East Coast, West Coast: Sarah Milne

Sarah Milne lives in Colchester and works from a studio at Cuckoo Farm. She is often to be found walking and drawing around the coast, creeks and rivers nearby.

This year she extended her patch and went on two residencies, thanks to a Firstsite bursary award. The first was on the south west coast of Cornwall, just after the heavy storms in February; the second, soon after, was on the Dengie peninsula in Essex, hosted by the Othona community next to St Peter's Chapel, Bradwell-on-Sea.

The inspiration behind these coastal paintings came from noticing the weight of the skies compared to the seas, and from both the dramatic and the calm experiences she found on the opposite edges of England.