The last painting was in the warm Adriatic sunshine. Now in the UK, albeit warmer than usual, our days are dark and skies are threatening as our weather comes in from the Atlantic.

For painting, I actually enjoy this time of year. I love winter landscapes, which give us a good opportunity to use those blacks for very deep shadows, as well as bright lighting from the side from the low sun when it does appear.

My mentor, for this type of painting, is a famous watercolourist called Rowland Hilder, who is well-known for this type of landscape. He painted often in his native Kent, and along the east coast generally. He was also a sailor, and produced dramatic seascapes along the south and east coasts, and especially in the Thames Estuary. I am going to try and do the next painting in his style

The subject I have chosen for this style of painting, is Langstone Harbour. Situated between Portsmouth and Chichester on the south coast, and before the bridge to Hayling Island, Langstone used to be the ancient port of Havant, the nearest town. Nothing commercial has happened there for many years, and the place settled down to a quiet pace. The coast is reeded and muddy, so unsuitable for bathing, but beloved by yachtsmen, as are so many inlets along that stretch of coast.

I grew up nearby, and it is a fun place for youngsters who like messing about in boats.

This is the old mill at Langstone, which was once a windmill and tide mill. The sails were taken off in the c19, and after a period of dereliction, was refurbished and made residential from about 1950. Dame Flora Twort, the artist lived there and did much of the rescue work. Neville Shute, the novelist was a frequent house guest

This is really the centrepiece of the harbour, and is painted a lot. There are other buildings to the left, like the Royal Oak pub, also lovely. It will just depend on what I can get into the picture

That is what I am going to start on next, as soon as time allows. This is a busy time of the year for everybody, and it could well be next week before I get underway. This week-end is the Pirbright Annual Exhibition, with hanging on Friday evening, which I mentioned in a previous post. Something like 170 paintings are to be exhibited, I am told. I am entering three as I mentioned before, so a lot of competition. I sold one last year, but whether I can do it again, I just don’t know

I shall probably post the drawing, which I may well do in ink, first on its own, as this will be quite a lot of work in itself. I will write again when I have done that. Thank you