After completing the first leg of her Coastal Tour of England in the North-East, artist Lynne Wixon talks to Ruth Addicott about the places that inspired her the most

TUCKED behind the steelworks on the mouth of the Tees, Paddy’s Hole doesn’t usually top the list of places to visit in the North-East, but as far as artist Lynne Wixon is concerned, it’s been the most inspirational yet.

Lynne has featured Paddy’s Hole in South Gare in her Coastal Tour of England, a tour which focuses on eclectic man-made structures that straddle the land and sea. The project involves her travelling clockwise along the English coastline from Northumberland to Cumbria and she recently completed the first leg in the North-East.

Since starting the tour in 2010, Lynne has travelled from Bamburgh via Blyth down to North Shields, South Shields, Redcar and Saltburn to Whitby looking for constructions that have been developed for leaving, landing and leisure.

“Each leg of the journey feels very different, you literally cross an estuary and everything changes,” she says. “I try to reflect the individual character of the area in the paintings using the landscape to give the littoral structures a context and a narrative. There are no humans in my work because I want people to focus on the structures; the minute you put people in, it creates a story.”

It is Paddy’s Hole, however, often overlooked because of its location, that has had the biggest impact on her so far.

“It’s an old fishing hamlet for steelworkers tucked around the estuary with a cluster of wooden fishing huts that sit on the mouth of the Tees,” says Lynne. “They’re just for leisure, they have curtains and little stoves inside and are quite cosy. They are like allotments on water.”

Lynne spent the best part of six months going back and forth to Paddy’s Hole, talking to the locals, taking photographs and doing sketches which she’s used to form the basis of her paintings. “It could have become a project in itself,” she says. “The huts seem to have evolved from the mud of the estuary and are starkly set against the backdrop of the steelworks.

It’s quite rough and rugged but the people are proud of it. I’d be happy to spend a whole weekend in one of those huts. If I wasn’t doing the tour, that whole area could have kept me going for months.”

Lynne, who lives in Robin Hood’s Bay, started her tour in the middle of winter to get the right light for her work. While the sun broke through the clouds illuminating the beauty of Bamburgh, she found herself clinging onto her sketch pad in a snow blizzard on Holy Island.

“It was snowing quite hard, but I managed to get over to the island and back – miraculously,” she says. “I found a refuge hut on the side of the causeway. The only reason it’s there is if you get caught out with the tide and your car bobs away in the sea – the drama was all there and that said everything for me.”

Lynne came up with the idea for the project after visiting family in San Francisco and spotting the beach houses on Stinson Beach.

Back in the UK, she was fascinated by how quickly the landscape changed so quickly.

“Teesside felt more raw and rougher and had quite a resilient feel to it,” she says. “Redcar felt like nobody loved it, with miles and miles of golden sandy beautiful beach and boarded-up shops. The people were really friendly and it felt like it was once a fantastic place to be, it just needs someone to spend some money on it. It’s a wasted opportunity.”

When it’s too far to drive, Lynne stays in cheap B&Bs with her loyal border terrier Maude. She applied for funding from The Arts Council, but was turned down and while she’s had to sell many of the paintings to fund the project, she is keen to keep some back for an exhibition at the end. Her paintings can also be seen at Bianco Nero Gallery in Stokesley.

From Sheffield originally, Lynne moved to Robin Hood’s Bay in 2010 following the death of her husband. They had a holiday cottage there, but looking for a new start, she decided to move there permanently. Lynne opened her studio, Station Art Workshop, in August 2011, from which she works and runs regular art classes.

“I fell in love with Robin Hood’s Bay straight away,” she says. “It’s quite a unique place, people are very supportive.”

Lynne has been painting for 30 years and has more than 20 years experience teaching Art and Design in further education colleges and universities in Yorkshire. She is also taking part in the 2012 North Yorkshire Open Studios.

The event, now in its eighth year, features more than 130 artists from jewellers, painters and potters to blacksmiths and sculptors.

The artists’ work will be on display in various spaces including blacksmith’s forges, farmyard studios, stone cottages and suburban living rooms.

Having completed the North-East leg, Lynne is now travelling down the coast from Bridlington, through Lincolnshire and Norfolk to Great Yarmouth. “I’m looking forward to the Thames estuary, that’s going to be a whole new challenge,” she says. “But so far, for me, Paddy’s Hole has yet to be bettered.”

• The 2012 North Yorkshire Open Studios is today and tomorrow from 10.30am to 5.30pm. For further information, visit nyos.org.uk or stationartworkshop.co.uk