Filey's Paddling Pool Transformed by Expansive Coastal Mural

Filey's outdoor paddling pool now features an impressive new 80-metre-long mural stretching around its entire inside wall.

The artwork, created by local digital art illustrator Dean Milner-Bell, is inspired by old-fashioned holiday and railway posters.

Dean Milner-Bell was approached by North Yorkshire Council about a year and a half ago with the concept for the design. He described his initial reaction, stating he was "absolutely delighted" before considering the challenge of creating a piece of artwork to fill the 80 metres long space.

"They approached me with the concept of doing a design that's about a meter high, eighty meters long.

Initially, I was absolutely delighted, and then when you can stop and you think, oh. Okay. How am I gonna, create a piece of artwork that's gonna fill that unique  space?  80 meters long, so it actually wraps around the entire inside of the paddling pool.

we have one of the most beautiful beaches, beautiful coastlines up and down the east coast, and I was so delighted and proud to actually be able to create the artwork of a scene that I've painted so many times over. From, from being a child  into adulthood."

Dean says the concept behind the mural was influenced by the perspective of children using the pool. 

"I almost immediately knew what I wanted to draw because when kids are in the pool, they're not very tall, so they can't really see the entire beautiful coastline that we all can see.

So that's where I came up with the idea of , creating a piece of artwork which stretches from Filey Brigg all the way around to Flamborough, which in essence allows the children to  experience the beauty of the coastline,  which is great."

Dean says creating a design of such as size is a challenging prospect that would have been almost impossible to do just a few years ago.

"I've been a digital artist for about 28 years, and I think  probably the reason why it's becoming more and more popular is because the software  have developed in great ways that we can actually create things like this.

Because creating a piece of artwork that's one meter tall and eight meters wide on a drawing board would be almost impossible  but the the software that people we all use now is just, it's just designed so we can do and create beautiful pieces of artwork like this."

The commission came about after a representative from North Yorkshire Council saw some of Dean Milner-Bell's previous East Coast artworks focusing on areas including Filey, Scarborough, Flamborough, Whitby, and Bridlington. 

Dean says he was pleased that the chosen design was the one depicting the entire coastline, as it was his personal preference.

"A guy in the council had seen a lot of  my previous artwork because I've created quite a number of East Coast artworks around Filey Scarborough. Flamborough Whitby, Brid.

He actually saw some of my work online and he just thought, do you know what this would fit really nicely. And the concept of, and the style of what you do would fit all the way around there.  North Yorkshire Council sent some designs to Filey Town Council  they  chose which one they preferred, and thankfully they preferred the one that actually mimics the entire coastline, which is great."

Creating the artwork involved breaking the large design into different panels. Dean worked alongside a printing company, to whom he gives credit for doing a "fantastic job" with both the finish and managing the difficulty posed by the pool walls. The process involved sending the artwork to the printers, who then divided it into printable panels, printed them separately, and installed them on site.

Looking ahead, Dean plans to concentrate more on creating pieces around Bridlington. However, living in Filey, he finds himself unable to resist sketching and drawing scenes from the town. His work can be viewed on his website at https://www.artistdeanmilner-bell.co.uk/