time another stone engraved BR after Sir Henry Bourchier Wrey (1829-1900) a member of the Devonshire Gentry. As children and even now when passing, if you pick a dock leaf for a folded spout and place it into the sandstone crack of the spring a cool steady flow of water flows. The water’s always tasted very cool and pleasant. Perhaps it should be tested now because of many new houses built at the top of the wood. I will add more to this article once a visit to our local Athenaeum has been made.

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=47042

An old ammunition store?

Al Brown Artist. Leave a comment

Today on a cycle ride I decided to revisit an old childhood haunt of Anchor Woods and this particular WW2 ammunition store. My late father mentioned in a memory that the field in which this store resides was used as a target range at the time of the second world war and this structure was store. If anyone has any more information about this pla please let me know. Al