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“View of Howick Haven, Northumberland England” 10-7-09

Today we visited Howdiemont Sands beach along the coast of the North Sea in Northumberland England. We walked across Sugar Sands and climbed up to a point where we could view the point at Howick Haven. I wanted to sit and try to do a small watercolor landscape so I bundled up and brought the usual field kit.

"View of Howick Haven"

Water color painting "View of Howick Haven"

Here’s the finished painting, I did most in the field sitting on top a windy, grassy cold hill. I’ll share the photographs with you of what I saw and tell you a bit about how I did the little painting.

We walked along this beach

We walked along this beach

When you first arrive at Howdiemont Sands you can choose to walk either right or left. We chose left because it was new to us and we always wonder at what new views might be found or other discoveries.

The sands of Howdiemont Sands

Sugar Sands

The beach here (called Sugar Sands) is unbelievable, a pretty color of ‘sand’ shade, (hahah…) clean, soft and inviting even on a cold sunny October day. You can see many other people and their dogs found the beach irresistible today too.

Bird tracks

Bird tracks

There were lots of interesting bird tracks too, gulls leave a track with a little web foot.  This one? It was big and looked like it would drag it’s front toe in the sand when it stepped;  I wish I knew what it was.

Looking back

Looking back at Sugar Sands

Here’s a view looking back on the beach we crossed, sometimes you have to go up over the grassy banks to get past areas that are under water still.

The red rocks below me

The red rocks below me

This is looking down from where I decided to paint, how beautiful the patterns and colors are in these rocks. As the tide continues to go out the rocks will be more exposed.

View from my painting spot

View from my painting spot

This is the gorgeous view from where I decided to sit, light was fading fast and I had to pick a place quick. It’s really hard to pick a scene when there’s so much to see around you. It helps to hold up your hands and make a little opening like a rectangle and pretend that’s your paper. Move your hands around until you find a cropped scene that you like.

View I painted

View I painted

Because I wasn’t working really big I tried to limit what I was going to paint, also I didn’t have tons of time with the sun leaving soon as it was about 4:30pm when we arrived.

my sketch

my sketch

I sat on a picnic blanket with a waterproof bottom, wore my wind/rain pants over my regular pants, this helped to cut the cold and wind. I also had on my fingerless gloves as usual, sorry no picture today! I’m using a homemade sketchpad that I created so it would be extra long. It’s great for landscapes! I worked with my field pan and regular watercolor brushes, usually when in the field I use my waterbrush. I don’t like the waterbrush for larger works needing big washes of color. You can see in the picture a baggy just off the blanket, tucked into the grass. I forgot a watercup to rinse my brushes in, so I used a baggy with some water in it, it worked great!!

My watercolor field pan

My watercolor field pan

This is the painting/sketch laid out at home, you can see this is how far I got with it in the field. The pan watercolors I used is an old metal kit that I popped the large pans out of and replaced with half pans of Windsor Newton brand paints. I use a bit of sticky tack or blue tack to hold each one in place and you can see the handles on my brushes are cut, so I can fit more “things” in it. I brought that one long brush with me and used only that to do all this so far.

My set up to finish from photo at home

My set up to finish from photo at home

Now I set up my laptop with a photo I took while there, and worked on details with smaller brushes while looking at it. I didn’t touch the sky, just left it the way I did it in the field. If you start to mess around with all of it, it can get stiff looking. Notice I put my coffee on the left side…if your right handed, water should go on that side and you don’t want to be dipping into your coffee by mistake!  So, I worked on trees and details of that main area; I also used a razor blade to scrape fine lines for the white fence. Also, you may have noticed a funny looking cone shape that looks like a child’s’ painting of a tree? It’s a recreation of one of the oldest ‘houses’ in Britain probably from the Bronze age. Remains of one were found on this very spot!  They made their homes from tree limbs in a sort of tee pee style, with turf for the roofing material.  I’ll try to find a link about it to add here.

Go here to see the finished painting in the GALLERY.

To see other watercolor landscapes go to my gallery here: http://marymcandrew.com/gallery/landscapes/watercolors/

4 comments to “View of Howick Haven, Northumberland England” 10-7-09

  • Kathleen Dworak

    Excellent watercolor, Mary! You captured that scene quite beautifully.
    I like that you mentioned about leaving the sky alone. Too many artist’s fuss around with the sky and it looks so artificial. I’m sure someone would want to buy this.
    Keep up the great work
    Kathie

  • Thanks Kathie,
    I think if one was to practice watercolor a lot you can get quite loose and keep that spontaneity and freshness. I feel I need to work on more paintings instead of the many small field studies I do, to get that going again. Like my bird paintings I did, so loose and splashy.
    Thanks for looking!
    Mary

  • Fantastic Mary, thats where I live! Well, just about a quarter mile north of the farm in your painting ( Howick Village) . I’m glad you like the views, if you walk north from where you were for about a mile there are great views towards Dunstanburgh Castle too…

  • Hi Stewart, that’s funny! If I had put a bird watcher in my painting it might have been you! Someday maybe I’ll paint some nice cottage and someone will say out of the blue, “Hey that’s where I live!” haha. We thought it was just beautiful there and we do want to walk north next time to look at more views. I checked it out on Google and it looks really nice. I was really impressed with going the other way on the beach, gorgeous red sandstone rocks right along the coast that you could sit on, windswept and carved.

    I have a few bird photos I was going to send you for help with ID, could I do that?
    talk soon, Mary

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