Chloë Holt RCA FRSA - “I’r Môr” (To The Sea)

Original painting by Chloë Holt RCA FRSA. One of the youngest artists ever to be elected a member of the RCA. Winner of the 2012 Kyffin Williams Drawing Prize, Chloe also, in 2010 won the International Lorenzo il Magnifico prize by the Florence Biennale for works on paper.

This large, expressive painting depicts Hunmanby Gap on the North East coast, where waves surge through a narrow inlet that appears to open onto the wider ocean beyond. The composition captures a moment at dusk, as the setting sun dissolves into sea and sky, and light softens across water and rock.

Painted using oil paint, raw natural pigments, gesso and mixed media on board, the surface is richly worked and tactile. Dense, layered passages evoke the physical force of the sea and the solidity of the coastline, while lighter veils of pigment suggest receding light and atmospheric depth. The restrained palette and textured surface give the work a strong sense of place, weather and movement.

Rather than a literal seascape, I’r Môr is concerned with transition and passage — the pull of water moving outward, the meeting of containment and release, and the timeless emotional resonance of the sea as a threshold between land and open horizon.