Drone Life

As soon as I started painting again, I realised I loved focusing on aerial perspectives, birds eye views if you will.  The details and colours you see in the water and the wave formations are just incredible from up above.

To start with I was using referencing images I could find online to give me a guide on how to form that aerial view in my mind.  It was pretty tricky at times!!  Most of my early work was all from views put together in my mind and I’m pretty proud of the results.  But I soon started to realise in order to progress I needed to work closely with some local drone photographers, to utilise their incredible imagery they captured of the Cornish coastline.

 My first collaboration was with the very talented local drone photographer Matt Warren from Kernow From Above.  This led to the creation of “Fistral from Above” my three piece wave formation from Fistral beach in Newquay.

“Fistral From Above”

 The second was with George Stephens from Gstee – another incredibly talented local drone photographer.  I re-created one of Georges shots of a surfer paddling out at Fistral beach.  

“Fistral Simplicity”

 It was after that piece that I realised if I wanted to have full flexibility of my painting locations I needed to bite the bullet….I needed a drone. Soon after I became the proud owner of a Mavic Mini Pro – proud but totally terrified I was going to crash it on its maiden voyage!!!!!  After a few trial flights in the garden I ventured over to Crantock beach and took flight.  

Maiden voyage drone shot - Crantock beach, near Newquay

I was so impressed with the quality and detail that the images picked up, I couldn’t wait to get home and paint some of them.  My piece “Crantock Swimmers Paradise” was taken from one of my very first shots down there that day.

“Crantock Swimmers Paradise”

 Here’s to lots more exploring with my drone, enabling me to paint my love for Cornwall from above…