Stephanie BrooksStephanie Brooks A south Norfolk artist paid his own special tribute to Edward Seago on the day the late treasured painter would have turned 100.Peter Knights, from Roydon, near Diss, spent hours in the wet and cold yesterday painting and sketching scenes at Ludham marshes, close to where Seago lived and his ashes were scattered.Stephanie Brooks

Stephanie Brooks

A south Norfolk artist paid his own special tribute to Edward Seago on the day the late treasured painter would have turned 100.

Peter Knights, from Roydon, near Diss, spent hours in the wet and cold yesterday painting and sketching scenes at Ludham marshes, close to where Seago lived and his ashes were scattered.

The 47-year-old said he had admired the artist's work since a teenager and felt it only right that he honoured the landmark birthday of his inspiration by painting a landscape Sago loved.

'I remember as a lad of about 15 taking myself to the museum at Norwich Castle to view the Seago paintings. Standing looking at his painting The Anvil Cloud must have had a big impact on me and possibly gave me the Seago bug,' he said.

Impressionist painter Seago, who was born in Norwich in 1910, was often shunned by critics but enjoyed huge commercial success and popularity among the royal family.

Sell-out exhibitions of his work went down in art folklore due to the long queues which would form before the doors opened and potential buyers having to be limited to one purchase each.

Although well travelled, Seago never tired of painting the gently rolling landscapes of his native East Anglia and eventually settled at The Dutch House in Ludham. He died in 1974.

Peter said: 'A cold bleak day at the marshes at Ludham by the river Thurne would have been the kind of landscape he would have revelled in.'

Peter has been creating artwork since a young boy when he would get in trouble painting landscapes on his family's walls in crayon.

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of his idol, he became a member of the Waveney Springs Art Collective and wants to use his day on the marshes to inspire an exhibition of his own oil paintings.

Peter, who also works as a part-time postman, hopes to leave the day job behind by extending a programme of tutorials he began last year teaching beginners how to paint in oils - and he already has a waiting list.

He said: 'Living in a wonderful county like Norfolk with its characteristic big skies who could fail to be inspired and I love the challenge of putting them down on canvas. I never know where my paint brush will take me.'

For more information on Peter and the Waveney Springs Art Collective, visit www.waveneysprings.co.uk