Circular Sjavarsida Lighthouse | Kristjana S Williams

Circular Sjavarsida Lighthouse, a stunning limited edition print by Icelandic artist Kristjana S Williams.

The story behind the artwork:

One of a trio of contemporary Limited Edition fine art prints, inspired by the irresistible, splashy draw of the British seaside holiday. For centuries we have swept, as reliably as seagulls and grains of sand, to bask in the quirky charms of British coastal towns and their surrounding countryside. In these prints, Kristjana casts her artistic eye over the coastlines, forests and rock pools of the counties of Kent in the East and Cornwall in the West. Each scene captures an eclectic snapshot of the many brief moments that merge together to create the holiday state of mind. Whether by the sea or in the woods, closer to nature, our frenetic heads switch off and happily drift into a haze of peace...

In this piece, the focus retreats slightly away from the Kentish coast, and into the ancient forests of the county. But never so far that the sounds and spirit of the sea are out of mind. A clam shell frames the forest, and a snake encircled lighthouse tempts you back to the sea, just a short walk through the trunks of majestic Scots Pine. A distant glasshouse pays homage to Barbara Hepworth, whose studio and sculpture garden are intertwined with the history and culture of St. Ives in Cornwall. When she moved there during the Second World War, she found the wild beauty of the surrounding terrain offered her a counterpoint to the destruction of the man-construed war. The cars are from the day, on 15th October 1895, when the first ‘Horseless Carriage Exhibition’ took place at the agricultural show ground in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. This marked the start of an incredibly fast revolution away from our lives being grounded in nature, to the lives we lead today, surrounded by man-made environments. Local birdlife sings out from the trees - a cacophony of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers, egrets and nightingales. Charles Darwin, born in Kent, is the monkey sitting on the skull and pile of books. Here, Kristjana is reminding us of why coastal holidays will always hold us in their sway; by returning to the coast and the sound of crashing waves, we satisfy our instinctive craving for nature.