And here is the finished painting, I worked from a colour study I had done a few weeks ago and the photo 
"High Summer, Orcombe" 8 x 6 ins  

I was working on the title for this painting, so I decided to take a close look at the name of the boat for inspiration, and discovered the name to be "The Ben Dover" childish I know, but It made me smile and I enjoyed painting it all the more! 

Even thought i love painting from life, sometimes there is a need to paint from reference photos. This was from my facebook friends who voted for this. Also sunsets are incredibly difficult to paint from life, so a good photo reference is vital. thank you Richard Neave!

Working from the Photo
One of the best ways to work from photos is to work from a computer monitor, as it is produced by light and not ink, which helped with the feeling of light from the sunset. Its almost like working from life but you have the comfort of the studio and all the time you need, instead of 15 minutes if your lucky! 

From the sketch i did on Shelly gut, In Exmouth, came this studio painting "The soft midday light over Shelly" 12 x 24 ins, which was ready for the gallery but it didn't make it to the show as it sold straight away! after posting it on Facebook. - Mark

If you are looking for a group of Exmouth artists to Join you cant do better than the Exmouth Art Group, They have a very active calender with plenty of chances to display and sell your paintings and drawings, including the Summer show which has attracted over 3000 people in the 3 weeks its on! also the art group holds regular Thursday painting days with like minded people where you can just turn up and join in. 
In the evenings there are competition evenings, demonstrations and talks by very talented members and invited professionals to get in touch with this very popular Art Group just click here  

Exmouth today had the most fantastic diffused light today as there was some early mist which burnt off a bit and gave us a wonderful bright hazy feel. 
Painting into the light at Shelly gut was an absolute joy!
"The soft midday light, Shelly" 10 x 8 ins 

 

Painting Plein air can be really difficult, but conditions were perfect today!  

What a relief to be out painting again! After quite a while where painting plein air has been really hard, what with work commitments and horrible weather, at last I managed to get out, I felt very lucky to do exactly what I wanted on my Birthday! made me feel much better about being forty *#@e !! - Mark 
http://www.markloman.co.uk/waiting-for-the-tide.html

Ok, so I decided that an update on the website front was needed, so here I am adding my blog to it, Im using weebly which is brilliantly simple for straightforward websites like this, hopefully with a good wind behind me I will have thi finished in the next week!