Meet You At Six

One of my favourite projects from last year was working with Barbara who owns Beach Hut Six , one of the huts along the famous stretch of colour at Wells-Next-The-Sea on the North Norfolk coast. The brief for the project was to create two collages to feature on welcome cards that are provided for rental guests in 2025, the type of personal touch that is habitual at Meet You At Six. 

At Beach Hut Six, Barbara has curated a delightful daytime destination; stylish and comfortable, chicly decorated and kitted out with all you would need for a day of ‘laid-back refinement.’ The attention to detail is exceptional with highlights including a romantic bistro set, seasonal decoration changes and hot water bottles and blankets for winter hires. 

Cooly referring to the beach hut as simply ‘Six’, Barbara inspires a feeling of familiarity for her guests, an invitation for them to feel a personal connection to the space and for them to indeed want to ‘Meet You At Six’, the inviting tag line and branding she has created around the hut, time after time. 

Barbara often jokes that she treats Six more like an artefact than a beach hut, regarding Meet You At Six as an evolving creative project. And why not? Beach Huts have a sturdy positioning in the social history of the British seaside.

Barbara’s interest and understanding of Six’s creative potential is showcased by the collaborative artistic projects she invests in inspired by the hut and its location. Amongst others, Barbara has collaborated with Cut the Mustard Animation to create seasonal animation shorts ‘capturing the manifold moods of Six’ as well as musical tracks by Peter Rogers inspired by ‘the hut space and its serene surroundings on the picturesque Wells Beach’.

Barbara invited me to produce artwork of Six as she was attracted to work that was locally-made and had an investment in sustainable practice. Barbara was interested to see what portraits of Six we could make completely from unwanted paper and so we set about giving Six a paper-renovation. 

We decided upon two views of Six; one of the hut in use with the door and window open for a peep inside with the stylish beach set-up ready to enjoy and a quieter approach from behind looking out at an empty beach, as if you have it all to yourself. 

I loved working on these collages and capturing the two moods we wanted of Six. The perspective was certainly a challenge! I was particularly inspired by the view of Six from behind, across an empty and quiet beach. To me that is the North Norfolk coast, early in the morning or just before dusk, stretching out forever. 

I am extremely happy to be contributing to the artistic work inspired by Six and the thoughtful space Barbara has created. Meet You At Six is a wonderful invitation, not only for guests to hire for an enjoyable day at the beach, but an invite for you to think outside-the-box and be inspired by your surroundings and how your ideas can be shared to create with others. I felt that the method of collaging was very appropriate for Six as there are probably as many layers of paper in those artworks as there are ideas that this little place has inspired!