Cornwall Part 2: St Ives

We arrived at St Ives on not one of the best days of the week weather wise, it wasn't raining but it was a little dull. Throughout the day there were moments when the sun made a brief appearance but on the whole it was very lovely. We decided to use the park and ride and after parking discovered that the ride bit was by train, which took us along the coast with fabulous views of Carbis bay. The picture above is of Porthminster beach which is where the train stops. It is just a short walk from here along the many little bays to the main harbour.

The busy town is full of shops, galleries and tea rooms and is a real hive of activity. I think it would be nice to see it out of season when there are a fewer people about. Walking out beyond the harbour you come to Porthmeor beach which is where the Porthmeor artist studios are, and which are currently under renovation.

We went to see how the renovations were going and managed to get some photos of the studio doors.

It was a lovely day and St Ives does have a very special feel to it. We walked back to the train and had one last look towards the harbour.

Cornwall Part 1

I have just come back from a lovely week in Cornwall, the weather was good and the scenery as you would expect was gorgeous. I had lots of plans of places I wanted to visit, gallery visits, and things to keep us busy, but when we arrived the sun was shining and all we wanted to do was just be outside soaking up the soft sun and gentle breeze.

The first thing we decided to do was the coastal path walk from the village to the next bay, the view was lovely, sea one side and gently swaying grasses the other.

As usual I found some dead plants that I thought looked beautiful silhouetted against the soft colour of the sea.

We were staying in the small village of Charlestown on the south coast it was very quiet with the odd boat bobbing in the harbour.

The following day we visited the much busier town of Fowey, with it's narrow hilly streets, brightly coloured bunting, flowers growing in the street walls, busy harbour, and very lovely cream teas!!

I think that's enough for my first post, my one regret is that I should have taken more photographs, but maybe it's nice that some things only exist in your memory.

Reflections

Another garden visit

Yes I have visited Tatton Park yet again, partly to see how the hydrangea plant that I have been following through the seasons is fairing, but also my youngest daughter who is into growing her own vegetables wanted to check out the walled kitchen garden.

We were met by a beautiful display of cottage garden plants that were incredibly colourful and just so lovely.

There were chrysanthemums and some very impressive asparagus.

Summer

Australian Artist: Ildiko Kovacs

Recently I came across an artist that is new to me, her name is Ildiko Kovacs and she lives in Sydney Australia. There is a good video of her painting and talking about how and why she works and what it's like to be a full time artist, I felt inspired after watching it.

John Hoyland

The art world has lost another wonderful abstract painter, the artist John Hoyland who died a few days ago.
You can read about him here and see a video of him here preparing some work for the Royal Academy summer show.

Another Studio tidy up

Thought I would do a little tidying today in my studio, not sure how it gets untidy when I haven't done a huge amount of work recently. I came across some small mixed media paintings that I did about a year ago and thought I would photograph them.

I had been doing a lot of travelling on trains and on motorways and the first two paintings were inspired by the view from windows as the landscape whizzed past it all looked a bit unreal and a bit flat because you don't have time to take in any detail. The third painting was just a little abstract thing from my head it was how I was feeling on that particular day.