My Long Term Relationship with The Coast
A love letter to the British seaside - how the coast has shaped my art style
Beaches have always signalled a time of joy for me. Stepping onto the sand is an instant nostalgia hit and takes me back to more innocent times. My blood pressure lowers, my shoulders drop and I welcome in the calm.
Baby Heather on a beach in Devon
From an early age, I have enjoyed the great British seaside - earlier than I thought in fact.
I asked my mum for some childhood beach photos and one of them was this one of my looking awesome in dungarees and red sunnies. Apparently we were in Devon - I had no idea I even been there - and my toothy grin says it all really. What’s not to love about bare feet in the wet sand seeing parents building sandcastles and getting to knock them down?
I remember a trip to King Edward Bay in Tynemouth with my daughter at a similar age. It’s a pretty similar image except she was more adventurous and decided to sample the sand as food. Luckily the north east is home to some of the cleanest beaches in the UK.
We lived in the North West of England so most of our holidays were either in North Wales or The Lake District.
Heather and her brother sat in the sand boat they built with their dad
Some of my absolute favourite childhood memories of the beach are in Wales. There was a beautiful B&B we would stay in near Bangor. Run by a lovely welsh family, it felt like a home from home.
While we were there, we’d make trips to Anglesey - mum would make a picnic and we’d all pile into the car.
One of the clearest memories I have is of the sand boat that we build with my dad. I remember feeling windblown that you could create something like that out of sand. I had no idea what he was doing at first but the engineer in him was not made to sit still and creating a boat for his eldest two to sit in was very well received. We didn't want to leave it behind but there’s always a temporary nature to anything you build on the beach.
Heather and her brother proud of their sandcastle and moat.
Our own creations weren’t quite so impressive but there was joy in the making - the turning out of castles, the digging and filling of moats and decorating the towers with found shells and seaweed. It was an art form in itself although I didn’t think of it like that at the time.
There were other holidays spent in Llandudno - the beach was covered in pebbles and ricks and we’d either be skimming stones or jumping over the waves as we counted them. I remember my dad saying ‘Every seventh wave is a big one’. I have no idea whether there’s any truth in that but it made us focus on the counting.
Heather searching for pebbles to skin at Llandudno Beach.
I still spend hours searching for shells and pebbles now - sometimes on my own, other times with my own family. It’s just as magical as it ever was and it’s formed the basis of my artistic inspiration for the last 4 years. From exploring the magical of finding pebbles on the beach to watching waves for hours on end and turning them into vivid colour pop linocut prints, my heart is happiest when I’m focussed on the coast.
I make regular trips to Tynemouth, Whitley Bay and Cullercoats for inspiration, calm and just to feel happy. Often I have my sketchbook but I have my phone to capture videos too. I like to watch the videos in the studio to create more sketches and get a real sense of the movement. Sometimes I’ll hone in on one exact moment when the wave looks prime for creating a composition but most of the time I work quickly sketching as the video moves to get a sense of energy into the drawing.
When I carve the water elements of my blocks, I move the blade in the direction that the wave flows. I helps me to get the right marks between coloured layers and to feel the sense of flow in the image. The colours I use are exaggerated to create a colour pop and to give the sense of joy that I feel when I witness the coast in person. I;m not here to show you the coast as it is, I;m here to relive how the coast feels and bring that nostalgia into your home.
