An American artist has escaped the humid summers of Illinois to revel in the cold and rain of North Yorkshire’s dramatic coast. Ruth Campbell meets the painter whose bold images sell all over the world

WHEN artist Tina Mammoser first arrived in the seaside resort of Scarborough on a blisteringly chilly, wet and windswept day, it wasn’t quite love at first sight, but almost.

She may have turned blue with cold and got soaked to the skin as she cycled along this stretch of the North Yorkshire coast on a sketching and painting trip, but the drama of the landscape, along with the weather, inspired her.

The painter, from Chicago, who came to Britain partly to escape the extremely hot, humid summers of her native Illinois, soon warmed to the muted colours and imposing skies along our North Sea coast: “I love winter but couldn’t cope with the summers at home. I actually like the weather here, the cold and the rain. I much prefer it, I revel in greyness,” she laughs.

Her bold, abstract paintings of our sea and coastline, which sell all over the US and Europe, exude a stunning simplicity. But Tina’s sophisticated and complex layering of colour and light give them an almost ethereal feel.

The 44-year-old relocated to Scarborough, where she has a studio in her two bedroomed, spacious Victorian flat close to the seafront, in July after spending 18 years in London.

She first moved to the UK 21 years ago, arriving in Dundee to take a postgraduate textual studies diploma in Shakespeare after completing a degree in human development in Illinois: “I always had a very romantic view of Britain and I had been to Scotland on holiday and loved it. Once I arrived, that was it, I felt it was this was where my soul belonged and I stayed three years.”

Tina, the daughter of a secretary and a draughtsman, went on to study publishing at Stirling University, and became a British citizen. She also studied physics through the Open University and completed a diploma in geology.

She started taking painting lessons for fun when she moved to London to work in design: “I wanted a hobby and that was my downfall,” she says. Her tutor, a working artist, encouraged her to take her art more seriously so, after embarking on a number of residential and other short courses, she started to sell her work, and began to build up quite a following.

“I made the decision on my 30th birthday, in late 2000, to quit my job in graphic design for a bank. It was my 30th birthday present to myself.

A keen cyclist, she started to explore the coast: “I have always loved the sea and headed from Deal in Kent to Dover and Margate. Then I travelled to East Sussex, Wemouth, the Isle of Portland and the Isle of Wight.

Soon dubbed the ‘Cycling Artist’, she took to her bike, cycling all around the UK coastline to sketch and paint her soft, atmospheric acrylic colour scapes. Soon, her abstract art based on the geology of these areas started to attract more and more buyers: “It satisfied my love of the sea, cycling and painting all in one.”

It was 2008 before she reached Yorkshire, arriving by train for a five day trip: “I spent four days solid, riding in the rain, it was so wet and cold. And, no, it wasn’t love at first sight,” she says. “But the coast did amaze me. From Bridlington to Bempton Cliffs and Spurn Head, it was utterly amazing.”

She didn’t return to the area again until some online artist friends invited her to Scarborough three years ago: “These were people I’d never met, artists and craftspeople and sellers. But when I arrived here, it felt as if I had known them for years.”

It was a day trip to Whitby that convinced her that this where she wanted to live: “It was November and everything was shut. The tide was out and we walked along the beach, picking up fossils. We had fish and chips from the Magpie cafe and fought off the gulls.

“The beach was empty, everything felt clear and cold, that’s how I like it. Scarborough was the same, during that trip I started to see it differently. This time, I wasn’t on a bike covering so many miles a day.

“We relaxed and went to the pub in town. That did it for me. In addition to the visual appeal of the coastline, I liked the people and the towns.”

Fascinated by the geology of the area, she returned to visit nearby Staithes while attending an Open University summer school: “There is so much happening in such a shorty stretch of coast, the change from chalk to black rocks, sandstones and shale, and then the ironstone layers. There are so many really dramatic structures, a lot of it from the Jurassic period.”

And there was much to inspire her art: “As well as the textural changes, it is about the colour as well. Again, everything connected. I thought,’ I really like this whole stretch of coast, the whole area’,” she recalls.

After 17 years in London, she felt ready for a move:  “I had been saying for years that I wanted to live on the coast. But I had kind of got stuck in London,” she says.

Now happily living in Scarborough, she knows she has made the right move: “I can do a lot more here with the same money. I live in a nice Victorian terraced, two bedroomed flat with a garden, studio and office, just five minutes from the sea. I have got so much more here, for half the rent I was paying in London.

 “Everyone is so lovely and friendly and business networking is so much easier.  That surprised me, as I’m more used to London. You meet far more people far more easily up here.

Tina, who also studies astronomy, is enjoying exploring the area: “The places I like tend to be less accessible. Although I can get everywhere on trains and buses, there are enough remote villages where I can go exploring.”

“A day return to Whitby is much cheaper than a one day travel ticket in London. I am ticking myself off for not doing it ages ago.”

Having exhibited at the National Maritime Museum, Dulwich Picture Gallery and various galleries in Cork Street, London, Tina still has a London agent and exhibits in a gallery in the capital. But she sells most of her work over the internet: “I can send my work anywhere and do a lot online, so can be based anywhere in the country.”

Believing art and science are not separate worlds, but intertwined, she would love to open a small gallery specialising in cross-discipline drawing here one day: “I like to combine approaches from art and science, because both fascinate me, they are two sides of the same coin. Artists are analytical and technical, while scientists are creative and open-minded.”

Although she does miss friends and her family, who all still live in America, she doesn’t miss the highly competitive culture: “There is so much competition, and I was good with that, but it was bad for me. People here work together.”

She loves the pace of life in Britain: “Not so much in London, but here, there is an overall culture of being slightly calmer, more at ease with life and getting on with things.”

Her parents, who are extremely supportive of her life here, do come to visit: “But they also have a caravan in Florida, and they’re not as keen on the weather here,” she laughs.

Tina, who describes herself as a ‘serial mover’, having lived in 12 different homes in the 21 years she has been in the UK, now feels the time has come to put down roots: “I am so glad I moved here. I am definitely going to stay in Yorkshire.”


www.tina-m.com