Today has been a superlative early autumnal day. Very warm, but not hot, gentle breeze, but not cool; just lovely. So we jaunted off to Polesden Lacey and had a picnic looking at the above and then after about three miles. finished of our coffee flasks at the second picture, What a day.

We are so fortunate to be placed in such a wonderful world. Seeing so much more which included a massive sycamore leaf which with autumn coming had changed to all the colours of the rainbow. Then the above photograph, which in fact is five photos joined together (a cheap and easy way of doing wide angle stuff), that was followed by a line and wash, painting, which is a quick watercolor method of getting an impression onto paper; its good fun as well.

So tonight, maybe feet up and watch a DVD.

 Today we have the two other mornings in Lee Bay.

The top one, all calm, not a ripple on the sea surface; not even a proper breaker on the shore. So a gentle ink seemed to fit the order.

Then the lower image on the third morning. The wind had got up a little, the seas were rising and everything looked a little threatening.  A HB and B3 pencil in hand, then using a white soft crayon to smudge and soften the lines. It seemed to capture the impending drama of the scene.

But that little exercise of three images, shows just how varied and changing our landscape can be.

Oh well its my turn to cook tea, a curry and Liz is hungry so I must get on.

 Today we are at Lee Abbey on the North Devon coast, in the bay immediately below the affore mentioned abbey. It is a lovely if rather steep walk and climb down to the bay along decent roads/paths, then back up again; well worth the effort. It was certainly my cardiovascular work out for the day.

The method used in producing this image is the same as that used to paint the boats at Beer on the other days blog.  But what is different here is that this painting is one of three produced on consecutive mornings to capture the differing moods of the bay, by using different media. The mood of the bay on the first morning was moody and a little threatening. Over the next three blogs you will see how the waters mood change.

Oh well must run, or I will be late for church.

 Well for a few blog entries we will be back in Cornwall and Devon. This one is at Beer, just along the coast east of Sidmouth. A small deep inlet. shingle beach, cafe, pub art gallery and a few houses; we love the place. Sadly on this visit it was noticed that there were a few less working boats, the fishing industry is very obviously in decline.

But the method used, it is a very quick way of painting.which is also highly effective. A few splashes of colour in the center, let it dry for a few moments then draw it, in my case using a pen, but you could use a pencil. the advantage of pencil is that you can begin drawing while it is still wet. With the drawing go outside the colored area of the picture; it works. If everything had been painted carefully it would have taken hours; the above took about forty minuets or so.

Just to the right of this picture were a couple of young love birds, they didn't move an inch apart the whole time I was there. I couldn't resist a literal five minuet sketch of them. See you soon.

A quick jaunt to York before you see a few more from Cornwall. I net a lady in church on Sunday and we were talking about the Minster at York. I told her that an image of the minster would be posted today on my blog. This building is truly awesome and producing this painting was such good fun.

I was seated on a stone wall, not to comfortable, when a horse drawn touristy buggy pulled up. He asked if he could look at my work. Then he kindly offered me a cushion from his buggy, saying that he would be back in an hour.

So I carried on painting. You will have heard of Betty's Yorkshire tea rooms, well there is one just to the left of this image. Shortly a waitress came out of the tea rooms with a tray and walked towards me. On it was a lovely coffee with no charge.

The horse buggy driver returned and I gave him his cushion back.

When out painting you realy do meet lovely people.

Oh well back home again having had a super time around the Cornish and Devon coasts. 

Over the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting a little with my camera. Instead of taking straight photographs, I played around with taking many of the same subject from slightly differing angles, then stitching them together in photoshop. For example see the above of Porlock Weir, which is approximately 20 shots over about 180 degrees. What do you think?

Apart from that there were lots of water-colours and inks produced, of which I will show you a few over the coming weeks.

It was nice to be back in our own bed again last night; slept like a log!