Chrissie Westgate

from The Blue Lotus Asian arts and cultures magazine issue 54

by martin bradley

Ajay Sharma

INTRODUCTION

Mersea Island sits on the Essex coast. There, hugging the River Blackwater as it has for the last four hundred years, stands a tiny dwelling place – Coopers Cottage – where I am blessed to live.

Coastal living fills me with contentment and an inherent sense of peace. I breathe in the salty air, delight in every sight and sound and watch the sun as it rises and sets over the water. These are moments for reflection, for soul-searching and sometimes escape, from the wider world.

From my doorstep, I hear the piping call of the orange-beaked oystercatchers as they make their way along the water’s edge, their long scarlet legs moving gracefully through the mud. Above me, seagulls screech in the skies, searching, ever hopefully, for food. Away in the distance, small fishing boats chug back and forth along the sheltered creeks, each proudly displaying the local CK registration number.

I am grateful for all that I see.

Chrissie Westgate is a fine art photographer living and working on Mersea Island in Essex. She is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a member of the prestigious London Salon of Photography.

Chrissie’s images of local scenery and sailing events can frequently be found in a variety of magazines and are also on display in many local galleries. Each year, together with her husband Colin, she produces a stunning Mersea Island calendar that has become popular around the world.

Chrissie says "photographs play a really important role in everyone's life. Not only do they connect us to our past, but they shape the way we remember things, taking us back to moments in time, preserving them for ever.

Producing 'Whispering Shores’ has afforded me an opportunity to reexperience the initial emotion I felt when capturing the many beautiful sights generated by nature here on Mersea Island. It has also given me a little more wisdom and a great deal of happiness.”

Chrissie has won many awards for her work both international and in the UK. She has had her work exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Mall Gallery, the Menier Gallery, the Royal Albert Hall, the Greenwich Museum, Firstsite Gallery and Liverpool Street and Colchester Stations.

In 2020 when the Earl and Countess of Wessex visited Mersea Island Chrissie was one of the island artists chosen to meet them and put on a display of her Mersea Island image