Nostalgia Meets Art as Brighton Artist Captures Lido Memories in New Exhibition

The echoes of seaside summers past are alive once more through the vibrant brushstrokes of Brighton-based artist Ruth Mulvie. Her latest collection, Endless Summer, is on display this month as part of the city’s Artists Open Houses festival and draws its inspiration directly from local residents’ memories of Saltdean Lido—a cherished Art Deco landmark on the South Coast.

Mulvie’s work, known for its joyful color palettes and retro-infused compositions, transforms personal recollections into radiant, dreamlike scenes. The paintings capture the energy of British summer holidays in a mid-century modern idiom, blending real-life memories with stylized visions of sun-soaked leisure and freedom.

For this series, Mulvie collaborated closely with Saltdean Lido’s living history archive, which has collected oral histories and personal accounts of the pool’s heyday. These stories—from early-morning swims to wartime gatherings and teenage romances—formed the emotional foundation of the paintings. The result is a celebration not just of a building, but of the layered personal narratives that make it matter.

“Saltdean Lido is not just architecture. It’s a vessel of memory,” Mulvie explained. “The stories people shared with me are full of warmth, pride, and longing. My goal was to distill that into something visual—something that feels like summer itself.”

The exhibition arrives at a poignant time for the Lido. After years of restoration efforts by local campaigners, Saltdean Lido has been partially reopened, with its main pool now welcoming swimmers each season. The full restoration, including its indoor spaces, is ongoing—making Mulvie’s tribute both timely and resonant.

The works themselves are rich in symbolism. Figures in vintage bathing suits lounge under umbrellas, glide through aquamarine waters, or gaze across stylized horizons. In one painting, a group of synchronized swimmers echo the Lido’s golden age as a center of community and performance. Another piece juxtaposes pastel-toned architecture with surreal skies, emphasizing the dreamlike nature of memory.

Mulvie’s technique combines digital sketches with traditional painting, allowing her to experiment with composition before committing brush to canvas. The final pieces, rendered in oils, have a luminous quality that echoes the artificial brilliance of old holiday postcards—each one offering a window into a personal but collective past.

Local response has been overwhelmingly positive. Visitors to the exhibition have found themselves not just admiring the art but sharing their own stories. “It’s like seeing your childhood captured,” one attendee said. “She’s painted not just the place, but how it felt.”

The Artist Open Houses event, a long-running staple of Brighton’s creative calendar, provides a fitting backdrop. The citywide initiative sees local homes and studios open to the public, blurring the boundaries between domestic and exhibition space. For Mulvie, it’s a natural setting for work rooted in intimacy and collective memory.

As Saltdean Lido continues its journey toward full restoration, Endless Summer serves as a reminder that heritage is not only about bricks and funding—it is about memory, identity, and joy. Through her evocative paintings, Mulvie has given voice to a community’s nostalgia, and in doing so, reinforced the importance of preserving places that hold emotional as well as historical value.

The exhibition runs throughout the month of May, and prints of Mulvie’s work are also available—ensuring the spirit of the Lido can live on not just in memory, but on walls across the country.