I made this pen and wash piece over the two Sundays of Art on the Quay, which were part of the Burnham Art Trail. It was the first time I’d participated in the Art Trail and it was an excellent experience. Click here to read more about it.
I made the pen and wash piece above for this year’s exhibition celebrating this iconic vessel in Maldon. Read more about the exhibition here.
I was delighted to submit a painting for the annual exhibition of locally made artworks celebrating the Steam Tug Brent which ran for a week in July 2023 in the Octagon at St Mary’s church.
In preparation I paddled out with my kayak buddy to get a photo from an interesting angle. I wanted to show The Brent with St Mary’s Church and its Octagon in the background because that’s where the exhibition would be held.
I used that photograph as reference while I made my pen and wash painting (above).
There was a generous and varied selection of beautiful works shown in the exhibition, the youngest contributor being under 4 years old and the oldest having just celebrated their 93rd birthday.
Just as the spring weather became gentle enough for open air painting I ventured out onto Burnham Quay. Those two black headed gulls kindly adopted a stylish pose on the post for just long enough for me to sketch them. Got to love an Essex gull.
Struck by the glorious wisteria adorning Sharings cottage one spring morning, I quickly snapped a photo hoping to make a painting of the scene at a later date. I worked from that photo to make the pen outline and then went back to sit outside the cottage and paint the watercolour washes. Quite suddenly a cloud of bees appeared and started settling on the cars parked behind me. “Keep calm and carry on,” I said to myself before scarpering sharpish a couple of minutes later as the swarm intensified. Such drama for a calm spring morning.
Both these pen and wash pieces are on show in my Burnham Art Trail venue: Holicity Health, 140 Station Road from 24th June to 2nd July 2023. That’s number 12 on the Art Trail Map.
They are framed and priced at £100, please contact me for more details.
This is me, proud as Punch! Having just hung my paintings in Holicity Health, 140 Station Road, Burnham on Crouch, my alloted venue for the Burnham Art Trail 2023.
It was Art Trail venue number 12, which you can find on the Art Trail Map here.
This was my first Art Trail, the culmination of nine months painting and anticipation, which is why I was so relieved and excited.
Diana and Nick from Hoilcity Health were an absolute dream to coordinate with. They were both so kind, laid back but enthusiastic and very flexible when I had to postpone my set up day because of a brush with covid. Huge thanks to them.
And here’s a little video of the pictures in the window.
I’ve listed the paintings I exhibited in my Art Trail venue below. They’re all pen and wash and they’re all for sale, so do please contact me if you’d like to buy yourself, or someone else you love, some art:
Sunset, Winter Trees, Mayland
Framed
£75
Sold
Sunset II, Winter Trees, Mayland
Framed
£75
Sunset III, Winter Trees, Mayland
Framed
£75
Grapnells Farm, Wallasea Island
Framed
£100
Blue Boat, Low Tide
Framed
£100
Wallasea Island from Burnham Quay
Framed
£100
Clock Tower, Burnham-on-Crouch
Framed
£120
Green Door, High Street, Burnham-on-Crouch
Framed
£100
Sharings’ Wisteria
Framed
£100
Morning Trees, Mayland
Framed
£75
Sold
Asheldham Church
Framed
£75
And below is the painting, also pen and wash, that is on the Burnham Musuem ‘taster wall’
No7 High Street, Burnham-on-Crouch
Framed
£100
And this is the original painted postcard I donated for the auction, it’s based on a sketch I made in my neighbours’ garden last year.
Lavender Bees
Unframed
Auctioned
There was a lovely Art Trail launch party at Burnham Museum. It was a real treat to meet other participating artists, some for the first time. The range and quality of the artwork on show there was really impressive and I was honoured to be included.
I also took part in Art on the Quay during the mornings of Sundays 25th June and 2nd July. We painted under the bright pink gazebos opposite The Olde White Harte pub.
The pen and wash painting I made of the pub over those two Sundays is below. It’ll be up for sale at the Burnham Art Club exhibition which starts on Saturday 26th August in Burnham’s museum.
And here’s me painting it!
Click here for all the Burnham Art Trail 2023 information.
I received the application form for the annual art exhibition in Langford and Ulting Village Hall as a friend and I were planning a kayak trip from Hoe Mill Lock. It was the perfect opportunity to take some reference photos of the beautiful Ulting countryside along the banks of the River Chelmer as we paddled to Paper Mill Lock and back.
Being so low, sitting on the surface of the water, lends an unusual perspective and, as my kayak buddy pointed out, these pen and wash landscapes actually have the orientation of portraits.
It was the striking silouhettes of the towering teasels I noticed first, I love the way they frame this little rural scene. 
