Just me and my sketchbook

My wife couldn’t come away with me to Southwold this year (a quite coastal town on the east coast of England) so I had four days on my own in a lovely little cottage right in the middle of town, next to the lighthouse.  I decided to use this short period as a “retreat” both for drawing and Christian reflection (don’t worry, I won’t write about the latter here!).

I had just bought a new sketch stool and had all my supplies in a small rucksack.  The weather for once was fantastic for the whole period so I was able to be out morning and afternoon sketching in this extremely picturesque little town and its coastal surroundings.

On the Sunday morning I went to the 11th century Parish Church of St Edmund and then drew one of the many “greens” in the town, with the lighthouse visible behind a row of cottages.





Then later in the day I went out to another part of town and drew “South Green”



This is a double-spread in my Moleskine watercolour notebook of course.  It was glorious sitting in the sun doing all the details of this interesting view.

The next morning I went back to the old church to try to do a church interior (Stephanie Bower is so good at these) and I wanted to see if I use her approach to this complex scene. Unfortunately I couldn’t!  Its come out a bit messy and confused but at least I learned some tips for next time.




As a bonus, a pianist came in to the church to do his practice and it turned out that this was no ordinary pianist but a concert-level musician who played Liszt’s etudes while I was painting – what an experience to be sitting in the ancient church with these sounds washing over me.

Later in the day I went down to the little ferry (one man and row-boat!) across a river to cross over to the little village Walberswick where there was so much to draw – here is one of three I drew there.



After that I went home and after a short rest went out to the local pub where I had a pint or two of the local Adnams ales sitting outside on a bench in the sun and reading a paper.

The next morning I went back to the church and tried to do the entrance from outside in the church yard with local people passing by all the time and trying to glance at what I was doing.



Above the doorway you can see a statue of St Edmund the Martyr who was tied up by invading Vikings and then shot with arrows and beheaded.  Poor Edmund!

Back to the harbour again and couple another river scene



Then on the way back to my cottage I sketched “Gun Hill” with its row of cannons



In the evening after another couple of Adnams ales I went back and sketched the view from the window my my little house with the lighthouse again visible behind cottages.



And that my friends was what I did with four days on my own in the delightful little town.  I will finish with just one more sketch

Two new paintings

Everyone who visits the villages of Southwold and Walberswick in Suffolk, England, finds them to be an artist's paradise.  There are so many scenes which inspire you to pick up a pad and pencil.  This one is of the ferryman's hut at Southwold Harbour.

I also recently revisited some photographs of our last trip to France in 2015 and as soon as I saw this one of the Abbey church in Bernay, Normandy, there was something about the colours which made me want to try to replicate the lovely earth browns and reds.

Southwold

I've decided to restart this blog by focusing on my painting and drawing.

Margaret and I recently had a week in the beautiful coastal town of Southwold, in the county of Suffolk on the east coast of England.  We had not been there for many years and it was interesting to see how little it had changed, despite the general upgrading of cafés, pubs and restaurants. Southwold has become a popular holiday destination for fairly well-off families from London and now all the pubs seemed to be "gastro-pubs" and all the cafés were full barrista-style places with the usual range of premium coffees.

Southwold is still very "quaint" with lots of lovely old shops and buildings. There is a brewery in the middle of the town (Adnams) and they still send out drey horses pulling wagons laden with barrels. There is a lighthouse in the town but unusually, this is not  located on the coast but is a couple of hundred yards inland where it makes a fascinating feature in the town.

As we visited out of season we were able to rent a lovely house near the pier for half what it would have and what a delight it was to step outside in the morning and go for a walk along the promenade and up the pier.  The town is awash with painting locations and I was able to sketch and take photographs so that when we got home I was able to recapture my memories in watercolour.

Here are the three paintings I have done so far, together with location photographs.  You can click on any of the images to view them larger

From Southwold Harbour

Where I was sketching from - I added the fence to create
some foreground interest!

Southwold lighthouse

From  the pier. The couple leaning on the railings
were a real gift to me