From the rugged cliffs of Shetland to the coves of Cornwall, artist Sarah Hutt travels our coastline, capturing its wild beauty
I spend months travelling the coast in my motorhome, returning with a full sketchbook: the soft blue-greens of Pembrokeshire, the dramatic rock formations of Shetland, the light-drenched coves of North Cornwall. The sea brings a stillness in me – it’s in my bones. As a contemporary landscape artist with an instinct for water and rock, I paint seascapes from memory and emotion, inspired by the elemental pull of the tide.
After 28 years in education, including time as headteacher for a school supporting autistic children, I made the leap to become a full-time artist in 2022. Post-Covid-19, I felt spent. I realised if I didn’t start painting now, I never would. I began painting full time and enrolled in a ‘how to get gallery ready’ course. That reignited my creativity. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to exhibit widely. I’ve built a following and I’ve won awards, such as the Northamptonshire and Rutland Open Artist of the Year 2023 and Town and County Art Society Award 2024. It’s been an incredible journey.
OUR VARIED COASTLINE
In my first year as a dedicated artist, I sold 52 paintings. It was amazing! But what matters more than how many paintings I sell is when someone connects with a painting on a personal level. People have stood in front of my work and said it reminds them of a place they loved by the sea, that it inspires a feeling they’d forgotten. That’s the highest praise. That’s why I paint.
I enjoy capturing the beauty of coastlines; I’m inspired by the changes caused by coastal erosion and how these natural forces reshape the landscape. Whenever I hold a rock, I’m intrigued by the history of the landscape locked within it and the stories it shares of past civilisations and centuries. It’s like a little piece of history that connects me to the world, past and present.
Each coastline offers me something different. I love the Outer Hebrides for their purity – the light there is like nowhere else. It sharpens the colours and gives a quiet intensity to everything. Shetland has a similar energy, a sense of being completely exposed to the elements. It grounds you. Cornwall, on the other hand, is full of surprises: the tiny coves, the cliffs, the feeling of being hugged by the land. It’s rich with perspective – from a painter’s point of view, it’s dramatic and textural. And Pembrokeshire offers a softer palette, with rolling green fields sloping down to the sea. There’s such a lovely contrast of blue and green – that contrast works beautifully on canvas.
AN ELEMENTAL BALANCE
My work [exhibited at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair and in galleries such as Water & Rock, Primrose and White Chalk] reflects the elemental balance of being by the sea. I work primarily with acrylics, charcoal, wax and crayons. I start with rock textures, layering and sanding to echo geological formations. I begin with the cliffs – with what the sea is eroding. Then I let the shoreline emerge. It’s like the memory of a place appears as I paint.
Sometimes, I don’t know exactly where I’m painting until halfway through. A cliff shape, a curve in the bay, a splash of turquoise and suddenly, I recognise it. It’s Shetland or Cardigan Bay or somewhere I’ve walked with my sketchbook. That’s the magic for me.
I sketch constantly. In Shetland, I’ll be out walking the cliffs with my sketchpad, or paddling in my kayak to reach hidden coves. I love that bird’s-eye perspective – looking down from a headland, taking in the sweep of the bay. One of my paintings is actually called Headland Walk – inspired by those clifftop views. When I’m travelling, I store up those memories, then paint them when I return.
I’ve been around water my whole life. I grew up near reservoirs in Lancashire and spent childhood holidays in Torquay and the Mumbles in south Wales. Water is where I feel most myself. I dive, I sail, I kayak – even now, if I’m heading to the shops or the pub, it’s often by kayak from my houseboat, where I live in Northamptonshire. That sense of being surrounded by water – it’s where I feel at home.
CONNECTING TO THE WILDNESS
I work on several canvases at once, sometimes four or five. I lay down textures, let them rest, come back and see them differently. Sometimes the sea emerges gently. Sometimes the rocks take over. I use any material that creates the feeling I’m after. It’s tactile, layered and instinctive. I want the viewer to feel the elements: the salt in the air, the wind on your face, the wildness of the shore.
For me, the coast is about more than place: it’s about space. That sense of vastness, of possibility. I love that contradiction: I paint in small spaces – my studio, my houseboat – but my subject is the horizon.
I dream of one day living full-time on the Scottish coast. Until then, I make seasonal pilgrimages – four months each year spent wandering its wild edges, sketchbook in hand. I walk, I draw, I drink it all in. It’s my way of seeing clearly, of processing the world – like keeping a visual diary stitched together by salt air.
A Sarah Hutt artwork can be yours from around £400 to around £2,800. For more information, visit sarahhuttart.co.uk and follow the artist on Instagram @sarahhutt_art.
