Painting of 'nithering' Spurn to stay in Yorkshire

12 hours ago

Paul JohnsonEast Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

News image — Two Girls On The Shore is set at Spurn Point

Beverley Art Gallery/David Remfry A painting in muted towns of browns and reds, showing two young women walking on a beach by wooden groynes. They appear to be wearing swimming costumes and towels and carrying bundles of clothes. The beach, the waves and the sea are presented as stripes of colour. — Two Girls On The Shore is set at Spurn Point

A painting by a celebrated British artist depicting two women on a "nithering" day at a Yorkshire beach has been acquired by Beverley Art Gallery.

Two Girls On The Shore was painted by David Remfry in 1963 and is set at Spurn Point.

Remfry was raised in Hull and studied art in the city in the early 1960s. His work has been exhibited widely in the UK and US.

Gallery curator Hannah Willetts said: "The painting captures the stark beauty of East Yorkshire's coastline, reflecting both the landscape and David's deep connection to the area."

She added: ''This acquisition strengthens our commitment to contemporary British art."

The painting has been described as the gallery's most significant addition by a living artist in recent years and follows an exhibition of Remfry's work in 2025.

A spokesperson for East Riding of Yorkshire Council, which helped fund the purchase, said the painting's "muted palette and bold composition" captured a "nithering day" at Spurn.

Nithering is a northern English or Scottish term meaning freezing, shivering or trembling with cold.

David Howells/Getty Images A middle-aged man with a shaved head stands in front of stacks of large-scale paintings, mainly of women. He is wearing a white shirt and black jacket and looking towards the camera. One of the painting shows a woman with red hair and pale skin wearing a black trilby hat, blue jacket and black dress. Another shows two women and a man dancing. — David Remfry, who studied art in Hull, with his paintings of friends and neighbours at the Hotel Chelsea in New York

Remfry said it gave him "enormous pleasure" to know that Two Girls On The Shore had joined the gallery's collection.

His exhibition at the gallery had been "a real highlight" and he "felt incredibly grateful to share that body of work with such an engaged and generous audience".

''To now have this work permanently housed within the collection feels deeply meaningful," he added.

The painting had been on loan at the gallery since December 2024. The acquisition was made possible with the support of the council, the Friends of Beverley Art Gallery, and Art Fund.

According to the Royal Academy of Arts, Remfry is known for his large-scale watercolours of dancers and his drawings and watercolours of neighbours and friends at the Hotel Chelsea, New York, where he lived from 1995 to 2016.

He was appointed an MBE in 2001.

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