Tag: St Ives painting

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Sketch of Porthminster Beach

St Ives Harbour at high tide

I had a lovely trip to St Ives the other day and, of course, I did a sketch of Porthminster Beach.

It was a lovely March day, the sun was shining, the tourist season hadn’t begun, so a good day to visit St Ives. I went with my husband on the train, so much easier. I do of course love the view from the train, nearly the best train ride in the world! However I accept I am biased.

Coffee overlooking Porthminster Beach

We stopped at the newly refurbished Peda Olva Hotel to sit outside and enjoy a coffee. It was glorious and time to get my paints out. It was low tide and the train was coming and going whilst we sat there. Another couple were sat enjoying a coffee and she was a little concerned she might be put in my painting. I assured her I was painting beach and hadn’t included anyone.

  • Coffee and sketch at Porthminster Beach
  • Porthminster Beach
  • Sketch of Porthminster Beach

We had a lovely walk around St Ives, which was actually busier than anticipated. Given we have had a very wet winter, it wasn’t totally surprising that other locals were making the most of the weather.

Beer and Lunch

We stopped for a refreshing Beer at the Bier Hus Grand Café. Since visiting Belgium a few years back we have developed a taste for Belgium beer, and the Bier Hus has the best selection. This time we transported ourselves back to Bruges via a Zot. Very tasty. However it is inside so I didn’t do any sketching her.

We then had a spot of lunch at the Talay Thai Kitchen. If you like Thai food I can highly recommend. We had a great view overlooking the harbour and our food came out before I had a chance to get my paints out. After a delicious Pad See Ewe we sat and watched the antics of the seagulls!

It was a great day out, even if I only did one sketch! Here are some other photos I took.

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Seascape Watercolour Workshop

seascape workshop

I attended a great seascape watercolour worksho. I love painting seascapes, but there is always something new you can learn and I definitely did at this workshop.

The idea was to combine photographs to create the image that you want. Paintings are not intended to be a photographs, so we can paint the image we want to!

I love St Ives harbour, but on some photographs you can end up with a lot of seaweed and the sand can look rather “dirty”. This is especially true in the harbour area where there is probably fuel spillage from the boats. The idea was to take the scene I wanted to paint and use the colours from a photograph of the sea at Porthminster beach, where the sea is a beautiful shade of blue and the sand very white.

seascape tests

However what to leave it and what to add? I started by painting a couple of quick thumbprint sketches, so I could work out what would work. The sky worked having it relatively clear and to have a little bit of seaweed near the shoreline.

Low tide at St Ives with texture

I decided to work with just three colours and I choose Windsor Blue (Red), Naples Yellow and Venetian Red as a cool palette. Whilst painting it I wasn’t altogether sure about the colours. As the Workshop was a full-day course I painted another one at the same time!

St Ives Harbour

I used the same colours, in different quantities, I think you can see the difference. I like them both and am delighted with the result.

All of the original paintings are now sold so I have the painting above printed and it is now available to buy as an A5 greeting cards.

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Beaches in Cornwall

Selection of miniature paintings and drinks mats

One of the reasons I love my little, miniature acrylic paintings, is that I can paint them relatively quickly! My latest selection are of beaches in Cornwall.

selection of acrylic paintings

Three of them are my easel paintings, and they include looking from Porth Kidney Sands, across Hayle towards Godrevy; Portreath and also two of St Ives Harbour – one is the view from the bus station looking across to the Harbour and the other is of the Lighthouse that is at the entrance to the Harbour at low tide.

drinks mats of cornish beaches

Then I have had fun with my “drinks mats”, one is another painting of the Lighthouse and the other is Godrevy, which I just love painting!

Painted Pebbles

I also experimented with painting on stones! These are very random beach scenes, mainly because the stones are so tiny it is difficult to paint, but I thought they might make nice paperweights!

I used Gesso first to create a surface on which to paint. I quite like them!

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St Ives Painting take 2!

I have decided to have another go at painting the same photograph of St Ives but using a different style!

My painting of Venice turned out well using a stippling method. By drawing the buildings in ink, the background were given a solid structure. Then when I added the watercolour paint and I didn’t need to worry too much about the detail, as it was already there.

St Ives gets ink

So I decided to paint St Ives using the same pen and ink method, only this time not using stippling but using my lovely old ink pens. Dipping in the pen regularly into the ink gives a different vibrancy as the pen stroke is not consistent. I am still struggling get the depth of field correct, with the boats in the water, but hey I am not going to worry about that too much!

St Ives just started

Next stop add some colour. I am quite happy with the sky, so now just need to work on the foreground sea. I already prefer it to the other one, which is shown below.

St Ives Painting using Pen and Ink

My second version of the St Ives painting is now complete, my aim was to give more definition to the background of the buildings of St Ives. However I am not sure how well it works, which one do you prefer?

This version of St Ives harbour is now available as an A5 Greeting Card.

Original St Ives Painting

St Ives harbour

This is the original, I suppose that is the joy of art, everyone can have their own opinion!

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Painting the same scene

Godrevy painting the same scene

I do find myself quite often painting the same scene, which some people may consider odd or perhaps like a production line but I don’t – I love it!

There are particular places in Cornwall namely Portreath, Godrevy, St Ives, Logan Rock, St Michaels Mount and so on, that I could just keep painting.

You never what you are going to get with Watercolour or even Acrylic, have I mixed the colours in the same way, perhaps used different paint brushes. It is what makes it exciting, how will each painting turn out different!

Porthcurno and Botallack

Then of course I get paintings that I absolutely LOVE. Thank goodness paintings are not like children where you love them all equally, I am allowed to have my favourites, which must include Pedn Vounder Beach at Porthcurno Bay and The Crowns at Botallack.

  • Turquoise waters at Porthcurno Bay
  • Pedn Vounder beach
  • Pedn Vounder Beach and Logan Rock
  • Porthcurno bay
  • Pedn Vounder beach
  • The Crowns, Botallack
  • The Crowns at Botallack Mine
  • Sketch of The Crowns, Botallack
  • The Crowns, Botallack Mines

So if I paint a particular scene then if I sell it, I can’t wait to paint it again!

Portreath

  • Portreath harbour
  • Watercolour painting of Portreath Pier
  • Portreath splash
  • Watercolour painting of Portreath Beach
  • Portreath beach
  • Portreath sunset
  • Portreath in Winter
  • Portreath Beach with texture

And I can only paint where I love, so why not keep painting places I love, for example Portreath, just down the road from where I live. Portreath has a variety of scenes to paint, including the harbour; the beach with Gull Rock in the background, not to mention different times of the year (a great spot for summer sunsets) and storms in the winter

Gosh I could just go on and on! P.S. you can click on any of the images to see them larger.