Watercolour artist Fay Whittaker is best known for her All Our Yesterdays collection. Successful both here and in the US, Fay talks through some of her work and its Edwardian inspiration...

Sussex Life, September 2007

Travelling and working all around the world as an artist I observed and learned to appreciate details such as how light filtered through trees and how a winter's scene can be as warm as a summer scene.

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I eventually chose Brighton as a home and base to take my art further, fascinated with the elegant architecture and the glorious white cliffs along the coast. It was my love for the shore which first inspired me to paint the series of pictures called All our Yesterdays which have fortunately become quite collectable over the past decade.It is these endearing and evocative watercolours which form the commercial side to my work and have become extremely successful for me with companies both here and in the US licensing my images to use on their products.

However, I am still quintessentially a watercolour artist, and can often be found painting at my favourite place in the world - Brighton seafront!

Christmas - The Lanes BrightonThis painting is close to my heart as it is of my old art gallery in the busy Lanes of Brighton.It was my baby daughter's first Christmas and if you look carefully you can see her in my arms on the balcony of the gallery, looking over the square.

I included a few of my favourite characters in this piece, such as the policeman chatting with the children and the little scruffy dog in the foreground. I closed this gallery in 1997 to spend more time with my daughter, but kept the small shop I still have on the Brighton Pier.

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