arts
From Stainforth To Saltburn – A Yorkshire Artist’s Journey Of Self-Discovery
Andrew Liddle talks to a local artist whose paintings of the Heritage Coast win countless admirers
![Saltburn from the cliffs - Andy Hawkins]()
Saltburn from the cliffs - Andy Hawkins
One of the Yorkshire coast’s most iconic sights, Saltburn Pier, is captured in some of Andy Hawkins’ most popular paintings, paying evocative homage to the seaside town that has been his home for the last quarter of a century.
There is something about the understated serenity and stoic simplicity of the pier and its connecting Cliff Lift that endear it to all who see it – and make Andy want to paint it. He has captured it in many different moods, portraying different prospects, usually using gentle colour harmonies and lyrical fluidity. Often it is seen from above in relation to the distant cliff, the historic lift just visible. Sometimes, it glisters under a magnificent dawn. Other paintings show the moon rising over a calmly-reflected structure appearing to walk out to sea.
“The most atmospheric drawing of the pier was done on the spot using charcoal,” he thinks. “It was a stormy November day and I had to work quickly but I wanted to record the reality that at times it takes a battering from the elements.” Now much shorter than in its original form, it was saved in the 1970s by public pressure when the local authority wanted to demolish it on safety grounds, even though it was a grade-two listed building – and the only pier to survive on Yorkshire’s peerless coast.
“It’s a prominent part of the town’s quirky appeal and one of the reasons why people come from far and near,” says Andy, who has recently noticed an upturn in local fortunes. “Saltburn is now on the map, a place to visit, full of nice food places, restaurants and cafes.”
![Fishing Boats at Marske]()
Fishing Boats at Marske
The quiet beauty of Marske, a gentle stroll away along the beach, is captured exquisitely in soft pastel colours. A companion piece of this once flourishing fishing village shows a boat moored forlornly on the sands. The artist’s paradise of Staithes appears in several prints immensely popular with visitors to this most scenic coastal edge of the North Yorkshire Moors’ National Park. Andrew has a clear fondness for its higgledy-piggledy rooftops, fetchingly by moonlight from Cowbar’s familiar vantage point.
His paintings take us on a journey that hugs the cliff edge of the Cleveland Way down to Runswick Bay, Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay, often under a golden glow, turning shades of peach and purple. They represent some of the most breathtakingly beautiful contemporary artwork inspired by an area that is a magnet for artists – and tourists.
![Staithes by moonlight]()
Staithes by moonlight
His gallery, the best place to see his work, has been a constant feature of the changing face of Milton Street since the turn of the Millennium, attracts both locals and holiday-makers and, as will be seen, owes something to the happy accident of his redundancy from Cleveland College, Middlesbrough, where he taught art.
He looks back on coming of age at the hugely prestigious Royal College of Art, London, with enormous affection, and remains firm friends with some of his contemporaries, particularly fellow northerners. “We shared a sense of humour and a critical outlook, and often exhibited together in commercial London galleries.”
Suddenly the lad from Stainforth, a pit village near Doncaster, had found himself at the ‘centre of the art world’. “It was a magical experience being in the company of the artists of the future, receiving tuition from eminent academics who had taught some of Britain’s finest artists of the past.” Being among kindred spirits, people like Laurie Lee, author of Cider With Rosie, who drank in the same pub, broadened his horizons.
One of his proudest moments as a student came when he was asked to break off an etching and ink up a copper plate. “It was a Rembrandt etching belonging to the V&A,” he says with a catch in his voice. “I experienced this wonderful sense of history and tradition in the famous old etching room, somehow a feeling of being part of a greater creative world.”
If he had arrived “with straw coming out of his ears, romancing about landscape,” as one tutor put it, he left full of confidence, well grounded in all the necessary skills. “My parents were delighted when I graduated,” he remembers, “but couldn’t quite believe it or understand it.”
He’s still conscious of what an achievement it was for someone of his background to be accepted there. “I come from solid working class stock and this throughout life has stood me in good stead,” he reflects. As a boy he could only dream about it, encouraged by his father Jack who, recognising his talents, took him on family holidays to visit the great London galleries. “It’s not everyone who had a Dad who was enthused by the work of Paolo Uccello,” he laughs. “I remember him pointing out to me the lances in the foreground of the famous battle scene, in the National Gallery, as an early use of a perspective device.”
In a village full of miners, Jack was something of an exception as a riveter in shipyards in the inland ports of Thorne, Goole and Hessle. “He had learned to draw the plan of a ship in greatly accurate detail and I think I inherited something of that skill. He also encouraged me to go to Art college - and bought me a Segovia LP which set me off learning classical guitar.”
![Hebden Bridge]()
Hebden Bridge
Andy had gone straight from Danum Grammar to Doncaster Art College, “Something awakened in me once I arrived there. It was a great place to study and get proper old-fashioned drawing tuition and grounding in ceramics.” He pauses for thought. “It was just bliss to be able to devote all my time to something I enjoyed, spending a whole day drawing a landscape portrait, if I felt like it.”
By now he was highly proficient on guitar and quickly found himself playing in a number of Blues and Rock bands, performing in local clubs. “For a time, I had difficulty deciding whether I wanted to be a musician or an artist,” he says, with a shake of the head.
After the two-year Foundation Course, he graduated to Stourbridge College, in the West Midlands, where for the next three enjoyable years he continued to work on figurative drawing, painting, and etching, building up the portfolio that would win him admission to the RCA. “I think my bent was always towards the traditional,” he says, “but at the time the prevailing philosophy in colleges involved abstract ideas and conceptual art.”
With such a background, his services were much in demand as both artist and teacher. “I exhibited in some pretty good galleries and taught in some good colleges and universities in the south, like Salisbury College and Oxford Brookes.” He found the two pursuits complemented each other rather well. Teaching not only provided financial security but he found working with pupils was a great eye-opener. “I’m sure it sharpened my vision and gave me greater objectivity.” It also made him optimise the time he had to spend as a working artist.
![Roseberry Topping]()
Roseberry Topping
Andy and his partner, Romana, came back north in 1986 to live in the Calder Valley town of Hebden Bridge and it was here his two children, Emily and Erika, were born. “I loved the place – still do – and we had ten wonderful years there, living in the centre, at the heart of the place.” He was captivated by the once smoky mill town now in post-industrial transition and captured its atmosphere in a series of acclaimed pen drawings, exhibited at the local Tourist Information Centre, and in watercolours that sold widely.
In 1996, drawn by the prospect of life on the beautiful Yorkshire coast, he accepted a teaching post in Middlesbrough, bought a bigger house to accommodate a studio and threw himself into his new life, teaching by day and painting Saltburn and the coast in his spare time. Redundancy was the spark that made him decide for the first time in his life to devote himself entirely to his own work as an artist. “When teaching ended in 1998, I made the decision to run my own gallery. It was a time of necessary focus and the point at which I began to work extensively from the landscape, mostly in watercolour.”
Andy’s gallery is the best place to admire the full range of his work – and buy it, either in original form or in prints and postcards. 'Traditional’ is the word that perhaps best describes the stunningly beautiful watercolours and oil paintings on display, of the coast stretching from Marske to Robin Hood’s Bay.
No artist has done more to put Saltburn on the map!