A few weeks ago we had glorious weather here in Cornwall, so I went off to one of my favourite places – Godrevy. This area is so lovely looking at Gwithian, from Godrevy. So i had to sit down with my paints and do a few quick sketches. What do you think?
The image above was painted from the car park, where I did take a few liberties and not include the cars! The tide was coming in and was covering Gwithian beach, but the surf was great, although not being a weekend there were not a lot of surfers about.
For this one I went “walkabout” and went closer to the cliffs, there is a lovely spot where the grass is kept short, so I found a decent size rock and sat down with my paints.
I expect a lot of people have painted the Longships at Land’s End and I am no exception, but some results are better than others!
Here is Longships Rocks at Sunset, painted a few years ago now, quite a simple style, as it is a small painting. I originally painted it to go in my daughters dining room, as it was very red, only she moved house before I had time to give it to her!
There here is one of Longships Lighthouse and rocks that I painted from the rocks near Cape Cornwall, it was quite a way in the distance and was a quick sketch, it wasn’t an easy spot!
This is a quick sketch that I did from a photograph, painted in my studio and I turned into a greeting card.
Lastly, this one was painted just last weekend. We had glorious weather in Cornwall so we walked from Sennen to Land’s End, and this time I was sat on one of the benches overlooking Longships.
I do love watercolour painting, my website is testament to that, however I have been experimenting lately with Acrylic.
The downside of watercolour is that you have to “protect” the painting, if water or damp gets on the image it can be ruined (or at least altered drastically). That is why it needs to be behind a protective layer of glass, or something similar. This does “push” the price up and I have been trying to think of how to produce a range of affordable pieces of art, have a look to see my acrylic mini easels that are available to buy.
Now I do have my cards, some of which are under £5, they are all originals, but I have seen mini paintings that are little canvases sat on an easel. So I decided to have a play and see what I could produce.
Acrylic paint can be used either like oil paint or like watercolour, but once it is dry it is fixed!
I “Tested” it on my daughter, she likes my paintings but as she lives in a rented property is not allowed to put nails in the walls, this way she doesn’t have to!
Spurred on I painted another – still Godrevy (I do love that place!). I may paint more …have a look at
We have just enjoyed a superb holiday in an area of Cornwall – the Rame Peninsula. The Rame Peninsula is sometimes called “The Forgotten part of Cornwall’. I have certainly not forgotten in and here are my sketches from Whitsand Bay.
Tregonhawke Cliff
We stayed in a tiny chalet on Tregonhawke Cliff. Wow what a view! We arrived on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon. It was a trek from the car park to the Chalet – and with no shops or anywhere to eat in the evening, nearby – we had a lot of stuff! However the view made it all worthwhile as could look from Looe right around Whitsand Bay to Rame Head.
Sadly Saturday turned out to be rather cloudy. The rest of the week turned out to be very wet but that didn’t bother us as we had a first class view from our Chalet, called Seagull’s Nest. The chalet was equipped with so much stuff, including picnic bags and blankets, china tea service and a choice of coffee pots! The view around Whitsand Bay could be seen from the main bedroom, as well as the lounge/dining room area.
We did venture down the path to the beach at Tregonhawke, the walk is not for the faint hearted – it was very tricky in places and even harder to climb back up. A lively beach with lots of activities for the children.
St Germans
Tuesday morning turned out sunny so we ventured out in the car to explore. First stop was St Germans. If you have ever travelled to Plymouth St Germans has the most amazing viaduct and you can look down at this little village. It has been on my list of places to visit for a very long time and I wasn’t disappointed. I even had time to sketch and capture the scene.
Portwrinkle
After St Germans we were lucky enough to find a parking spot at Porthwrinkle so we could explore here. The Harbour was very nice but the sun was still shining and it was lovely to sit and sketch the scene.
