Bamburgh Castle – Summer Morning

An original watercolour – unframed I first painted Bamburgh Castle when I was 10 years old. The previous year I had come runner up in a painting completion at infant school. With the prize money (a small gift voucher for Fenwick) I went to Newcastle with my dad and bought a set of poster paints. I went on to use the paints to create a sunrise painting of Bamburgh Castle for another school painting competition and won first prize. Over the years I’ve painted Bamburgh Castle many times. I love being on the beach early in the morning to paint the Castle “en plein air”. The beach is usually deserted and is a place of real wonder. This watercolour was painted on location mid morning one summer. Earlier in the morning I had been on Holy Island with a friend who wanted to watch me paint on location. I painted Lindisfarne for him about 6am. We then went to Bamburgh and I surprised him by pulling out a second box of paints with a small watercolour block for him to join me in painting. He did really well to follow my step by step instructions which made for a very memorable morning. In this composition I deliberately made the castle quite small to emphasise the vastness of the landscape. The darker cloud on the left helps to draw you eye towards Bamburgh Castle