Painting “Early Birds, Bempton I & II”
Studio Painting – Oil on Canvas Board
Chalk cliffs always create a spectacular coastline.
Towering vertical rock faces plunge into the sea at Bempton on the East Yorkshire coast. While not as high as those in the South, they have the distinction of being home to the largest accessible mainland seabird colony in the UK – on the right you can see one of the viewing platforms built by the RSPB, who have a visitor centre near‑by.
Bempton Cliffs begin north of Bridlington and stretch for about 6 miles (10km) ending at Filey further up the coast. They start after Flamborough Head where its coves and rock formations continually inspire my outdoor art.
The whole area is picturesque, so there's enough paintings and prints ideas here for several lifetimes!
You can see a hazy Flamborough Head in the distance in the painting. The arch in the foreground, I believe, is called Scale Nab.
I used to think the nab was the only feature on otherwise sheer straight cliffs. I've since learned that's far from true, but that's a story for another time.
A pair of Bempton Cliffs paintings
I've painted two paintings of this scene. First a small one in order to solve the play of tones in the artwork. Once satisfied I had solved the problem of light cliffs in deep shadow, I painted the larger painting illustrated above.
It was a beautiful warm day when I went to collect reference for this studio painting. Light was bouncing off a calm vivid sea with hardly any breeze, and a thick bright haze sat in the distance. I was a bit too early for the birds to have gathered in any numbers though, hence the title of this art.