Embleton Bay (2025)

Original media: Inks, gouache, acrylics, watercolour, coloured pencil, gold leaf and gold thread.

I’m not sure if this counts as Low Newton or Embleton Bay. I’m stood on the former looking towards the latter.

Since the twins were little we’ve been coming to the Northumberland Coast in the autumn. The weather can throw anything at us, but the light is always spectacular – even more so when there’s weather coming towards us across the water.

In October 2024 we stayed at Beadnell and every morning I’d get up to watch the sun rise over the sea. Some mornings I’d run on to Football Hole Beach, and some mornings I’d get all the way to Embleton Bay. The reflection of the low sun on the wet sand make it feel like you’re running in the sky. It’s like nowhere else and I look forward to it every year.

Some days I’d end up on Embleton Beach twice in a day. Once alone in the morning, and again with flasks of tea for treasure collecting with everyone. Robin called it ‘Treasuring’ when he was small, and the name stuck. He’s like me in that he’s always on the lookout for something. Daniel laughs at Robin and I on the beach. As soon as we’re on the sand we’re both heads down and searching. ‘You’ve assumed the position’ he laughs. This year the new treasure was seaweed! Previous years have been colourful string and shells with holes in (to thread as we walk) and beach glass. And one year a perfect seabird skull. For my birthday last year a friend bought me a seaweed press and it opened up a new world of pattern possibilities.

In the early morning light I liked the way the windows on the beach huts shone gold in the sun, with the massive Dunstanburgh Castle appearing ethereal in the distance. From visiting in previous years I know it’s like that scene with the knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail; you walk and you walk and you never get any closer.

Available as a signed limited edition print, hand-finished with gold leaf and gold thread. All prints are mounted and can be posted, unless purchased framed.