Mount Edgcumbe Park
Thursday was another sunny morning, so this time we decided to get the local bus and visit Cremyll. Going via Kingsand, Cawsand and Millbrook, included a lot of windy, narrow roads but we were able to sit and enjoy the views. We had a good walk around Mount Edgcumbe before stopping for lunch at The Edgcumbe Arms, where I got my paints out to sketch the Royal William Yard across the water at Plymouth.
A lovely enjoyable holiday and I hope you enjoyed my sketches from Whitsand Bay. It was so peaceful and I can highly recommend it to anyone looking for peace and quiet in a stunning location.
The weather hasn’t been brilliant lately however on a glorious sunny day we decided to make the most of sunshine and go to the Roseland Peninsula, where I did some painting at Portscatho.
I had never visited Portscatho and it is a beautiful, quiet, little fishing village, where people where swimming, fishing and out on their boats. It was glorious.
We walked along the coastal footpath and found a lovely spot to sit and eat our pasty’s and of course my paints had to come out!
Going back via Portscatho, we then headed onto Porthcurnick beach, which was jam packed with families making the most of the sunshine. We didn’t venture onto the beach itself but I did do this little sketch.
One happy holiday memory was when we visited the Salzkammergut area of Austria, staying in the peaceful lakeside resort of Fuschl. It was idyllic and despite going up and down mountains; crossing lakes; jumping on and off local buses I did manage to pause long enough to get my sketch pad out. Here we are.
Fuschl is about 12 miles from Salzburg, set on a beautifully peaceful lake, that has the most amazing sunsets, lakeside promenade and a Castle. Being on the local bus route we were able to go out and visit lots of places. It
One of our trips included visiting Hallstatt, although this did include a long bus ride, then we hopped on to a train and finally a boat across the lake, but it is stunning and well worth it. This tiny village has alpine houses crammed into every available piece of land, surrounded by mountains, my sketches really don’t do it justice!
Another trip was to nearby St Gilgen, and riding the Zwolferhorn cablecar to give you a breathtaking view of the Wolfgangsee region.
We were mainly lucky with the weather but the weather broke near the end, however as our room had a covered balcony I tried to capture the rainy, misty mountains that surrouded Fuschl.
I also really enjoyed using my lovely new painting moleskin sketchbook that I got given for Christmas, paper quality does make such a difference.
Poldark has returned to our screens in the UK, a firm favourite with a lot of people. I thought it would be fun to do a blog just of Poldark inspired sketches!
I have for many, many years loved painting Engine Houses as they dot the landscape around my home town of Redruth. In fact Redruth was the financial capital of the Mining area and has World Heritage status, for the role it played.
St Just area
Let’s start around the St Just area, where most of the filming of the mines was carried out. Incidentally my ancestors worked but I don’t think it was as glamourous as depicted on the TV!
The Crowns at Botallack are stunning in their own right, being perched on the edge of a cliff. These are used as the location for Francis Poldark’s mine Grambler.
other Mines
This is Chapel Porth, near St Agnes the area is used as Nampara Valley.
Then there is also Carn Calver, near Bosigran.
Holywell Bay
Holywell Bay – which has featurd briefly but I believe it was used more than once, so watch out for this stunning beach!
Bodmin Moor
Bodmin Moor, and its bleak landscape features in the programme. I believe the farmhouse that is used for the outside shots of Nampara is located here.
Nampara Beaches?
Porthcurno bay
Beautiful Porthcurno beach, sometimes being used as Nampara Cove, and Demelza has been seen walking here.
However I have also noticed that Kynance Cove is also being used as Nampara Cove! This is where Demelza was out fishing when she went in labour and Poldark had to rescue her.
Gunwalloe
There there is the famous shipwreck at the end of series 1, which was filmed at Gunwalloe. However the weather was a lot worse than on the day when I visited!
Today I am going to take you on a journey, just a short journey – a sketching walk around west Penwith. In order to be factually accurate I didn’t do all these sketches in one day, but you could, providing you had a car and plenty of time.
Where is west Penwith you might ask? Does it start in Penzance or Mousehole? Well I am going to start my sketching walk in Lamorna!
