A new exhibition at The Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable May 6th to 18th 2026. In October 2025 I was lucky enough to rent an apartment right on the edge of Porthmeor Beach in St Ives. This gave me full view of the sea and the waves crashing in on the seashore. It was very windy; to start with the wind came from the north straight into the bay, then as days passed it moved west and around to the south. I watched how the waves formed, some of them way out to sea, growing bigger and bigger, tipping over as they moved toward the shore. My exhibition includes a number of wave paintings inspired by my stay in Cornwall.
A new exhibition at The Horsebridge Arts Centre, Whitstable Wednesday May 6th to Monday May 18th 2026. View paintings from the exhibition.
I have spent at least 10 years standing on the beach, painting, sketching, taking photos and generally absorbing the atmosphere, energy of the sea, the sounds of the water and the birds not to mention the excitement of those around me enjoying themselves at the seaside. I have visited St Ives many times; most of my paintings from there are fairly peaceful and sunny with calm open beaches.
In October 2025 I was lucky enough to rent an apartment right on the edge of Porthmeor Beach in St Ives. This gave me full view of the sea and the waves crashing in on the seashore. It was very windy; to start with the wind came from the north straight into the bay, then as days passed it moved west and around to the south. I watched how the waves formed, some of them way out to sea, growing bigger and bigger, tipping over as they moved toward the shore. Some were so large that the brave surfers were totally dwarfed, but somehow managed to keep their balance and ride the wave. Being at Porthmeor Beach this time inspired me to paint a number of wave paintings in particular ‘Rocks and Surf on a Windy Day at St Ives’. These are included in this exhibition.
A visit to Godrevy Lighthouse on Tuesday when it was not too stormy inspired my painting ‘Seals on the Beach in the Cove; Godrevy towards the East’. I have since learned from an art lover at Bath Art Fair where I exhibited this painting in February, that the next cove is known locally as ‘Hell’s Mouth’! Sorry this painting is now in Turin awaiting my exhibition in Venice June-August. Prints are available.
On the Thursday we travelled across Cornwall (just 8 miles from St Ives to Penzance). The wind howled into Mounts Bay! We drove to the Lizard Point, it was so windy we couldn’t go much further than the car park; the sea was exciting as the waves crashed in to the most southerly point of England. Round to the west is Cadgwith Cove, normally quite sheltered but today the waves were so huge they had hauled the 5 fishing boats out of the water and up the beach onto the edge of the road.
After a wonderful fish lunch in the Cadgwith Inn we drove back towards Helston then cut down to the coast to Porthleven, well known for catching the storms as they thunder in from the west across the Bay. Today the sea was splashing into the harbour and when we arrived at the extreme point of the harbour, looking toward the Lizard we could see foam and huge breakers flooding the coastline. This is what inspired my painting ‘Windy Day High Surf towards Lizard Point’.
My exhibition includes a number of wave paintings inspired by my stay in Cornwall. I hope you enjoy this exhibition which has been inspired by my week in Cornwall last autumn. See some of my paintings
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Author: Ann
Ann has been drawing and painting from 2007; she works in OILS principally land, sky and seascapes, often working directly out of doors in front of the scene. Recently her work has developed to become larger, more abstract and expressionistic. Ann’s paintings are now often developed in the studio from her experiences en plein air, sketches and photographs, gaining inspiration from her travels in France and to the coasts of Cornwall and Normandy as well as her home county of Kent.
Ann developed her reputation as a plein air painter; working in the vineyards of the Loire Valley and around the Kent Coast where until 2017 she worked out of a beach hut in Whitstable. Ann now works from Studio One at Nucleus Arts Halpern Conservancy Building 15, High Street, Rochester, Kent; she also works from home painting in her conservatory and using her Attic Studio for preparing canvases and framing and storing her work. Currently Ann is working on a series of shoreline, sea and skyscape paintings around the Kent Coast and Cornwall.
Ann builds her own canvases using stretcher bars and 12oz cotton duck. then prime it with 3 coats of acrylic primer and/or gesso. She usually coats the canvas with turpsy red, often Indian red, sometimes Burnt Siena. When this is dry she lays out the scene with a thin coat of oil paints then building on this, firstly using a brush, then thick oil paint applied with a palette knife. The extent to which the painting is built with more impasto depends on the scene and mood. Ann’s style is impressionistic, representative tending towards some abstraction and expressionism.
Ann is working on a series of paintings depicting the beaches of Whitstable on the north coast of Kent and in Cornwall, at various times of day and year, state of the tide and weathers inspired by Ann’s experience painting on the beach. Ann has been painting in Whitstable for some 5 years, standing on the pebbly beach watching the tide ebb and flow, the morning mist across the Swale (the water which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland), the light on the horizon, the clouds coming in from the west over London, and the light out to sea to the north and east. The low tide exposes sandbanks, pebbles, seafood for the gulls to seek.
Ann exhibits in Capital Arts Gallery in Eltham, Horsebridge Gallery in Whitstable, Brick Lane Gallery in East London, Elizabeth James Gallery in Croydon and York St Gallery, Ramsgate and with Gabriel Fine Arts in London. She exhibits at Art Fairs, notably the Parallax Art Fair, Talented Art Fair and East Sussex Art Fair and Roy’s People Art Fair. She also has a travelling exhibition of 10 large seascapes in oil with Little Van Gogh (www.littlevangogh.co.uk). Ann’s work is in collections across the UK and the US and this year she will be represented by Art Blend in the Joseph Gallery, Fort Lauderdale and by Art Productions, New York and by Rossocinabra Gallery in Rome and by PAKS Gallery in Austria and her work will be seen in Art Fairs in Europe and the US.
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Ann Palmer Artist 