I was struck by the lush green of this riverside field in contrast to the backlit branches, still bare, on the cusp of spring.
And lastly, the beautiful old church appears to grow out of the vegetation on the riverbank.
The exhibition will celebrate local artists and raise money for the village hall:
Langford and Ulting Village Hall, Langford Road, CM9 4SS
Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd April 2023, 10am-5pm
Happy to present the remaining pen and wash paintings I made between December 2022 and February 2023.
Above and below, a couple more attempts to capture the colourful sky as the winter sun sets behind our neighbours’ poplar trees.
And since I’m partial to a silhouette, here’s Asheldham church backlit by a January sunset.
While taking a short, time killing wander around Maldon one December evening I noticed these illuminated leaves still clinging to a tree behind the Blue Boar pub.
It never ceases to amaze me how winter pansies can continue to bloom after being repeatedly frozen, aparently solid.
The two beauties above live in the neighbourhood.
My mum bought this beautiful Singer for £32, 12 shillings and thruppence in 1962 which is worth between £658 and £873 depending on your inflation calculator.
Even if I can’t get to Burnham Art Club meetings on a Tuesday morning, to either paint out in the open air or inside the Art Club meeting hall, I set time aside to make a new painting at home.
These are the paintings I made in November.
I actually made a version of this view of Tillingham Church about six months ago in May. I drove to Tillingham on a bright morning and sat drawing in the street until the chill from the wind got a bit uncomfortable. The passersby were mostly curious and friendly and the guy whose house I was sitting outside kindly offered me a cuppa. He’d overestimated the warmth of the sunshine too – he came out wearing shorts and no top!
I was out of practice back then and although the painting came out ok, I wasn’t happy with the composition so I redid it this month.
We’ve still got tomatoes growing in our greenhouse here in Mayland. I was struck by the elegance of this particular branch as it draped over the bamboo cane. I also love the colour gradation of the fruits as they ripen at differnet rates.
And finding this beautiful rose blooming in our neighbours’ garden while I was house sitting recently was a lovely surprise. Its scent was diivine but, sadly, capturing that was beyond me!
You may recognise the form of the trees above from a painting I made almost exactly a year ago.
It’s the view from my bedroom window, and by November the sun has crept around the house to set behind the neighbours’ poplars, with Mayland Hill in the background.
Although the silhouette of the trees is basically unchanged, there’s huge variation and sometimes drama in the sky colours as the sun goes down.
Back in September I joined Burnham Art Club – a group of painters formed in the 1960s based in the beautiful riverside town of Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex.
It’s been a joy to meet other like-minded painters for the weekly discipline of painting in the open air, especially since the weather this autumn has been (mostly) glorious.
Apart from the Autumn Acer, I started all the paintings shown below on site, adding the finishing touches in the comfort of home. They’re all pen and watercolour on 30.5 x 23 cm 300gsm 50% cotton Fabriano paper which has a lovely ‘woven’ texture.
I was invited in for coffee and a little house tour by the lovely owners of this gorgeous 250 year old Dutch built property, which they used to run as a combined antique and tea shop.
This stunning clock tower, which is the focal point of Burnham High Street, was built in 1877 in memory of Laban Sweeting, a local oyster merchant and philanthropist. The original plan was to put up a clock in his honour but donations came in so fast after his death that there was enough money to build a tower to house the clock.
I got the bones of this drawing down while perched on my little stool in the High Street, but once the cold rain showers joined the chilly wind I retreated inside to add the watercolour.
After tackling the clock tower with all its bricks and angles I was in the mood for a simpler subject the following week. I was drawn to the beautiful colour of this front door and the calming symmetry of its setting.
At the suggestion of the art club chair person we took a break from street painting and took on autumnal still lifes in the meeting hall. I plucked this acer branch from our garden as I passed because I was struck by the lovely contrast of its reddish leaves against the sky. Hence the blue background.
For week five, I decided that it was time to tackle some boats. I settled on this view across the River Crouch to Wallasea Island, home to a wetland bird sanctuary, from Burnham Quay. That obliging seagull kindly stood on the post for long enough to have its picture ‘taken’.
I loved the dramatic angle that this blue boat made with the horizontals as it leaned over at low tide. The River Crouch is an estuary, so tides flow in from and out to the North Sea twice a day. Of course the tide came in as I was painting, the blue boat started to float on the water, and all those angles changed. The people who came up for a look and a chat were a bit confused by the difference between my painting and the actual view!
Above and below, a couple of sketchbook pieces that I painted in the summer. I used the same colour palette for the orchids and the sweet peas, as you can see from my little paint tin in the photos.
On my way back from morning dog walks, these winter tree silhouettes kept catching my eye. They are particularly beautiful in contrast with the orange field in the background.