How Edward Seago Made Sense of My Northumberland Seaside Holiday.

I've been searching for a way to document my holiday in Northumberland with the family. I've taken all the photos, done a few quick sketches but I want to paint some pictures that give me the real story of the wide open beaches and majestic hills.

From Lindisfarne
( Bamburgh Castle is somewhere on the horizon)

The optimistic colours of previous holidays are too bright and eternally summery. This was not a summery summer holiday. Oh no.

What I needed was a palette of colours to reflect the diabolical weather that we had, with unremitting wind and quite a bit of rain. 

And this was August!

I don't want you to think we had an equally awful holiday, because we didn't. We had great fun. And as they say there's no such thing as bad weather just

Peterborough City Gallery. Two Very Different Exhibitions. October 2014.

Peterborough in Cambridgeshire has a museum that in the early 20th century was a  hospital, and in that museum is a charming gallery that consists of three large airy rooms.

Have you been there? What do you think?

On Tuesday lunchtime I visited The City Gallery there with the expressed intention of seeing Julie Reid's exhibition "Fabric of the Earth".

But first I had to get to it.

Welland Valley Art Society Autumn Exhibition 2014

The Wilfred Wood Gallery in Stamford Art Centre , where the Welland Valley Art Society hold there exhibitions, is a magnificent light and spacious venue.

Wilfred Wood Gallery,
Stamford Arts Centre

The ceiling is high, there's lots of uninterrupted white wall space , the natural lighting is good and the artificial lighting is plentiful. And it's warm!
I've been taking part in the Welland Valley's exhibitions for some years now and always feel quite proud to show my paintings alongside such great work.
So here are my thoughts on this year's offerings.

Pre Website Procrastination.

I had planned to put the finishing touches to my website first thing on Wednesday, but the day dawned with such promise, the autumn air soft and bright , that the only thing to do was to get out in the garden and do some pre winter tidying up.

My not so old plum tree was full of mummified plums this year - not nice- so I knew it was time for drastic measures. Apparently there are no domestic chemicals that will cure what is known as brown rot so it was time for good old fashioned garden hygiene.

It seemed sacrilege to hack away at the old  tree and get rid of all it's contorted character, but it had to be done.

Because it stood just outside the studio window I've drawn it many times, mostly in the winter.

Mary Kemp. Plum tree in winter.
Pen on cartridge paper.
You can see it's very twisty.

And this is it now.

Not much left.

So afterwards I got on with the website.