In 2025 I was asked to make a mural for the Droskyn shelter Perranporth, in the Duchy of Cornwall by the Perranzabuloe parish council . It soon became clear to me that a painting in this space would not have a good shelf life. I proposed to make three water colours telling a story of the area. That would be turned into three large prints on a meterial that would be resistant to the elements. The Droskyn Shelter has been transformed into a space that remembers the past. Its a place where the names of loved ones are engraved on stainless steel fish.

This is the story of a relationship between the land sea and the people who lived and worked here in the past and those who came here, who would come to love the place. 

To quote in the words of one of those remembered here. It was "his Happy Place".

He too is part of the history of Perranporth, Beginning with St Piran around 420 Ad Establishing the one of first Christian communities in England. Who laid the foundations of smelting and tin mining. From which the area grew and developed changing like the waves of the sea and clouds in the sky until we come to today. No longer a mining area or fishing community. Although the residue is plain to see all around.

The memorial looks back to a time when people depended on the courage and muscle of its fishermen to bring in a catch. Pilchard fishing underpinned the industry until its decline in the 1890s. In my thinking some one had to be the last fisherman and so I painted the "last catch". Depicting the men fighting the sea and laying their 'Seine' nets for the last time.

The painting "Sun setting on the pilchard boats" is a metaphor, for loss. And yet we find solos and hope as we watch the dying rays of the sun dipping down below the distant horizon. Watching the change occur with an array of colour. We know that the dark will soon hide from sight what we once held. And with it we understand that dawn awaits and a new day will begin.

The third painting is "the beaching of the Voorspoed"  in March 1901 she began her voyage from Cardiff and fully laden with coal and heavy machinery on route to Bahia, Brazil. The ship took on water and was blown inland and finally beached. The Crew, seven in all were rescued including a reluctant captain who could only look on as locals began in earnest to salvage the cargo and ship. Some thought it more a kin to "looting". And the captain reportedly said "he had experiance when wrecked in different parts of the globe even in the Fiji Islands. But never among such savages  as those of Perranporth". The ship was refloated the next day. 

The rescue of the men of the Voorspoed and the schooner itself to me shows hope in the face of raging storms of life. Rescue can be found and hope is not dashed to pieces. The storm calms and peace returns.

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I hope that visitors to Droskyn enjoy the artwork and read the names on the pilchards.

And find peace and hope in their gurney.

This is the story of how this site as been developed from its tired looking state to a brighter future.

ref: Royal Museums Greenwich