Ponteland
This is the opening watercolour that I painted in the handmade sketchbook that I had made in Venice in 2007. This is part of the story behind this painting of Bamburgh.
Susan and I met in the Diamond Inn, Ponteland in February 1990. One of the first subjects we talked about was our Christian faith. The conversation went on into the early hours of the morning and it wasn’t long before we started going out together. That summer we had our first family holiday with Susan’s two children, Louise and Oliver aged 11 and 9 at the time. My friend’s parents had a static caravan in Beadnell which we used for a week.
It was a trip down memory lane for me. When I was a child growing up, I remember several family holidays along the north east coast which included stays at Beadnell, Seahouses and Budle Bay. The memories were engrained in my mind in a very positive way, so I knew that Louise and Oliver would find the holiday as equally enjoyable.
Bamburgh Castle
For five out of the seven nights we had fish and chips from Seahouses which we often ate on Seahouses harbour wall. On one of those evenings I took a series of photographs of the sun setting behind Bamburgh Castle with Holy Island in the far distance. I also did a sketch. From the reference I painted a large watercolour in my studio which I sold from an exhibition at the People’s Theatre in 1992. I also painted a watercolour of Beadnell Harbour which became the inspiration for another large painting.