Painting Polperro Harbour with the Ledbury Art Club

It was such a pleasure to visit the Ledbury Art Club recently for a live painting demonstration. The group was very welcoming and it is always great to meet fellow painters who love watercolour as much as I do. For this session, I decided to paint a scene of Polperro harbour in Cornwall. This is a classic subject with lovely white cottages and boats sitting in the water. I wanted to show the club how to capture the light and the shapes of the village without getting too caught up in every single tiny detail.

I started with the background hills using a mix of Viridian Green and some darker tones to make the white buildings pop out. The buildings themselves are mostly the white of the paper, with just a few cool shadows in Cobalt Blue and Lavender to give them some shape. For the water, I used horizontal strokes of Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue. I made sure to leave some light areas to show reflections of the boats. The little red boat in the middle adds a nice bit of Alizarin Crimson to draw the eye into the centre of the painting.

In the foreground, I used some Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre to show the shallow water and the mud near the shore. I like to keep these areas quite warm to balance out the cool blues of the sea. The boats are the main stars here, so I kept their shapes simple but strong. I finished off with a few white highlights for the ropes and the tops of the masts. It was a fun afternoon of painting and I hope the members of the club enjoyed watching the process as much as I enjoyed sharing it.

This original painting of Polperro is currently for sale. If you would like to own this piece or want more details about the size and price, please do contact me directly. I am always happy to answer any questions you have about my work. I really enjoy painting these Cornish scenes and this one turned out exactly how I hoped it would during the demo.