Gateway to Seven Sisters White Cliffs Song

Print description

View from Hope Gap of the famous Seven Sisters, the chalk sea cliffs on the English Channel coast in Sussex.

Print details

I create this print from my original ink drawings to which I apply colour digitally. It is printed on fine art paper using archival inks. I issue the formats A0, A1 & A2  as limited editions of 100 where I individually sign and number each print.  The smaller formats A3 and A4 are form open edition signed prints.

Seven Sisters Cliffs

In December 2011 I produced the first sketch of this view. Nine years later after a request from a costumer I embarked the task to revisit this small work and turn it into a large print.

The Seven Sisters is a range of chalk hills in East Sussex that meet the English Channel in the shape of very scenic white cliffs. They are located between the mouth of the Cuckmere River and Birling Gap and belong to the South Downs National Park.

Because its outstanding beauty many artists have depicted this a nearby views around this spot.

Sussex by the Sea

Have you ever been on a walk in the South Downs in a day with large cumulus clouds that shoot up to the sky? They dwarf any feature in the landscape and turn us into miniscule beings. The sun shimmers in the haze and the cliffs, like limelight in old fashion theatres, project a blinding light.

The encouragement to create this print also happened during the group exhibition I entered with four of my prints from October 2020 to January 2021  at Gallery 94 in Glyndebourne. The name of the exhibition was ‘Fair Ground’, a  theme that reflected on the poem ‘Sussex’ by Rudyard Kipling which I quote below

God gives all men all earth to love,
But since man’s heart is small,
Ordains for each one spot shall prove
Beloved over all.
Each to his choice, and I rejoice
The lot has fallen to me
In a fair ground – in a fair ground –
Yea, Sussex by the sea!

Related prints

I have depicted the beauty of the South Downs National Park in other prints.

My panoramic print ‘Birling Gap Starling Murmuration’ records the opposite view from Beachy head looking towards Seafrod.

Also ‘Cuckmere Haven Valley Eventide’ panoramic print depicts the view of the Cuckmere Valley also looking towards Seaford with the meandering Cuckmere River and the Coastguards Cottages.

Rudyard Kippling

You can read below one more poem by this famous author:

A Three-Part Song

I’m just in love with all these three,
The Weald and the Marsh and the Down countree.
Nor I don’t know which I love the most,
The Weald or the Marsh or the white Chalk coast!

I’ve buried my heart in a ferny hill,
Twix’ a liddle low shaw an’ a great high gill.
Oh hop-bine yaller an’ wood-smoke blue,
I reckon you’ll keep her middling true!

I’ve loosed my mind for to out and run
On a Marsh that was old when Kings begun.
Oh Romney Level and Brenzett reeds,
I reckon you know what my mind needs!

I’ve given my soul to the Southdown grass,
And sheep-bells tinkled where you pass.
Oh Firle an’ Ditchling an’ sails at sea,
I reckon you keep my soul for me!