I prefer the south bay at
Scarborough due to the miscellany of shops, hotels, boat rides, the harbour and
cliff lifts. The north bay is sparser, quieter but sometimes better suits my
mood. When there's a sprawling pink sunset the north bay is the best place to
stand to take it all in; the castle ruins cutting into the sky make for a good
photo. You can usually see the sky through the remaining windows. It surprising
the castle is still there as it was built in 1150. It's been a ruin for about
400 years since the English Civil War. During the First World War two war ships
positioned themselves in the bays and bombed the town with 500 shells.
I thought I'd try to paint a photo I found on my
hard disk. I might have taken it or stole it from a website (can't remember.) It
shows the ruins jutting upward into a reddened sky. I thought it would make a
decent oil painting. I'm not good enough to do a decent canvas but thought I'd
have a try. You have to try don't you? Here is the result.
As usual I hurried to get rid of the white by
painting in the general shape of the castle and hill and then colouring it all
in. Any colour will do so long as it blocks out that unnerving white. Over the
next two days I painted in the ocean and dotted in a few lights and started to
feel like I was making progress. The hill the castle sits on was the easiest
bit - just black paint. The sky was pretty easy, too - I pasted on some mixed
paint and used a wide brush with lots of linseed oil it to smooth it all down.
I did this in winter and it started to snow while
I was sat painting one afternoon. It hadn't seen the forecast and hoped it
would stop as I planned on jogging later but it stuck. After painting in the curling
road at the foot of painting and dabbing in a couple of vehicles it was done. It
can be yours for £24,668. That's how much it costs to replace a police car. I
was burning down the motorway when my fake-leather gimp mask slipped down by
the pedals. Heat from the engine melted it onto the pedals and they became one
big mushy pedal. I couldn't brake and smashed into the back of a police car and
have to buy them a new one. They said it costs £24,668 so there's no profit on
this painting.