Eric Ward is one of the few native professional artists out of the many who have made it their home. He will need no introduction to those who already know St Ives, for his career as a fisherman, harbourmaster and lifeboat Coxswain there assured his celebrity long before painting became his livelihood. For visitors to the town, and particularly those in search of its art, Eric's portrayal in paint of the landscape, people and places of St Ives provide a direct link back to the early masters. The story of the Cornish harbour town of St Ives is so tightly tied to painting and painters that it is almost impossible to think of one without the other. For well over a hundred years artists have congregated here, taking advantage of its famed 'shining sands' to create art works of international significance. Few other places on earth can have been so lovingly and endlessly portrayed in paint. Eric Ward's pictures continue the best traditions of the St Ives school of painting, exemplified by the great artists of the past. His passion and intimate knowledge of his native town is what is captured on each canvas - and the hundred or so painting included in this book provide superb portraits and reflection of St Ives, its people and the Cornish landscape and beyond.