Evening Star and Starlings through the Bandstand Arch

Print description

A seascape viewed from the verandas of Brighton Bandstand, looking out toward the West Pier and the Palace Pier. Above, starlings wheel and twist in mesmerizing formations, a natural murmuration against the sky.

Print details

I created this print from my original ink drawings to which I apply colour digitally. Printed on fine art paper using archival inks. I issue the formats A0, A1 & A2,A3 and A4  as limited editions of 100 where I individually sign and number each print.

Brighton’s West Pier

Brighton West Pier begins out over the water in 1866, a thin line between land and sea. It was designed by Eugenius Birch, who trusted iron, tides, and a certain quiet elegance. Its screw-piles drill down into the seabed, a simple but radical idea, while the open lattice frame lets the sea pass through without resistance.

At first it was a place for promenading, all footsteps, parasols, and slow seaside rituals. Gradually it grew. Bandstands, kiosks, and small structures appeared along its length, leading to a pavilion at the far end. Later, a concert hall brought music and crowds, turning the pier into a lively destination stretching out over the water.

The design mixes engineering and ornament, strength and lightness, function and display. It feels both practical and theatrical, a structure built to endure but also to delight.

It closed in 1975, and time took over. Storms, fire, and decay stripped it back to its frame. What remains is not just a ruin but a kind of drawing in space, an unfinished line that still holds the memory of movement, people, and the long reach out into the sea.

In 2019 I held an exhibition at the West Pier Centre where I showed my work. My interest in this charismatic structure is well documented in numerous prints where I have featured the remains of the West Pier.

Brighton Bandstand

The extraordinary design with its lobular arches and fluted capitals with crossed natural leaves of the bandstand has been compared to the Alcazar in Seville or the Alhambra in Granada. Since I was born in Granada and lived in Seville, the vision of the Bandstand brings a home away from home.

Brighton’s ‘birdcage’ bandstand is one of the finest surviving Victorian bandstands. It was constructed in 1884 as part of a wider scheme of improvement for the town’s western seafront. The entire structure was designed by Brighton Council’s surveyor, Philip Lockwood, who was also responsible for many other iron structures on the town’s seafront, including several shelters and the Madeira terrace and lift on the eastern esplanade. All of these structures, including the bandstand, were manufactured by the Phoenix Foundry in nearby Lewes, and their name can be seen on almost all of Brighton’s ironwork, from the Palace Pier to the railings and lamps that line the seafront.