One of the first commissions I received when I went self employed back in 1984. I was asked to do two original watercolours of the River Tyne near the North Shields Fish Quay. These were for a leading North East businessman. Over the years I’ve enjoyed going back to the reference material I gathered back then to do fresh interpretations of the same scenes. My watercolour style and technique has changed over the years but it still ends up being a joy to tackle paintings of the Tyne which capture a bygone era.
The River Tyne of course has been an inspiration for local songwriters and musicians. These include Sting, Lindisfarne and Jimmy Nail. When you spend time looking at the Big River it’s easy to see why.
The scene above titled “River Tyne Sunset” is now available as a limited edition giclee print online. The original watercolour is available from our Studio and Gallery in Ponteland. It’s a very large original watercolour which was challenging to paint with huge washes of colour to control for the sky and water.
Another difficulty was ensuring that the colours worked together. In particular I had to be careful that the Manganese Blue didn’t pollute the yellows and oranges around the darker cloud shapes. In the end I was very satisfied with final outcome. I feel it is a long overdue addition to our growing collection of North East Prints.