Once, maybe twice a year, we manage to visit the seaside, where we’re fortunate enough to stay in a bungalow-on-the-beach at Pevensey Bay, on the alleged Sunshine Coast just east of Eastbourne.

Here we either languish by the pebbled beach or – once a year for the past decade and more – we spend a week undertaking practical maintenance on the house, to stave off the ravages of sea-air; gale-force winds; driving rain and the often alarmingly high tides to which such an exposed location is prone.

This activity is normally undertaken prior to Easter and involves other family members, so together our small but perfectly-formed team will set-to with sandpaper, paintbrushes, sink-plungers, power tools and caulk to freshen the property for the coming ‘season’.

This year has been particularly arduous as the main task was to repaint a weather-worn wooden balustrade which surrounds the first-floor ‘deck’. With over 400 facets to sand down and repaint, the task took most of the week – towards the end of which we felt we deserved a little R & R. Thus we take a valedictory trip into Eastbourne where – as its unspoken reputation would have it – our presence will have lowered the average age by a very small percentage.

First though, an acquisitive visit to Chilley Farm, a couple of miles inland, where a butcher’s counter is part of the attraction and from which we’re delighted to select the Turf element for tonight’s planned ‘Surf & Turf’ last supper. A quick coffee in the rustic café and then back coastwards to the Southern Head fish-shack (where the display of fresh- and shell-fish is always Instagram-worthy – if only I knew how.) Here we acquire an exciting selection of complementary ‘Surf’ components, packaging everything into our pro-actively pre-planned, pre-iced insulated bag and setting off into the teeth of another howling gale. 

 A bracing walk along the Promenade excoriated the sawdust from our lungs and faces as we strode towards coffee-stop No. 2 – the almost deserted but nevertheless welcoming and delightfully named Holywell Tea Chalet, the furthest point in our perambulation. Here, we hatch a further plan to visit the Towner, Eastbourne’s striking art gallery and cinema, standing sentinel and impactful at the edge of Devonshire Park.

And it is here, in low-lit, richly-painted galleries we engage with a well-curated and enjoyable exhibition of 19^th century watercolour paintings by J.M.W. Turner and his contemporaries.

Joseph Mallord William Turner’s enduring fame is underpinned by his treatment of tenuous natural sunlight, depicted through the surprisingly heavy use of watercolour paint, most especially recognised in his 1838 work, ‘The Fighting Temeraire’ the subject of which is a “veteran warship, hero of the battle of Trafalgar, [seen] as a pale and ghostly mass looming against a rich, panoramic sunset”.

Although the Towner exhibition doesn’t include this particular piece (it being normally resident in London’s National Gallery), it’s abundantly clear that the sunset and general treatment of sunlight had long been one of the artist’s primary fascinations, as almost all of the 33 Turner works displayed (amongst the full 83 pictures hung across two galleries) are clearly-developing studies of this challenging ethereal visual element.

Nestling alongside the Turners are a supporting cast of works by no less than 20 of his contemporaries, many of whom were either influenced by, or influencers of, the assumed master of his day. Names such as Thomas Girtin, John Sell Cotman, Peter de Wint and John Crome were all hitherto unknown to me but all bring innovative vision and sympathetic treatments to their subject matter.

And only one Artist – the creator of the title picture to this piece, Amy Constance Reeve-Fowkes* (through whose name you may deduce, dear reader) – is a woman. Maybe surprising in the context of our 21st century egalitarianism but in the 19th century, despite obvious talent and capabilities, the female watercolourist of the day is represented by just 1.2% of the these assembled artworks.

And do you know what? It was my favourite piece. Notwithstanding  that the subject matter is familiar and well-represented, Mrs Reeve-Fowkes’s painting is a perfect amalgam of indistinct abstracts in her treatment of the sky and sea; the beach and the gently defocussing building shapes along with the sketchy but undoubtedly solid groynes, which then all contrast and support the painstaking architectural detail of the pier and it’s dense clusters of supporting ironwork.

So. On future visits, we shall now enjoy walking the 1,000 foot length of Eastbourne’s pier – with greater vision, enlightenment, enjoyment and gratitude to our newly adopted, one-and-only female artist.

Footnotes: Impressions in Watercolour: J.M.W. Turner and his contemporaries Exhibition is on until 12 April 2026 at The Towner Eastbourne, Devonshire Park, College Rd, BN21 4JJ

*Amy Constance Reeves-Fowkes (nee Quertier) was married to one Arthur Reeve-Fowkes, who would later become the Towner Art Gallery’s first Curator.

The author would like to thank Emily Gates of Rees & Co and Keziah Keeler of Towner Eastbourne for their help in creating this piece.

Finally, huge thanks must also be recorded to members of the O’Gallagher family (you know who you are!) whose gallant and unerring assistance with Maintenance Week has made the tasks in hand a full-blown pleasure. Well, almost.