Category Archives: Ric W. Horner

New Greeting Cards!

Ric has produced a wide range of greeting cards of Whitstable seascapes recently that were selected from various paintings from his back catalogue of images. They will be available via local galleries, shops and exhibitions, or directly from the artist’s studio.

Whitstable is a quintessentially English seaside town in the Canterbury district, on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in south-eastern England, five miles north of Canterbury and two miles west of Herne Bay.

It has been attracting visitors for centuries with its charm, beautiful scenery and cosy atmosphere. The coast is lined with multi-coloured beach huts and the smell of the salty sea breeze and the feel of the summer warmth is tangible. It has long been famous for its oysters, which still play a central role in it’s commerce and culture.

Artist working on Whitstable Beach

It’s now 10 years ago that Ric Horner moved into the late Dan Sherrin’s quirky cottage on The Saxon Shore Way in Whitstable,  a long-distance footpath in England, which starts at Gravesend, Kent, and traces the coast of South-East England for 163 miles in total. He is one in a long line of artists , writers and novelists that made the town their home, for reasons such as the gorgeous light and stunning sunsets.

Over time Ric has recorded the dynamic changes in weather, atmosphere and cloud formations that one sees in this area, focusing predominantly on the views across the Swale Estuary towards the Isle of Sheppey. 

Artist Dan Sherrin (1869 – 1940) could not be missed about the town, as he insisted on wearing the most outrageously chequer plus-fours and his love of beer was legendary. Dan was also a famous self-publicist of the most humorous kind, a practical joker who not only poked fun at those in authority – he even built his own airplane and created a spoof fire brigade!  

One of his paintings still hangs in Buckingham Palace, as he was once commissioned by King George V. Furthermore. An elderly neighbour who lived nearby in Preston Parade Seasalter, has told Ric that he recalls seeing Winston Churchill plus entourage on the little foot bridge on Preston Parade, viewing the newly installed gun battery, which was right in front of the house in about 1943.

J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) described the famous sunsets along the North Kent coast as some of the best in the world and just like Turner, Ric also explores the unique atmospheres found in this area. He says:

“My work has as much to do with the changing weather; encompassing all sorts of environmental conditions, which can range massively from attractive and peaceful to threatening and dangerous,  as well as with the geographical location. Since moving into the late artist Dan Sherrin’s old cottage, I have set up my studio at the front of the house, which overlooks the sea. This has changed my working practice profoundly, as I now have a myriad of subject matter in front of me and I am less dependent on notes and colour sketches. I can now work directly on canvas from my subject and study in detail various sea states and “light events” which may have previously evaded me. It’s become possible to study storms in greater detail and track showers and their influence on the sea in some degree of comfort. Sadly, despite the house’s prominence and history, time and gravity has taken its toll, leaving it bereft of level floors, so when I first moved in, the horizon appeared to lean when looking out from my studio!”

 

‘The Street’ (see painting below), is a natural strip of shingle on an exposed clay bank on Tankerton beach, which runs out to sea and is revealed only at low tide for a distance of about half a mile. It is the last remnant of the Swale river valley that got lost to sea erosion over millennia and now provides a temporary, natural promenade. You can still visit it, or read about it at: http://The-Ley-Lines-and-Lost-Past-Of-North-Kent.

The name Whitstable (orig’ Witenstapel and variants) is itself a pointer- in several ways- to the feminine- a ‘staple’ is one of those essential things to sustain life: flour, milk, oats, barley, salt etc- a ‘white-staple’ then is ‘the milk that flows from the breast of the mother,’ and given that we’re right next door to the parish of Seasalter we can assume the ‘staple’ in question is salt. Salt is seen, occultly as belonging to or signifying the moon- it’s white and sparkly for one thing, and comes from the the sea, for another. The moon herself was imaged as a cosmic salt-crystal which, over the course of a month, forms like a very-large salt-crystal in the deep-waters of space; and waning away she is salt dissolving. The sea of course is a female element whose pulse- the tides- are controlled by the moon, whose number is 13 (there are 13 lunations, or moons a year)- this clearly relates to The Street because it is uncovered and covered every 13 hours.

Taken from The Landscape Zodiac of Britain part 1 Whitstable by Fen Lander.

Other toponomers have understood the place-name Whitstable to mean that ‘Witen-staple’ signified a place where the local witan- a council of wise-elders, would gather to discuss important local affairs. This is not ruled out in any way by the previous interpretations-the ancients liked to make a plait with their place-names, combining three distinct, yet related themes. This is because they believed in three interpenetrating worlds, what we would call heaven, earth and hell. The second part of the town name- “staple,” as well as the above meaning of essential vitales, is the origin of several other modern words- all related. A ‘staple’ is a nail- and the source of the word for a pointed ‘church-tower,’ a steeple- denoting the sacred nature of The Street, or road-of-the-spirits. This is interesting because it is iron-sulfate that was extracted from the minerals on the shore-line- the staple- or nail- just happens, coincidentally of course, to be full of iron! Iron is a little on the… er, magnetic side, if you know what I mean- and so this iron-nail can also be thought of- if you like- as a gi-normous compass needle which points, unerringly, to the north-magnetic-pole!

Taken from The Landscape Zodiac of Britain part 1 Whitstable by Fen Lander

 

Gouache & Watercolour Paintings

The word is out, Ric is really a cat! He has spent many month in 2022 painting the view from his studio using Gouache, a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water and thickened glue-like substance (gum binding agent) to achieve brilliant, vibrant colours that are lightfast, smooth and solid.

Gouache is a French word, from the Latin root aquatio, “watering place” and simply means “watercolour”. The way it’s applied is by using a brush and watercolour paper. Ric likes this medium for it’s quick-drying, bold qualities and has produced over 30 pieces in recent months, many of them are about 35 x 20cm in size, including a protective mount.

Gouache generally dries to a value that differs from the one it has when wet (lighter tones generally dry darker and darker tones tend to dry lighter), which can make it difficult to match colours over multiple painting sessions. Its quick coverage and total hiding power mean that gouache lends itself to more direct painting techniques than watercolour. Many “en plein air” paintings take advantage of this, as do the works of J. M. W. Turner.

Prices start at £ 160. Most of them are mounted and need framing.

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All of them can be purchased directly from this website at: www.richorner.com/product-category/gouache-paintings.

You can also visit Ric this autumn at his Open Studio event to see them in the flesh. Please see the ‘Exhibitions’ page for more details.

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White Wood Gallery

 Ric has been represented by the White Wood Gallery in Ashburton, Dartmoor from November 2016 until February 2018. This arrangement has now come to an end. 

 www.whitewoodgallery.co.uk

..Lovely feedback was received from previous buyers:

dartmoor-1-31Dear Mr Horner, as a 50th Wedding Anniversary present to ourselves we purchased from the White Wood Gallery in Ashburton your oil painting entitled “Approaching Rain near Princetown, Dartmoor” (see above). My wife and I have known, loved and frequently visited Dartmoor since we were both young and we felt your painting captures the atmosphere of the Moor very well. We are generally more familiar with the eastern side of the Moor – i.e. Chagford/ Haytor/Hound Tor – and not so familiar with the area around Princetown. We wondered if you were able to give some more detail of the location from which your painting was taken?

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