A PAINTING of a popular seaside tradition is expected to fetch £8,000 to £10,000 at a Dorset auction.

Campbell Mellon's painting of a Punch and Judy show on the beach will go under the hammer in Charterhouse auctioneer's specialist picture auction on Thursday, January 4.

Consigned for a client in Leicestershire, it is of Gorleston Beach, Norfolk, which Campbell Mellon loved to paint.

Richard Bromell of the Sherborne auction house said: “The painting is of a summer's day at the beach, which certainly feels a long way away as we are in the depths of winter.” 

Although Mellon worked out of doors, his paintings were often composed in his studio, as he re-arranged, eliminated detail he didn’t see fitting and added designs to suit his ideas.

He was more interested in composing an image that conjured up atmospheric qualities of happiness rather than a sober pictorial translation of what he had seen.