A love-letter to the Cornish coast and its people for whom Yates reserved a great fondness, always evident in his work. Likely painted in the late 1980s before Fred moved to France, this work depicts the golden sands of St Ives' Porthminster Beach and the view across the bay towards The Towans and Gwithian beach.
This lovely work by Fred Yates depicts one of St Ives' main beaches; Porthminster Beach, nestled beneath the steep slopes of Porthminster Point. We're looking east across St Ives Bay at The Towans and Gwithian Beach. It was only in 1968 that Yates decided to paint full-time and move to Cornwall, before his move to France in the 1990s. Like many of his works from the 1970s and 80s this work is essentially a love-letter to the Cornish coast and its people. Yates had in inexhaustible ability to find joy in the everyday; in this instance, a day on Porthminster Beach and perhaps, gauging how his foreground subjects are attired, not the warmest day of the year!