Category Archives: Whitstable Seascapes

Available Paintings – Oct 2023

Prices for original artwork range from £ 300 – £ 3000. For smaller Gouache (water colours) paintings, as well as various framed and mounted prints visit the shop page.

Ric’s next exhibition is from 14th/15th, 21st/22nd, 28th/29th October 2023 as part of the East Kent Artist’s Open Studios. On show will be all the artwork listed below, as well as gorgeous prints and greeting cards.

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Please get in touch directly for any of these original artworks, but kindly  note that all international orders of original oil paintings should always include insurance. Postal costs will vary according to size & weight, as all paintings are sent in bespoke wooden crates for protection. For insurance quotes and p&p contact me at: enquiries@richorner.com, or tel.: 07835294317.

You can follow Ric on Instagram at:  richornerpaintings 

 

Mirrored Space, 78 x 37cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Light Path 1, 30 x 30cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Large! – measurements to come, oil on canvas

 

 

 

Whitstable Harbour (misty evening 2021), oil on box canvas, 78.5 x 78.5cm

 

 

 

 

Light path 2, 30 x 30cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Our star, 35.5 x 25.5cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Dusk diminished, 28 x 28cm, oil on box canvas – available

 

 

 

Sunrise, 30.5 x 30.5cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

The Old Neptune, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Margate Harbour, 20 x 20cm, oil on canvas – available – cards available

 

 

 

Cloud Race, 20 c 20cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

SOLD – Storm Clouds, 56.5 x 30cm, oil on canvas 

 

 

 

Light Effect Whitstable Harbour (Fog), 50 x 50cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Rain Gap, West Beach, 20x 20cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Light obscured (West beach), 50 x 50cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

West Beach (study), 30 x 42 cm, mounted Gouache on acid-free water colour paper, Find all other Gouache paintings  on the shop page,

 

 

 

Sunlight through rain, 61.5 x 28cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Kent Landscape, 30 x 24cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Ebb and Flow, 30 x 40cm, oil on canvas – available  – cards available

 

 

 

Whitstable HarbourKent coast, 20 x 20cm,  oil on canvas  – available, prints and greeting cards available

 

 

 

Margate Harbour Evening Light, 22 x 22cm, oil on canvas – available – greeting cards available

 

 

 

Spring Tide, 21 x 26cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Weather Study, 26 x 20cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

West Beach Whitstable (3), 50 x 40cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Shower Remnant, 22 x 22cm, oil on canvas –  available 

 

 

 

Kent first Snow, last lightKent first Snow, last light. 23 x 30.5cm, oil on canvas – available  

 

 

 

Thunderhead Cloud studyThunderhead/ Cloud study, 28 x 28cm, oil on wood panel –  available 

 

 

 

View across the OazeThe view across the Oaze,  22 x 22cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Long after Sunset (June)Long after Sunset (June), 28.5 x 17cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Lost BuoyLost Buoy, 61 67cm, oil on wood panel available

 

 

 

First LightFirst Light, 71 x 81cm, original painting, oil on wood panel (framed) – available 

 

 

 

Salcombe Harbour, 26 x 26cm, oil on canvas – available

 

 

 

Dartmoor, 38 x 38cm, oil on wood panel –  available 

 

 

 

Summer’s evening Kent, 60 x 30cm, oil on canvas –  available

 

 

 

Sunlit Clearing, 71 x 71cm, oil on canvas – available 

 

 

 

Dartmoor 2, 63 x 40cmDartmoor Dawn, 63 x 40cm,  oil on canvas – available 

NEW ONLINE SHOP !

Ric has recently set up an online shop, so look for the menu title ‘SHOP’, where you can order all his prints and Gouache paintings directly from his website. If you like a particular painting from his back catalogue that isn’t listed here, and you are interested in a commission, or a print, get in touch and he will see what he can do. 

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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Solo Exhibition at Lilford Gallery Canterbury

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www.lilfordgallery.com/ric-horner

From 7th – 20th September 2019

“Ric Horner is second to none when it comes to capturing light on the landscape.” – “Your art brings tears to my eyes! – Outstanding! – Amazing – Stunning – Incredible! – Magnificent – Brilliant – Spectacular – Breath-taking – Superb – Magical – Impressive – Wonderful – Uplifting – Really Moving – Poetic, beautiful, bold and absolutely marvellous! – I love your work!”

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Open Studios 2013 -21

 

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Award winning artist Ric W. Horner is one of the county’s leading landscape painters whose professional career spans more than 30 years. His work focuses on the elemental qualities of open space, the energy of weather and the expressive qualities of light. He has opened his studio space to the public on various occasions over the past 10 years to  connect with visitors in a more personal way.

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“…His mastery of sky, light and colour is breath taking!”

“Wow! My kind of art. Absolutely stunning. Love it!! Xx

“After seeing his work for the first time it completely changed the way I saw colour in nature, but especially the sky and dark clouds. This incredible oil on canvas captures a moment where the beautiful light and detail pulls you in, so you too are involved and immortalised in the moment.” 

 

 

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Below: visitors to one of his Open Studio events. The next one will be from 14th -28th October 2023 as part of the East Kent Artists Open Studios and the Canterbury Festival. 

 

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Solo Show at The Sportsman Seasalter

Ric created a solo exhibition at  the award winning ‘The Sportsman’ in Seasalter back in 2015 featuring the inspiring scenery of the Thames estuary.  This famous Michelin star pub is located 2 miles out of Whitstable, on the North Kent coast and is popular with weekend visitors and many Londoners. It is nicely furbished with rolling exhibitions showcasing the work of local artists. 

 

 

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