Geoff's photos

Rapid sketch 1993 (it really is -or was - the post office)

Watercolour

The beach at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, UK. A fishing smack has run aground during a stormy night. At dawn the locals turn out to see it. It looks as if some have just come for a chat! Based on real event.

PEREGRINE

Painted a good few years ago in the early morning sitting a field near Lake Geneva. Cotman Sketchbook.

One of many paintings and sketches I have done of this corner of Essex from different angles. Quite difficult to get to - in fact almost impossible now (for me!). Waterford "NOT" paper, 22 inches x 15

The country's second longest pier. You can only portray it a bit at a time...

First time I've tried Fabriano Artistico (140 lb). Found it very easy to work with but it does need stretching, which I'd rather not be bothered with these days!

Produced recently. An impression of a familiar local landscape largely from memory. Sketchbook on knee in an armchair... Yes, I know, it shows!

20 minute Sketchbook effort. W&N cartridge pad 100 lb takes light washes nicely

Souvenir of a pleasant day's walk in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, near the visitors' centre.

I set up my easel in ideal conditions on a warm June morning..... an attempt to capture a rare beautiful moment. A sailing barge motors past the pier. A boisterous golden retriever hurtled into everything scattering water-pots and brushes etc. The work (and I) survived. I finished comfortably before the sea breeze started as the day warmed up. An hour later I my easel would have been blown flat! Painting on location is the most rewarding but fraught with unforeseen hazards the books don't tell you about....

Painted around 2005. Very popular and fairly fashionable spot. and attractive in the right weather. Beach is more pebbly than it looks here.

Landermere, one of several paintings of one of my favourite spots with its own history; once a busy little quay visited by Thames sailing barges with their cargoes. Painted in studio with a largish filbert brush and a prayer. Source: sketches and photo produced hastily sitting in the stern of the Warden's boat as we were running out of water on the ebb. Imagination played its part too of course... Privately owned - I don't know where.

This sketch painted from sketch and photo of two well-known local sailing barges, one large and one exceptionally small as the names suggest. 2015. Sketch book on my knee at home.