cjessop – Marloes Gallery

Winter Surf Fiends

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Winter Surf Fiends July 31^st 2025

I sketched this idea back in late winter: on a lovely afternoon down at Marloes Sands, I hadn’t been the only person for whom the lure of the surf proved irresistible. By happy coincidence, I found that a piece of marine plywood beachcombed from the Sands suited the composition; at last, I’ve got round to realising the scene in oils. No point, this time, in taking the panel down to the beach: summer sea and sky colours are very different!

Oil on panel Original sketch February 22^nd 2025
16” x 32” Painted July 2025

ANTON of Gibraltar

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ANTON of Gibraltar July 27th 2025

A hairdresser? A famous chef? A businessman with a shady past? Actually, an oil/chemical tanker, built in 2010 and previously named HEATH and before that SARAH DEE. She was anchored off Musselwick Sands yesterday, having left Antwerp on July 24^th. IMO number 9514456, length 123m, according to AIS destined for Milford Haven. Not an attractive vessel; alas, few ships are these days. But there, so I sketched her.

Black Conté stick, pencil, and fine black biro
Page size A4 July 26^th 2025

Dive

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Dive July 25th 2025

You could say, another in my Blue Series – if that doesn’t seem too pretentious! Admittedly we don’t ever enjoy sea water clarity such as I have depicted around these shores; and, I think that such conditions would be bad news for some marine wildlife, So, this is where Artistic Licence has a part to play. I know that an expert watercolourist could create this visual effect, but I’d be afraid of overworking, and turning the colours muddy: oils let you gradually find your way.

Oil on panel July 2025
Picture size 18½” x 7½”

Midsummer Midnight

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Midsummer Midnight July 24th 2025

This started as “found art”: me, trying with some pre-mixed colours from my palette on an already well-covered panel. Very soon the idea you see here solidified; it then took a long time, with much adjusting and checking, to arrive at this impression of the night-time “neverdark” we sometimes get here, which is much more common in the Hebrides, Orkney, and especially Shetland. I hope you like the frame finish: that took some finalising too.

Oil on panel Painted late June 2025
Picture size 8” x 12”

Cartwheels

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Cartwheels July 22^nd 2025

This girl and her sister have Indian ancestry, I assume, with their rich skin colouring and hair looking blue-black in the summer sun. Perhaps they both learn traditional dancing because each has a great awareness of their balance and pose as natural gymnasts but, also, between moves, they strike poses with hand gestures one might see on temple carvings. Of course this sketch isn’t accurate; but it’s good exercise for any artist, trying to “freeze-frame” a fast and most graceful motion.

Graphite stick Musselwick Sands, low tide today
Page size A4 (cropped)

Marloes Village Hall talks

In the previous entry I mentioned posters: here is the latest Marloes Village Hall talk poster. You might be interested in coming along!

Hello, World!

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Hello, World! July 21^st 2025

This is the board I have made for my front gate: quite a few people pass my house, locals as well as visitors, so it is worth some effort to publicise this website. As with designing posters, I prefer a Keep It Simple approach: something bold to attract the eye, plus just the basic message.
I don’t only use reclaimed wood, mainly from the beach, for painting on and for framing pictures: I fashioned this sign from an extruded plastic plank which washed in. Fingers crossed, it will cope with Marloes weather for a good long while!

Gateholm and Skokholm

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Gateholm and Skokholm July 20^th 2025

Not so many people know this scene – Albion Sands at high tide, viewed from low level. There’s a simple reason: whilst the water looks so placid, just to my left it was rushing past, creating a fierce tide race you’d never fight, were you to try taking a swim. However, as you will see from my notes, the sea colours made the scramble down and across to this vantage point worthwhile; so, if I can work out a better composition (some foreground interest?), it could be worth hauling all the painting gear to this spot.

Charcoal, pencil, graphite sticks July 13^th 2025
Size A4

High Jump

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High Jump July 19^th 2025

The irregular shape gives it away: a piece of plywood from a wrecked yacht, found on Marloes Sands some time back. The blue paint spattered on it unevenly had suggested bubbles, streaming up; one recent hot afternoon I set this board up on my easel in a shady part of the garden, and got to work. Getting the compostion right took much standing well back, and checking with a mirror; I don’t think the figures want any more detailing, as this picture needs to be viewed from a reasonable distance.

Oil on panel Painted July 2025
27” x 15”

Pottering

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Pottering July 18^th 2025

This girl was supposed to be leaving the beach: it was home time, and the tide was returning. But like many children, she had so many things left to do: their beaches are always busy places. So, regardless, out into the shallows to rinse the sand off a piece of driftwood, and see how that made it look… with no sense of urgency, naturally. In the end she splashed her way round the rocks, following her father who carried her younger brother slung across his shoulders, out of the reach of the waves.

Black Conté & pencil Sketched July 13^th 2025, Musselwick Sands
6” x 6”