Oil painting of boats at Alnmouth, Northumberland

Detail from "Summer afternoon at Alnmouth", Alnmouth, Northumberland.
Oil. Alistair Butt © 2013 - #AB 021355

This delightful view is from the middle of the tidal mud flats on the River Aln just before it meets the North Sea at Alnmouth, Northumberland.

A number of fishing and sailing boats were lying on the mud, a bit tricky in places but with care most areas were passable away from the main channel which is behind the boats. It was late afternoon and the sun moved to the correct angle to provide the highlights on the wet mud, in some spots too bright to really see, so it was a case of moving around until a good spot was found.

I really liked the additional pools of water: 1. as a good lead into the painting and 2. to break up what would then be just wet mud (which as present when drawing another view of the far distant boats), so I wanted to include those even though it required a little be more work.

The background was quite simple with a nice hazy feel to it... the main East Coast railway line goes across the view, it's the straight line three quarters of the way up the background hill