A short holiday

After a rather dismal summer I managed to find a few days sunshine and took the opportunity to grab a short holiday on the Isle of Wight. Whilst not baking temperatures it was sunny and very pleasant with some stunning scenery near where we were staying. I have plenty of photographs, and perhaps the only slight dissappointment was that there were no old Southern Railway locomotives when we visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway at Havenstreet. They did have a fine collection of vintage carriages though, so not all was lost and they will prove useful reference for future paintings.

These are a few of the photo's that I took showing some of the magnificent views from St Catherines Down and further west along the coast toward Freshwater.








Since returning home I have sold three paintings at exhibition and now need to settle down to some serious work over the coming months to complete a commission and prepare for next years round of exhibitions.

Photographic expeditions

I've been out on a few photographic expeditions, gaining reference photographs for some of my future paintings. First was a trip to the Bluebell Railway in Sussex which I have not visited for many years. Had a pleasant day there with plenty to photograph and followed this with a quick visit to the nearby Sheffield Park gardens, which kept the wife happy :)

This was one of the shots of a U class Southern Railway locomotive. To see more of my train photographs just click the picture

The next was a BR "Britannia" class locomotive which was on a steam special run passing through Whitchurch, on it's way from London to Bath and Bristol, I thought I was going to miss it, having got slightly lost whilst looking for a good location to shoot from and ended up driving a lot further than anticipated, but made it in time.

And Yesterday the last ocean going Paddle Steamer "Waverley" was captured as she entered Portsmouth harbour, in some rare sunshine amongst all the rain we have been having.

I hope to utilise all these into paintings in due course, in the meantime why not check out my website www.artyman.co.uk to see what other delights are available.

Olympic Glory

Having now recovered from getting up early in the morning to watch the sailing from the Beijing Olympics, I've painted this watercolour in celebration of Ben Ainslie winning his third Olympic Gold medal. After his initial battle with Robert Schidt in the Lasers when he won silver, he moved on to the Finn class, vacated by British Gold Medallist Ian Percy, who also won Gold in the Star class this year. He has dominated the class since then and emphasises what an incredible sailor he is. Having previously been a National sailing champion myself, I know the dedication required to compete at this level.