Coastal Creativity at Cober Hill by Robert Dutton
Robert Dutton, a Nitram Charcoal ambassador shared this original article on his blog http://bit.ly/2dGEUVU. He had a fabulous week of teaching on the Coast of Yorkshire with 14 students on a successful residential art holiday. Keep reading to see some great shots of Nitram Charcoal in action on location in the United Kingdom!
I've just returned from a fabulous weeks teaching 14 enthusiastic students at the wonderful venue of Cober Hill, Cloughton near Scarborough recently on the Yorkshire East Coast.
Now that's what I call charcoal! No other company creates charcoal this size and of this fine quality like Nitram Charcoal
A truly inspirational week sharing lots of quality time together getting to know one another and creating mixed media paintings together.
Fun in the studio at Cober Hill on our mixed media art holiday together
Being receptive to new ideas the work everyone created on a regular and daily basis was an absolute joy to guide everyone through each stage to create some wonderful paintings. Not only did we have some great times in the bright conservatory studio at Cober Hill, but with glorious weather all week (especially on our two painting days we went out) being kind to us, our field trips paintings and sketching outdoors was a rewarding experience for all.
On the moors overlooking Whitby sketching and painting - a great mornings work ladies!
With an acrylic moor and coast painting theme for our art week, the wonderful North York Moors National park close to Cober Hill was a real inspiration. Our field trips painting at Robin Hoods Bay in full sun with the tide out was fantastic. There was a painting view just about everywhere!
Crisp light and detail means using a sharp charcoal stick. Nothing better than using the Nitram sharpening bloc to prepare everything the night before so no time is wasted out in the field
Demonstration mixed media painting at Robin Hoods Bay. A great morning for everyone sketching in this beautiful location close to Cober Hill
Explaining why and what I'm using to help create my expressive mixed media painting to include Nitram Charcoal drawing tools and charcoal
Again on another day during the week we took a trip to a vantage point overlooking the village of Sleights, the valley of Iburndale and the village of Ugglebarnby to distant Whitby to sketch and paint too.
I got the chance to demonstrate how working outdoors directly in front of the subject helps create paintings and studies full of energy, vigour and life. By choosing to work with different black and white media to include Nitram charcoal (a really superior high grade charcoal from Canada) on each occasion on Canson Moulin du roy 300gsm (140lb) not and rough 100% rag content watercolour papers, students could see the merits of choosing such versatile papers to work on for different approaches to mixed media landscape painting.
Mornings demonstration painting using mixed media to include Nitram Charcoal from Canada, Derwent XL Blocks charcoal (black and white), pastels and inks. Drawing really is good for the soul, especially with a view like this!
The week flew by but we made every minute of it by packing lots into the week to include quality studio painting time, field trips, evening demonstrations and of course evening get togethers among friends. I'm really looking forward to coming back next year to teach lots more exciting mixed media painting techniques on my two planned holidays at Cober Hill.
For further details of next years painting adventures at Cober Hill along the East Coast visit http://rdcreative.co.uk/art-holidays/march-2017-mixed-media-east-coast-art-holiday and http://rdcreative.co.uk/art-holidays/october-2017-mixed-media-east-coast-art-holiday