Park is looking across the harbour from the direction of the Sloop Inn, a favourite haunt. On the right of the composition, we see the end of the West Pier where the St Ives RNLI station resides. The turquoise and ochre building is today the Pedn Olva hotel which sits on the rocky outcrop above the harbour. A little further up, and to the far right, the Victorian terraces and to the left of the composition, the golden strip of Porthminster Beach.  A white fishing boat, with its spanker still hoisted, glistens in the sunlight; two manned sailing boats manoeuvring behind it.

The kaleidoscope of colour and light in the water, the effortless way in which Park picks out the reflections of the boats, bear witness to why Sven Berlin described the artist as ".... one of the best of English colourists and unsurpassed as a painter of light: He painted like an angel – simply cathedrals of light."  Often Park seems a little less interested in the sky but in this painting, we have a remarkably expressionistic sky executed with a variety of brushwork. In all, a wonderful St Ives piece which epitomises the artist’s mastery of the light that the town is justly famous for.