Painting of Seaton Sluice Northumberland
Earlier this summer I painted a small sketchbook watercolour painting of Seaton Sluice Northumberland, a picturesque harbour on the North East Coast.
As well as being a family day out, it was a typical summers day in the north east, patches of blue sky with sunlight bursting through dark threatening clouds.
I decided to work the sketch up into a larger 14” x 10” studio painting on an Arches Watercolour Block which I made a video of showing the different stages. You can watch the video here on YouTube.
Northumberland Coast
Seaton Sluice Northumberland is a coastal village at the mouth of the Seaton Burn. It has a small, sleepy harbour and a number of pubs, shops and places to eat.
The wide, sandy beach just north of here forms the southern end of a long strip of sand. Seaton Sluice backed by grassy dunes, which links Seaton Sluice to Blyth.
A path leads through the dunes, where a variety of plant and animal life can be spotted.
On the other side of the harbour mouth is Collywell Bay, a mixture of sand and rocks backed by a high wall. This is a popular spot with anglers.
Activities here include bathing and surfing, but generally this is a quiet spot, especially on weekdays.
Today, Seaton Sluice has changed into a quiet resort which shows little sign of its industrial past. The bottleworks and ships have long since gone. The Seaton Burn trickles gently down into the once busy little harbour, where small fishing boats now occupy the moorings. Many of the old inns and ale houses of the day have also disappeared but, despite this, Seaton Sluice still has many hidden secrets and stories to tell!
