Mackeral

It's too easy to get used to good weather. This weekend we forgot we were in the U.K. followed a break in the clouds and went line fishing off a boat (Kraken) out of Lyme Regis. The sea was spectacular, a gently undulating glassy surface with a seamless blend between it and the pearly cloud backdrop. Quite a beautiful and surreal experience for an infrequent boater like me.

Of course the weather borked and everyone was soaked within 10 minutes despite coming equipped with perfectly good tee-shirts and even some socks. Anyway, once you're really wet you're probably as wet as you're going to get so we carried on.The company and the fishing was pretty good though; interesting chats and enough of a catch for dinner.

Mackeral are a beautiful fish to catch (easy), eat (tasty) and to look at (stripey). Unfortunately I haven't really done them service here, E.Mc has done much better in the past. To make amends I later headed off to Tesco to have a crack at an iced one but they only had Herring. Arguably as tasty but not such a looker if you ask me.

Cliffs at Burton Bradstock

More of the crazy cliffs at Burton Bradstock near West Bay in West Dorset with the Isle of Portland in the background. This one on a really hot August day with the crowds out. Sun-cream and ice-cream as as as the eye could see.

I'm pretty pleased with this pic; It feels like the place and the paint is going down a lot cleaner than recently. I'm being more agressive with it which seems to be paying off. It's certainly a big improvement on last year's visit to West Bay a bit further west along the coast.

This one is about A5, watercolour with some gouache to help with the people (the dotty bits in the middle). Thanks to A.S. for suggesting adding more green in the summer sky, paradoxically it does feel warmer and helps remove the 'straight from the pan' quality from the F.U.Blue.

Last Year's images http://paulmcsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/west-bay.html

Grey Day by Golden Cap

A Bleak day and quite a bleak picture. Had an hour between downpours to rattle one off on the beach by Golden Cap (Lyme Regis in the background).

I had some problems with laying down the initial tonal values so it's a bit overworked but worth doing, any practice is good practice.

Beer Garden

Some success (by my standards) though. It was a wet Sunday but later in the day the sun came out and we retied to the beer garden of the Manor Hotel in West Bexington.
Ordered cider for the first time since being a student, good choice, I suspect there's more to follow if the summer holds out.
Anyway, this pic has some annoying shortcomings but I'm happy enough considering I was 2 pints in.

The second image is a kitchen repainting I did later (for Maria and Si) which presumably relegates the first one to sketch status now. I suppose the repaint has lost a bit of spontaneity but I actually think it's a much nicer pic and captures the mood of the place more effectivly.

Coastguard

If anyone needs an image to put on a souvenir tea-towel or box of fudge then I'm yer' man.

Here's a quickie of the fields behind the coastguard cottages at West Bexington.

Later in the day I tried to recreate the feel of the place from memory. I like the way it's become more stylised but there's not much in it really. That said, the process of reimagining the scene was an interesting exercise in itself, worth doing if you get the chance.

Tamarisk Farm

There's a fantastic, ancient farm at the top of the hill in West Bexington. It's a ramshackle and eclectic collection of grey stone buildings enlivened by a lovely blue on the woodwork. Weather was problematic but a nice subject to work on regardless. These are pencils and (precision) felt-tip drawings given a colour treatment with watercolour.

It's sort of my fallback style I guess. A5 ish and about an hour or so to do each at the side of the road. The colour is pretty delicate and some has disappeared in the scanning, I'll have another go at them later.

West Bay

Back in Dorset. Lovely place lovely weather. I promised myself I'd try to capture something of the crazy cliffs in West Bay and Burton Bradstock. All this area was a river delta millions of years ago and the ebb and flow of the water has resulted in really striking strata. Add some uplifting (?) and erosion and you get something very unique.

It feels like the setting for the closing sequence of Planet Of The Apes

"You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

As so well re-enacted by Alberto G' V' when we were there last year.

These are very much sketches I quite like the graphic one but either way you get the idea.

Monmouth Beach

 Ahh, that's better.

Amazing fossil beach to the west of Lyme Regis. This is a beautiful and extraordinary place where there are Ammonite (some massive) fossils under almost every footstep. If you didn't feel insignificant beforehand then standing on a 200 million year old fish will do it.
The picture would have been much better either closer to Lyme (the Cobb at Lyme is in the distance), looking the other way or even moving to the side but I was lazy and I didn't want the sun in my eyes. Consequentially it's a pretty ropey composition so I might well crop it before you come back.