Marthall’s Introduction to Landscape Painting: From Coastline to Canvas

Over the past four weeks, eleven students joined us for our Introduction to Landscape Painting course, working from the dramatic coastal scenery of Cornwall’s Land’s End — where sweeping fields meet sheer cliffs and the sea breaks in rhythmic patterns below.

As with our previous courses, everyone worked from a shared set of reference images, allowing us to concentrate on developing technique and confidence step-by-step. Landscapes present their own distinct challenges: large tonal shapes, atmospheric light, shifting horizons, and the movement of water — so beginning together gave the group a strong and steady foundation.

Building the Painting Layer by Layer

We began with a warm burnt sienna underpainting, a unifying base that helps remove the intimidation of a blank canvas and anchors the cooler tones of sea and sky.

From there, we progressed through:

• Initial drawing to map out cliffs, shoreline, and horizon

• Blocking in major colour areas to organise foreground, mid-ground, and distance

• Working from dark to light, gradually refining shapes and tonal relationships

• Exploring brushwork and edges to create texture in rocks, grass, sea foam and cliff faces

• Introducing subtle glazing and blending techniques to build atmosphere and depth

Each session included live demonstrations, followed by guided time and personal one-to-one support — ensuring that each student could work confidently at their own pace.

One Coastline, Eleven Interpretations

What has been especially rewarding is seeing the diversity of artistic response. Even when starting with the same cliffs and coves, each painting developed a distinct voice. Some embraced bold contrast and strong light; others leaned into soft, misted horizons and gentle tonal shifts. This individuality is the heart of landscape painting — the landscape is shared, but the interpretation is uniquely yours.

For many students, this was their first landscape in oils, and the progress has been remarkable. Your commitment to looking more closely, returning to shapes, adjusting tones, and refining detail has produced confident and expressive work. Most importantly, you trusted the process — even through the messy middle stages — and that is where real painting ability grows.

Thank you for attending, for your energy, your curiosity, and the supportive atmosphere you brought to the studio each week. It has been a pleasure to paint with you.

We look forward to welcoming you back for our next course, which will focus on painting birds — exploring soft floaty backgrounds, a bold saturated palette and sharp textures in oils.