A Summer on the Coast: Behind This Season's New Prints

Summer is when The Gillan Gallery's collection comes most alive — long light, changeable skies, and the kind of coastal weather that makes for the most interesting painting. Here's a look at what the season has meant for the gallery this year, and what's new in the collection.

Painting in the Moment

Tony Parsons spent much of the summer working en plein air — setting up his easel directly on location rather than working from photographs back in the studio. That means capturing a scene exactly as it is: the tide at a particular hour, cloud cover shifting mid-painting, the specific quality of light that only exists for a few minutes before it changes again. It's a slower, more demanding way to paint, but it's what gives each coastal piece its sense of having actually been there.

This season's locations ranged across familiar coastal stretches and further afield, continuing a body of work that spans harbours, open water, and shoreline scenes from Britain and beyond.

New in the Collection

A handful of new pieces have joined the gallery this summer, spanning the Coastal, Water & Waves, and Animal Prints categories. Each is produced to museum-quality standards on archival paper and hand-signed by the artist — prints made to be lived with, not just looked at once and forgotten.

Prints start from £130, with hand-embellished editions — where the artist adds hand-finished detail to a printed base — from £175.

A Quieter Counterpoint

Alongside the coastal work, Kirsten van Schreven's prints continue to offer something different: a slower, more exploratory look at structure, decay, and the spaces in between construction and collapse. Where Tony's work captures a fleeting moment outdoors, Kirsten's prints reward the opposite — long, close looking indoors, at your own pace.

Bringing the Season Home

Whether you're drawn to the immediacy of a coastal scene painted in a single sitting, or the quieter, considered detail of a print built up over time, this summer's additions offer a way to bring a little of the season's light and texture into your home — long after the season itself has passed.

Browse the full collection, or get in touch if you're looking for a specific place or subject we may already have captured.