Staithes at Night (2026)

Original media: inks, acrylics, gaouche, watercolour, pencils, gold leaf and gold thread.

The Cleveland Way is one of the shorter national trails, beginning in Helmsley in North Yorkshire. The path takes you to the coast at Saltburn by the Sea, and then all along the coastal path to Filey Brigg. In May 2025 I ran the whole path over the course of a week. I was on my own for most of it, then joined by my best running friends at Whitby for the last couple of days. I carried a little running pack with everything I needed for the week on my back (I wasn’t camping!) and the smallest drawing kit in a pouch on my front. I stopped to draw whenever inspiration struck. I took photographs too, but mostly the paintings are based on the sketches.

On the run I arrived in Staithes mid morning and sketched on the Cowbar side. But then a friend sent me a lovely photo she'd taken of a moonlit night in Staithes, the windows glowing yellow. I don't usually paint just from photographs but I decided it was allowed as it is somewhere I've been to at night and know the stillness and the colours. Staithes always seems so very still. I'd like to think that in this painting you can just hear the lapping of the water close by, and maybe the sound of the waves far distant, beyond the harbour wall.

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.