Scamps Yard

Scamps Yard. Oil on board 7"x6".

Available at nigelmasonart@yahoo.co.uk

Now the weather is warming up and it's stopped raining for one day, I felt the need to paint in the open air.

My studio is in a workshop that sits in a yard of other workshops. The buildings are about 130 years old - early Victorian but there are other buildings in the yard that are considerably older. When I first came to this town there was still a stone mason and a smithy working in the yard.

Most of the ground floors of the workshops have been converted into garages (parking space is a commodity that's rare in this crowded coastal town) but the upper floors have been left, pretty much, as they were when they were built. The egress and exit to the yard are two narrow passages at either end. The widths of the passages were decided by the transport of the time, which would have been hand carts or horse drawn carts. It's possible with extreme care (and the wing mirrors pulled in!) to get a car through and into the yard. Consequently nearly all of the buildings have been left in their original state.

I love the look of these buildings, red roof tiles, orange brick, warm brown and ocher stone, blond floor tiles, peeling light blue paint - the differing proportions of the buildings all shoved together in a row, original doors and windows juxtaposed with shabby later additions.

 It's also a very peaceful place. It has the feel of a courtyard or a cloister. There is no through traffic and the nearest busy road is a fair distance off so the sounds of seagulls, smaller birds,  rustling leaves and an occasional dog bark predominate.

It's a great place to paint,  there are no interruptions and it's close by. Only the smell of food cooking and the dipping sun tell me when it's time to stop painting.