Happy Memories

This painting was inspired by that classic Portrush feeling on a bright North Coast day… blue skies that feel almost too good to be true, salty air rolling in off the Atlantic, and that instant lift you get when the sea is right there in front of you. It’s the kind of day that doesn’t just feel nice… it feels familiar, like it’s tapping on a door in your memory and letting all the best bits back in.

With this piece, my intention was to bring you straight back to the seaside towns so many of us grew up visiting. Those easy day trips down the coast where the only plan was to wander: sandy shoes, wind-ruffled hair, walking the shoreline with your sleeves pulled down because it’s freezing… and still insisting on an ice cream anyway, because that’s just what you do by the sea!

There’s a specific kind of joy in places like Portrush, playful, a little bit chaotic, full of movement and light… but underneath it is something softer too: a sense of tradition, of returning, of the coast being a backdrop to family stories and small rituals that repeat year after year. I wanted the painting to hold that balance: the brightness of a perfect day, and the nostalgia of all the ones that came before it.