Fern Pit Cafe

Perched above the Gannel, the Fern Pit Cafe captures a familiar Pentire landmark after dark. Its distinctive whitewashed building and illuminated sign stand against the misty landscape beyond, marking the entrance to a view that generations of visitors and locals have come to know.

I walk past the Fern Pit Cafe almost every day on my lunchtime walk around Pentire, so it felt inevitable that eventually it would become part of Newquay After Dark.

The original reference photograph was taken during the day and reimagined after dark. I wanted the distinctive white building to become the focus, with its red and blue sign and small pools of artificial light standing out against the quieter landscape.

The café sits in an unusual position high above the Gannel, with steps leading down towards one of Newquay's most recognisable estuary views. That view isn't actually visible in the painting, the steps are merely suggested and the fields beyond disappear into mist, but for anyone who knows Fern Pit, it's already there in their memory.

Because I know the landscape so well, this was also an unusually natural painting to construct. I know where the steps lead, what lies beyond the edges of the canvas and how the landscape fits together.

Sometimes a familiar building is enough to remind us of everything that surrounds it.

Fern Pit Cafe
Original painting — coming soon