A Walk, An Evening, A Feeling: How Art Can Capture All Three

From the South West Coast Path to a Home in the Netherlands

There is something rather special about knowing that a painting has found its way into someone’s home and carries with it memories of Cornwall. Sometimes people discover my work online or in my studio. Other times, they encounter it quite unexpectedly perhaps while enjoying a meal, exploring Porthleven harbour or walking the South West Coast Path.

That is exactly what happened with Crabby and the Dancing Sardines.

A couple visiting Cornwall from the Netherlands discovered the paintings during their coastal walking holiday, when they stopped for dinner at Kota in Porthleven. What followed is a lovely story about walking, the Cornish coast, good food and two paintings that became a lasting reminder of their time here.

This is their story.

From St Ives to Porthleven

“ Last summer we set out to walk a stretch of the South West Coast Path, starting in St Ives. We had heard so much about this part of Cornwall, the wild cliffs, the turquoise coves, the ever-changing light on the water, but nothing quite prepared us for how beautiful and how demanding the walk would actually be.

From St Ives we followed the path along the cliffs, climbing steadily up and down through gorse and heather, past old tin mine engine houses standing silent against the sky, and small coves where the sea churned white against the rocks.

The path took us on through Zennor, with its tiny stone church and views that seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon, and further still towards Land's End, where the Atlantic stretched out endlessly in front of us.

Eventually the coastline curved and we made our way onward, day after day, until we reached Falmouth, tired but full of the kind of quiet satisfaction that only comes from days spent outdoors, moving slowly through a landscape at the pace of your own feet.

A few days later, after resting and taking in the harbour town of Falmouth, we began another stretch, this time from Penzance towards Porthleven. This part of the walk had a different character altogether. The path wound along cliffs dotted with wildflowers, past small fishing villages where boats bobbed gently in sheltered harbours, and through fields that ran right up to the edge of the sea. There was something almost meditative about it, one foot after the other, the sound of waves below, gulls circling overhead, and the ever-present smell of salt in the air.

By the time Porthleven came into view, its harbour walls curving protectively around the boats moored inside, we were more than ready to rest our legs and find somewhere to eat.

Discovering Crabby and the Dancing Sardines at Kota

We had heard good things about Kota, a restaurant right on the harbourside, and it did not disappoint.

We arrived just as the light was beginning to soften into evening, the kind of golden hour that Cornwall seems to do so well, with the water in the harbour turning shades of amber and blue.

Walking in, tired from the day's miles but hungry and happy, we were welcomed warmly. The restaurant had that lovely combination of relaxed and special that the best places always seem to strike, unpretentious but clearly caring deeply about what they were doing.

We settled into our table and ordered, and as we waited for the food, we found ourselves looking around the room.

That is when we first noticed the artwork.

Hung on the walls were the most striking pieces, a huge and wonderfully characterful crab that seemed to almost dance off the canvas, and alongside it, a shoal of sardines rendered with such energy and colour that they genuinely looked like they were moving through the room.

We later learned the crab had a name, Crabby, which somehow made perfect sense the moment we heard it.

There was something joyful and alive about the work, a real sense of the sea and of Cornwall captured in colour and line, but with a playfulness that made us smile every time we looked up from our plates.

The food itself was excellent, fresh and simple in the best possible way, clearly built around whatever had come in from the boats that day.

But if we are honest, the paintings kept pulling our attention back.

We kept glancing over at them throughout the meal, commenting on the way the colours worked together, the movement in the sardines, the character in the crab's expression.

By the time we finished eating, we had already started talking about how much we loved them, half joking at first about how nice they would look somewhere in our own home.

But the more we talked about it, sitting there with the last of the wine and the sound of the harbour outside, the more the idea took hold.

It stopped feeling like a passing thought and started feeling like something we actually wanted to do.

From Porthleven to Their Home in the Netherlands

We asked our server about the artist and learned it was you, Maxine, and that the pieces were part of an installation there in the restaurant.

Something about knowing there was a real story and a real person behind the work, someone clearly connected to this coastline and its character, made the idea even more appealing.

We left Kota that evening still talking about it, the walk from Penzance now folded into memory alongside a new idea we could not quite let go of.

It took a little while after we got home to actually follow through, tracking things down, exchanging messages, working out sizes and framing, but eventually it happened.

Now, whenever we walk through our kitchen, we see Crabby and the Dancing Sardines hanging there on the wall, and it takes us straight back, not just to that one evening at Kota, but to the whole stretch of coast path that led us there.

The climbs out of St Ives, the quiet church at Zennor, the golden light coming into Porthleven after a long day's walk.

It is a small thing, perhaps, walking past a painting on your way to make coffee in the morning, but for us it carries all of that with it every single time.

A Piece of Cornwall to Take Home

Thank you for creating something that manages to hold all of that, a whole walk, a whole evening, a whole feeling, in a couple of pieces of art that now live permanently in our home.

For me, this is one of the most rewarding things about creating art inspired by Cornwall.

A painting can begin here  in Porthleven, beside the harbour, surrounded by the sea, boats, fishing life and the ever-changing colours of the Cornish coast and then travel much further than I ever could.

Crabby and the Dancing Sardines started their story on the walls of Kota, but they now have a new home in the Netherlands, where they have become part of another family's everyday life.

And perhaps that is what I love most about coastal art.

It isn't simply about depicting the sea. It can hold a place, a journey and a memory.

For these two walkers, the paintings have become a little piece of Cornwall to carry home with them a reminder of the South West Coast Path, Porthleven harbour, a long day's walking and an evening spent beside the sea.

Discover My Cornish Coastal Artwork

My work is inspired by the sea and by life around the Cornish coast, particularly the boats, marine life, fishing communities, harbours and characters that make this part of Cornwall so distinctive.

If you have discovered my artwork while visiting Cornwall, or if you simply want to bring a little piece of the Cornish coast into your own home, you can explore my collection of original artwork and prints.

Perhaps, like Crabby and the Dancing Sardines, a piece of artwork might become more than something beautiful on your wall.

Perhaps it will become a memory of somewhere you love.