Payne's Grey · 2026

“Faro di Beachy Head”

The lighthouse at Beachy Head on the English Channel — the striped tower standing below the chalk cliffs, sea and sky dissolved into Payne's grey.

Details

TitleFaro di Beachy Head

PlaceBeachy Head, England

Year2026

CategoryPayne's Grey

Dimensions14.8 × 21 cm (A5)

TechniqueInk and Payne's grey watercolour on Clairefontaine paper

Palette of the work

Request information

This piece is part of my collection. Originals will soon be available to buy online — write to me in the meantime.

The subject

Beachy Head Lighthouse

At the foot of England’s highest chalk sea-cliff stands a banded tower in the water — Beachy Head Lighthouse — small against the cliff, alone against the Channel.

Built in 1902 of Cornish granite, it replaced an older light up on the headland that the sea-mist kept hiding. About forty-three metres tall and ringed with broad bands, it warns shipping off the chalk of the Sussex coast; it is automated now, but still lit.

The drama is all in the scale: the lighthouse is tiny beneath the vast white wall of the cliff, with La Manica — the Channel — stretching away beyond.

In Payne’s grey the famous red-and-white bands become tones of light and dark, which suits the drawn-out northern light.

Where: Beachy Head, Sussex
Built: 1902
Height: ~43 m
Marks: the Channel
Cliff: England’s highest chalk cliff

Beachy Head Lighthouse tiny beneath the white chalk cliffs — The lighthouse dwarfed by the chalk — England’s highest sea cliff above the Channel.Photo: Diliff, Papa Lima Whiskey (edit) — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Beachy Head Lighthouse at the foot of the cliffs under a blue sky — The red-and-white tower at the foot of Beachy Head, marking the Channel.Photo: Paul Gillett — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A little striped tower under an enormous cliff — I wanted that scale, the sea and the chalk dwarfing the light.

Ink draws the tower and the line of the cliff-top; the grey wash carries the chalk face, the swell and the wet sky.

It is a lonely subject, and I think the single colour only makes it lonelier — which is right.

See also · Payne’s Grey Mulino di Kinderdijk · Ciminiera vittoriana · Porta a Edimburgo