Tuesday 6 August 2013

Break Time, Scarborough Beach

          Pastel on Pastel Card, 15 x 23 inches

This is the last Pastel painting for my Beer exhibition.  Riding on a donkey on Scarborough beach is a traditional thing for children, which the placid creatures bear with great fortitude!  This was break-time for the owners and the donkeys themselves, with their snouts in their food bags (the donkeys that is), while the couple read the paper.

Looking into the sun, I felt the backdrop of the tree-clad hill really lent itself to the Pastel medium, with lots of highlight halo-effects. I liked the gap between the animals to let the eye explore the rest of the painting, and placed a strolling couple just off centre so as not to arrest the gaze.  I particularly loved the reflected pure sunlight glinting off the roofs of the hotels. There was scaffolding around the lovely building on the right, but I kept it in because I liked the gorgeous Viridian tarpaulin.  I'm easily pleased - sun shining through a tarpaulin does it for me... 

On another note, I learned that all four of my marine paintings submitted for the RSMA Annual Exhibition made it through the digital stage, ie, the selectors looked at photographs of the paintings and want to see them in real-life in the final selection process in a week or two.  That doesn't mean that all four, or any, will be selected for the exhibition, but at least it's a good start!  The same happened in last year's ROI and not one was selected in the final analysis, so I'm not counting my chickens just yet - very subdued excitement!  Just to quell any disappointment, Peter Brown, just one of the very best modern (not 'contemporary' - that conjures up installations) painters, got all three of his submissions for the Threadneedle exhibition rejected - completely astounding to me!                                                    

5 comments:

  1. Nostalgia!!

    Don't think we have donkey rides on our Kentish beaches any more - the kids seem to prefer daddy's jetski etc - lots of DFLs (Down from London's) wealthy City Boys visiting Whitstable LOL

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    1. Ah, the simple pleasures are going aren't they? DFLs - not heard that one before - I like that!

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  2. Hi Peter when is your Beer exhibition? I might try and get down there to see it. Will you be in attendance everyday, or only for the preview?

    Love the Beach donkeys!

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    1. Hi Bev, my exhibition starts on Sat 2nd November. I shall only be there on the 2nd, signing autographs and body parts...you know how it is! Look forward to seeing you if you can make it.

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  3. Another lovely pastel - and glad you left in that tarpaulin too :-) As for Peter Brown's work being rejected, well it just goes to show how bad some of the judging is by these hanging committees. Personally, I think there needs to be a completely new society of painters!

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