Temple Old Bridge, Bodmin Moor, New Years' Day 2013

On our way home from West Cornwall, I suggested a small diversion onto Bodmin Moor. It was a gloriously sunny day, and I was keen to snap a moorland scene for reference purposes. And my husband was quite keen on a pasty break (it was lunchtime, and he is, indeed, a true Cornishman).

Cottington's Thistle

Of course, this isn't a variety of thistle called Cottington's - the name refers both to the hill (with the radio mast atop it; a local landmark) and to my previous paintings of poppies in a similar location.

Wollaton Gulls

Wollaton Park in Nottingham has a lake. The lake was well lit and well stocked with seagulls the last time I was there, in November. It made a pleasing image, almost an abstract one.

Can you spot the duck?

Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
19 January 2013

November Trees

There are a lot of heavily wooded areas near where I work. One sunny lunch hour last November, I took my camera for a walk in the woods; this is based on the photographs I took that day.

It's painted on another clear-gessoed linen canvas; the natural linen peeps through here and there, and the edges are deliberately unfinished.

Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 cm
For sale

Lumberjack Poppies - SOLD

Towards the end of the poppy season, we took an evening stroll up on the local hills, and encountered poppies growing in front of a large pile of logs.

Behind East Street: Hoist - SOLD

This is (possibly) not a fifth painting in the East Street tetraptych/pentaptych. But it is from that site; it's the building in the middle.

Cornish Windfarm

Windfarms - love 'em or hate 'em - are part of the scenery now, particularly in the breezier corners of our isles. Personally, I rather like their elegant lines - and that's without considering the ecological aspects.

This was based on another drive-by shooting of the photographic kind; we often pass these windmills, and I've long desired to grab an image of them. I managed it on New Year's Day, this year.

Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40 cm.
For sale

Wollaton Hall: Gothic Mansion (AKA Wollaton Gothic)

Wollaton Hall, an Elizabethan country house, is in Nottingham. Well, it's in Wollaton, which is in what you might call Greater Nottingham. The house - set in a fabulously large park - has been in the hands of Nottingham City Council (formerly Nottingham Corporation) since 1925, and is a rather splendid museum.

Waiting for the Tide

This is another scene from Portreath on the 30th of December. It's a open-ended cave in the cliffs that I painted on Thursday; we all trooped through it and then looped back around the end of the cliffs. There was a very nice rock just the other side - more, no doubt, of that later.

The fellow you can see here was not so lucky as us. He got caught out by the waves; there he was, standing on  rock, keeping his feet dry and waiting for the tide to recede when I started waving my camera around. I thought he looked rather picturesque - romantic, almost (in a Walter Scott sort of way, rather than a Barbara Cartland sort of way).

Oil on box canvas (edges painted plain Paynes Grey in acrylic), 30 x 30 cm
06 January 2013
For sale

Edit: I managed to get a daylit photograph this afternoon (10 January 2013), so I've replaced the photograph taken under artificial light. 

Barrow Hill, New Year's Day 2013

This is based on a chance-taken photograph from the A303.

We were in a car. It was moving. I was not driving. I caught sight of this striking hill and - because my camera just happened to be in my hand - snapped a shot through the car window. Amazingly, it was in focus. Even more amazingly, the picture included the intended subject.

This procedure very rarely works.

I'm glad it did this time, because the scene has lots of things I like in it. A hill. Trees on the skyline. An interesting sky. And, from the name, which I didn't know at the time, the hint of prehistoric activity.

Palette: Phthalo Blue, Rose Madder, Lemon Yellow, Titanium White.

Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
For sale

Breakers at Portreath 7 x 5

A usin' up the paint sort of painting. This is the leftovers from Gull Rock (with some extra white).

Oil on canvas, 7 x 5 "
For Sale 

Gull Rock - SOLD

Gull Rock is off the beach at Portreath, Cornwall. This painting is based on photographs that I took there on Sunday, when the weather was mostly dry and the sea (the Atlantic) was entirely rough. Every now and then, there was a hint of sunlight - not enough to brighten the sky, but enough to brighten the colours of the land and sea a little.

Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm
SOLD

Cornwall book

I published my 20 page Cornwall book. It has 17 paintings in it.

The 12" extended remix has extra words (including a bit about colour palettes and an exclusive new poem!):

Cornwall: At t...

More Adventures wi...

By Amanda Bates

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... and the 7" radio edit is smaller. With less words.

Cornwall: At t...

More Adventures wi...

By Amanda Bates

Book Preview