Pin Mill

Plein air painting of a boat on the mud in Pin Mill, Suffolk.

Boat at Low Tide, Pin Mill. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

Pin Mill is a couple of small buildings on the south shore of the the tidal River Orwell, in southern Suffolk, England.

Plein air painting of a sailboat in the mud at Pin Mill, Suffolk.

Sailboat at Low Tide, Pin Mill. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

I recently spent three days painting there with three other plein air painters: David Bachmann, Roy Connelly, and Paul Rafferty.

The English painter Edward Seago did some of his best paintings there of the Thames barges. Since I spend a lot of time talking to other plein air painters, and Seago is seen as one of the best plein air painters of the 20th century, I assumed everyone in England had heard of Pin Mill, and that it was something of an English Giverny. So I was surprised when I called my studio painter friends in England to brag about going to paint at Pin Mill and no one had heard of the place. Then, at the B&B where I stayed up the road, they had never heard of Edward Seago.

Plein air painting of a barge in the fog at Pin Mill, Suffolk.

Grey Morning, Pin Mill. 30 x 20 cm, oil on panel.

The place should be more well-known. It is one of the more picturesque quarter miles anywhere in the world. The Thames sailing barges that Seago painted are still there, and often have their sails up still.

Unfortunately, when we were there the barges were all up at the nearby town of Woodbridge for a maritime weekend. We drove there to try to paint them on the last day, but they had just left to go back to Pin Mill.

Plein air painting of the pub at Pin Mill, Suffolk.

Late Morning, Pin Mill. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.

Plein air painting of Pin Mill at Sunset.

Pin Mill Sunset. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.

6 comments

  1. It’s my time to give a workshop, in my island, in november. Your work and advises will be in my mind. The way you give the illusion of reality and the atmosphere in a few brush strokes is totally amazing. And that’s real for any kind of place; you always find the proper color and light…

  2. As we say “still life” for the representation of objects, your landscape paintings are “still alive landscapes”. Your blog is now my favourite one, as an (safe) addict!

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