a brush with the broads

I had just finished the Buxton Spa Prize which was the first spot of proper plein air painting since The Big Painting Challenge and I heard on the grapevine that there was another 4 day painting festival taking place in a beautiful part of the country, the Norfolk Broads! A Brush With The Broads is based at Clippesby Hall on the North Norfolk Coast near to Great Yarmouth
I got my 5 day pass from him indoors and met the lovely Anne (Blankson Hemans) and Anthea (Lay) of TBPC fame, who I was share a cottage with within the grounds of Clippesby Hall where the festival was based.
The event opened with an entertaining and informative demo from Haidee-Jo Summers. who despite being in a marquee in dim lighting managed to pull off a wonderful oil painting of her favourite subject, two red sailed boats in harbour.
The event was attended by around 70 fellow artists and the following morning we all went to suggested places to paint our first plein air painting. The weather was on our side, and despite it being the end of September it was surprisingly sunny and warm.
The 3 A's (Anne Anthea and myself) went to Horsey Wind Pump and pitched up along the side of the water.

We were joined by several of the artists during the morning, and a few locals and tourists, some of which recognised us which was a bit strange..one of them even bought us a cup of tea (we liked him!!)
We tried to limit ourselves to a maximum of 2 hours for each of our paintings - this seemed to be about the time we had before the light changed so much it altered the tone of the subject. 
Pleased with our first attempts we went back to reflect and revive ourselves with tea and cake!
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This is my concentrating face! I didn't even know that fellow artist Chris Open had taken this! (thanks Chris for sharing)

In the 4 days that we spent in Norfolk we completed 3 days painting, and had some great and inspirational demo's and talks from award winning artists, Douglas Farthing M.B.E. and Adebanji Alade both of which had completely different approaches, but a shared passion and fervour for practising through experimentation and sketching every day!
​I will definitely book next year!