Newhaven welcomes giant billboard-scale artworks inspired by Eric Ravilious

Ahead of the Turner Prize coming to Eastbourne this autumn the project will feature some of Ravilious’s best loved images of Newhaven, with responses by contemporary artists Charlotte Prodger, Mark Titchner, Emily Allchurch, and Jo Lamb.The Ravilious works are all in the Towner Eastbourne Collection.

Spokeswoman Nicola Jeffs said: “Each artist’s work will sit alongside a Ravilious painting completing a dialogue between Newhaven’s past, present, and future and exploring Newhaven’s intersecting marine, rural and industrial landscapes. They will link Newhaven’s dynamic past with the town as it is today, undergoing a renaissance, bursting with creativity and attracting new residents, businesses and investment. The trail opens on August 1 and stays up until the end of October 2023.

“The project will, for the first time, enable some of Towner’s world-class collection of Eric Ravilious’s Newhaven paintings to sit within the spaces they depict, such as the sea view from the Sussex coast as well responding to the industry in the area. The project is curated and organised by Towner Eastbourne, supported by the Newhaven Enterprise Zone.

“Each location on the trail will have two artworks, one a Ravilious painting and the other the work of one of the contemporary artists. All the paintings and locations will be revealed at the start of August. There will be a full programme of associated events running alongside the trail including a display of the four paintings in the Ravilious Library at Towner and artistic responses to the Ravilious paintings by pupils from Newhaven’s Seahaven Academy school.

“Newhaven Harbour lies within walking distance of Furlongs, the home of artist and Ravilious’ friend Peggy Angus. Ravilious would regularly visit Angus and undertake painting trips in the area, including Newhaven, where he was attracted by the busy port, ships and industrial machinery.”

Artist Emily Alchurch, based in Hastings, said: “My work is all about recreating and updating historical artworks by digitally collaging photographs I have taken of contemporary life. In Eric Ravilious’ painting Channel Steamer Leaving Harbour (1935) the bright cabin lights and billowing steam from the ship’s funnel adds excitement and a wonderful anticipation about the voyage ahead.

"The port of Newhaven, and the ferry itself, has naturally modernised in the intervening 90 years, but I hope my interpretation of the scene today, captures the same drama, witnessing the arrival of the Transmanche ferry, having completed its similar crossing back from Dieppe”

Like Eric Ravilious, Jo Lamb, also based in Sussex, is drawn to the industrial and marine landscape of Newhaven as inspiration for her art: “I have known and admired the work of Ravilious for many years so for me it is a great honour to have my painting alongside one of his. Possibly I have painted Newhaven more than any other place in Sussex and it is a place I return to in my art. The tip has always, inexplicably, fascinated me, along with the large boats and ferry that come in and out of the harbour.”

Corinne Day, programme director, Newhaven Enterprise Zone, said: “Newhaven is building a reputation on the south coast as a hub for creatives, so Newhaven Enterprise Zone was delighted to support this important art trail showcasing one of Sussex’s best-known artists.”