I have just completed a beautiful pair of paintings of Croyde bay which will be made into a framed limited edition print set of 20 later in the Autumn. These original oil paintings will be for sale later in the year when they have dried. They are about 1.2 metres across and 0.6m high framed with a white block frame. These two paintings are most interesting capturing the feelings and atmosphere of the bay in such stunning colours and textures using palette knife techniques. They are a composition of images from a few similar view points to get the painting to work to its fullest and capture the eye and imagination.
Croyde Bay Oil Painting For Sale
This is the first of the Croyde bay paintings and below is the second one of the pair which was painted at the same time. Both of them are slightly different and have different textures and colours. The price for these paintings 1.2m x 0.6m framed will be about £495 each incl. shipping in the UK.
I moved to Croyde a few years ago having lived on and off in north Devon for many years in between travels and living in India and the Alps. I had the studio based at Braunton where I sold my paintings for many years when I wasn’t in India.
Croyde really grew on me. Its like a hidden gem in this busy and over done world, hidden in its own little bay with a lovely grassy park centre to the village and dunes backing the
Sunset with the family and the dog at Croyde
beach. The beach has a lovely curve with Down End at one side and Baggy point at the other. If you know where to go these headlands have some fantastic swimming holes where you can swim and dive when the surf is flat. And if you can get down deep enough you can fill your pockets with huge crabs and lobsters.
Croyde ocean wave painting for sale
In the middle of the beach are some amazing sand banks which throw up the surf to a wonderful shape which helps on small waves days to give a fun punchy wave which is great to ride. The expansive scene has been the source of many paintings around the bay. I have painted the bay from many angles and even painted the Thatch pub in Croyde village. But my favourite paintings here have been a close up focus of the waves as they have such a lovely powerful shape which merits capturing in oil on canvas. With a good zoom lens I have taken some great images on some mega wave days where only the brave may tread. Get this
Sunset painting for sale from Down End Croyde Bay
wave wrong on a big day and it can really do some damage, and that’s if the crashing surf doesn’t beat you back to the shore before you have even reached the clean break out back. This wave really frightens me as the lip of the wave curls over past the base and you look over the abyss with 10 to 15 foot drop straight down with a whole wall of water to follow and smash you down into a super size tumble dryer of bubbles and froth.
Sunset Oil Painting Saunton North Devon Coast
I painted a really moving series of paintings based on this wave shape of Croyde. From the original series I have three large paintings left all about 80cm x 80cm(or 100cm) in various shades of blues and turquoises with a splash of other colours to lift the light in the painting. Other paintings have been based on the surfers and surfing people playing and surfing in the waves and surf. Other sets of paintings have focussed on the lovely shape of the bay and the shape of the headland working with the sky and clouds as they sweep into the land from the sea. It’s a scene of light sea, sand, big skies and excitement.
My current commission is a large oil painting 1.2m wide of the view from Down End across the bay to Baggy point with the surf, beach and dunes forming centre stage.
When I moved to Croyde I started to get a taste for Woolacombe and Puttsborough beaches. I just loved cycling over the hill from Croyde to Puttsborough and taking a coffee at the café above the beach at Putsborough. Perfectly placed to watch the surfers and beach happenings, to photograph and compose paintings. Such a spot and with the headland stretching into the distance makes the perfect back drop. Beautiful waves and turquoise seas with welcome shelter from the South West sea breeze to clean up those rolling waves of surf magic.
Woolacombe Beach Huts Painting For Sale
When this beach really comes alive for a painting is as you walk or cycle along the coastal path behind the dunes, looking over the grasses and you see the amazing curve this beach has as it stretches so far up towards Woolacombe. Through the dunes here and across the beach I have painted some of my favourite sunset paintings. The colours can be quite amazing especially in the shoulder seasons of Spring and Autumn when the sun is
Puttsborough to Woolacombe beach painting for sale
lower in the sky, the colours seem to be sharper and more intense at this time of year. I paint sunsets all around the world, but it is the sunsets from the North Devon beaches that I paint again and again because no other sunsets have such a range of colours as here. On the beach at Woolacombe as the tide goes out or dare I say it even better after the rain, the beach turns into an enormous crystal clear mirror, reflecting the sky and the beach men and women, giving double the colour. This makes my sunset paintings so full of life and colour because you aren’t just restricted to painting the sunset in the sky, you get to paint it twice, in the beach as well. And not just the beach, the waves twinkle in the low sunlight and the flat sea beyond the breaking surf reflects the warm setting sun, mixing the yellows and pinks from the sun and the blue from the sky beyond to give the most amazing combinations of turquoise effects reflecting on the surface of the ocean.
Surfing at Putsborough large painting for sale
Within these amazing sunsets I use a special technique from my Indian energy paintings which I developed during my years as an artist in India. I won’t go into great depth here but you can find it in other areas of the site, and if you look really hard on google you will
Woolacombe and the sand dunes oil painting
find little hidden corners of the site all about these special energy paintings. When I was in India over many years, at the start of my art and photography careers, I painted a series of energy paintings which were very spiritual and abstract. They were very popular and uplifting creating a feeling of light and love. They sold very well in India. When I returned to England after a few years it was in these sunset paintings of Woolacombe, Croyde and
Sunset Oil Painting for Sale from Woolacombe Beach
Saunton beaches that I began to use the same techniques to great effect. They work using colours and brush strokes, light and ever lighter tones and work to pull you into the painting to lift your spirits. This is the added dimension which is the main technical basis behind the sunsets series of paintings. It gives them light and joy and it is the way a sunset works that makes them so perfect for using my energy paintings techniques to create layers of feelings within the paintings .
Colourful Oil Painting for Sale of Beach huts at Wolacombe, North Devon
As I move up the beach towards Woolacombe this year along with Croyde beach I will be focussing on the little gems of Down End, Combesgate Beach and Barricane beach for some new paintings of hidden spots.
Ilfracombe harbour painting for sale at Dusk
Take a look at the large and very large paintings for sale on the website and the sunset paintings for sale. For the llast two year I have had fabulous exhibitions at Ilfracombe where I have had paintings for sale at the Landmark Theatre. See more paintings for sale from Woolacombe and Putsborough Beaches.
