A Coastal Voyage In Watercolour: The Borders To The Humber by Ron Thornton is published by Wagtail Press, priced £19.50 (From York Press)

A Coastal Voyage In Watercolour: The Borders To The Humber by Ron Thornton is published by Wagtail Press, priced £19.50

11:52am Saturday 12th December 2009 in

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RON Thornton has a thing about the sea. It is something to do with the play of light on water, and the fact that everything is constantly moving, constantly changing.

He particularly loves Whitby. “I could live there!” he says, in a broad South Shields accent. “It is the history, and the maze of narrow streets, and the boats.”

Ah, the boats. If there is one thing the 74 year old has noticed in a lifetime of painting coastal scenes, it is the boats – or rather, the increasing lack of them.

At one time, harbours right down the east coast were filled to bursting with fishing boats, he says.

“But I was in Whitby recently, and there were just three boats there. That is the sad thing: from Scotland right down to Bridlington, you can see the decline of the fishing fleets.”

That makes his own series of beautiful watercolours all the more poignant. Boats play a big part: drawn up on the beach at Filey; quietly at anchor in Staithes; punching through the waves at Whitby; nosing into harbour at Scarborough.

He admits that to get those compositions, he sometimes ‘cheats’. He visits all the locations he paints, makes his own sketches and takes his own photos from which to work with back at the studio.

But then, in order to make a better composition, he sometimes rearranges elements. “I’ll put a coble where there wasn’t a coble, or generally move things around,” he admits It is a technique that has paid off. After a successful carer as a science teacher, during which he progressed to become a headteacher, he retired in 1990 to take up painting full-time. He is now one of the most successful watercolour painters in the north of England.

When, at the turn of the Millennium, a new bridge was added across the River Tyne, Ron naturally decided to paint it. He then travelled up the Tyne to its source, painting various scenes along the way. The result was his first book: The River Tyne from Sea to Source.

He has now followed that up with a second volume: this time a collection of watercolour paintings of seaside towns the length of the East Coast, from the Scottish Borders to Hull. It is entitled, simply enough: A Coastal Voyage In Watercolour: The Borders to the Humber.

And that is exactly what you get: a selection of Ron’s fine watercolours that capture the beauty and splendour of the north east coast, from Cove harbour in the north to Withernsea in the south.

All of Yorkshire’s best-loved coastal towns are here, from Staithes and Runswick Bay to Scarborough, Filey and Bridlington. On the page facing each painting is an account of each town’s history and its well-known local characters.

For lovers of painting and the sea alike, it makes for a wonderful book – and the perfect Christmas gift.