Lamorna
Lamorna is a pretty cove, just along from Mousehole but actually not that easy to get to. You need to navigate the windy lanes that prevail around this area, but there is a small car park, albeit with high parking charges. But it was cheap enough for me to pop out and do a quick sketch before moving on.
Porthcurno
Next stop is Porthcurno, where you can visit the spectacular Minack Theatre or walk along the beautiful beach, whilst all the time looking at Logan Rock. I love this area, especially the colour of the sea and sand.
Land’s End
Next stop is Land’s End – but I do have a top tip for this area. Many, many years ago, when I was a young girl Land’s End was a beautiful, unspoilt part of our country. Sadly it is now a major tourist attraction, with all the trappings that go with it. My top tip therefore is to go park up in Sennen Cove and walk along the coastline to Land’s End – then you can experience the unspoilt scenery from my youth.
Sennen
On the way back from your walk to Land’s End, you get a marvellous view of Sennen Cove and Whitesand Bay.
The Bay, with its beautiful white sandy beach that stretches around to my next stop.
Cape Cornwall
Cape Cornwall – a lovely little, quiet spot where fishermand still venture out in their small boats. There is a National Trust car park and a perfect spot in on a sunny day all year round.
Ancient Cornwall
Along the coast a little further is The Crowns at Botallack Mines. I do love this spot, with the mines clinging precariously to the cliffs. You can walk down and explore the higher engine house mine, which is easily accessible, but I wouldn’t try and venture to the lower engine house as the path has eroded, making it quite dangerous.
Lanyon Quoit
Now whilst you could carry on along the coast to St Ives, I am going to go back to Penzance on the Madron road so that I can pass Lanyon Quoit. These ancient stones dot the landscape in West Penwith but Lanyon Quoit is the most accessible from the road. These truly is Cornwall’s historic past dating back many, many centuries and well worth a visit.
I hope you enjoyed my little trip around West Penwith, and its beautiful, unspoilt landscape that I just love to paint.
As you look through my website you will see that I enjoy using Pen and Ink in Watercolour Paintings.
This started when I was at school where I created drawings using a very slow technique of drawing little dots in pen to draw my image.
I had never really thought about using pen and ink in my watercolours but my art tutor held several classes to teach us this technique. I enjoyed getting out my old nibs and ink but rather than using my dotted technique she encouraged me to draw in one movement, as this gives a looser feel.
Initially you sketch in pencil, before then drawing in the lines in a freehand style.
Once all the drawing is complete, the pencil is erased and you can start painting. The painting then doesn’t need to fall within the lines, this keeps the loose feeling and to me gives it a greater vibrancy.
I do love this technique and I now use it when I am painting architecture, it enables me to ensure I have the accuracy for the buildings. I also use it for sketching whilst out and about, although then I use drawing pens. When I am out and about quite often time is limited and doing a quick drawing can capture the scene, and then I can quickly add colour to give it life.
However I have also gone back to drawing with dots!
I found it very relaxing to draw using this dotted technique and find it works very well for tiny images that I then convert into greeting cards.
Generally I tend to be sat watching TV and I can do these little drawings, put them to one side8 and then later on, I can sit and relax in my studio and add the colour!
I haven’t been to Gunwalloe Cove for a little while. It used to be a favourite spot when my children were little and I thought it was high time I re-visited it!
The day was sunny and plenty of people were on the beach, so just perfect for me to sit at the top of the cliff and do a quick sketch. Mind it wasn’t easy sitting amongst the long grass, lucky there weren’t any adders around! My ideal way to spend an afternoon!
Gunwalloe Beach is a popular spot for families, with its gently sloping beach sheltered by the nearby cliffs. Gunwalloe Church is also “the Church on the beach”, although now sheltered from the elements with various trees and bushes, which was also used in the recent Poldark series.
The cliff path takes you over to Poldhu Cove, and that is well worth the walk and one I do quite frequently. Gunwalloe Cove has a National Trust car park, as well as toilets and a cafe, so it is a good starting point.
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