Seascape in oils,Halzephron,Gunwalloe,Cornwall

The  photo above shows Halzephron I, a work in progress, it is a large oil painting 40"x30".
 It shows the view across Mounts Bay from Gunwalloe looking towards Prussia Cove, Cudden Point and Penzance beyond. Originally I was going to place HMS Warspite in the distance, having run aground on the way to the breakers in 1947,  but in the end I decided to leave the old girl out and settled upon this a timeless atmospheric image.

 If all goes well I hope to have it finished by the spring and enter it for the Royal Society of Marine Artists Exhibition this Autumn at the Mall Galleries, London.

This composition is based on various photos and sketches made on a trip last year to the area, the colours in the photos are not as I remember them on the day, so using a limited palette of Permanent Alazarin Crimson, Zinc and Titanium  White, Naples Yellow, French Ultramarine Blue, Indian Yellow and Viridian I have tried to recreate the moment.

I spend a lot of time looking at the sky these days and since I have been painting this picture, I have begun to really appreciate just how rich and varied the colours we get in the sky are.

The greys are not just greys but a wonderful mixture of so much more than black and white, wondrous stuff light,water,atmosphere !

The photo above shows the painting on the 14th of March 2012

 Progress has been made on the sea to the horizon line and I have started working on the breaking wave and the foreground.

The above photo shows the sky has been further refined, as has the land, and detailing on the breaking wave has continued.

Detailing continues on the foreground below in this picture.

Detailing continues in the foreground and upon the wave.

A glaze has been brushed over the sky below and detailing of the wave and foreground continues

Several glazes have been applied to the sky and detailing continues in the foreground below

A copy of "Horses Grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnings

A copy of "Horses Grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnings, background completed

As a painter  it is an incredibly valuable exercise copying great painters when time allows, it helps train the eye and forces us to work in differing styles, pushing us out of our comfort zone.
I saw this painting in the Willow Gallery London in 2008, it was up for sale for £80,000, a bit out of my price range, so i decided to make a copy of it for a friend who loves Horses and Munning's work.
It had previously been up for sale at Christie's in 2004 with an estimate of between £80,000-120,000

I started off drawing a grid over a photocopy of the sales catalog picture and then drew the picture out on a canvass the same size as the original 16"x 20"

The above picture shows a the picture after blocking out of the landscape, the grid lines still show on the horses in the foreground.
Munning's work is in general a lot looser, bolder, quicker and more expressive than I normally work. I think this painting is quite quick even for him, probably being just a few hours work.
It was painted in 1914 and by this time Munnings was a firm follower in the plein-air tradition. This was probably just a oil sketch to be worked up later in the studio. As he became more successful these sketches were submitted to dealers exhibitions as paintings in their own right.
It is the sweeping brushstrokes and dabs of  contrasting colour underpinned with excellent observation I find enticing about this picture.

 Copy of "Horses Grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnnings, blocking in completed

Above shows the progress to nearly complete. To compare with the original, search google images for "horses grazing" by Sir Alfred Munnings. I left the head collar and rope off the grey horse in the foreground, preferring to see horses graze free range style !!