Inspiration.

View from the Lighthouse

Here at Lands’ End, we’re lucky to have an incredibly talented bunch of colleagues; all with amazing experiences, opinions and journeys to share. So in a new, occasional series we thought we’d hand the blog over to them so they could share their stories with you. Here, Clinton Croson from our Customer Services Team tells us about what inspires him…

Inspiration can strike from anywhere. It is what I rely on. It is what my creativity needs. Before we continue, a little bit about me: my name is Clinton Croson, I am an artist and I have been working part-time at Lands’ End for the past decade. 

It was either May or June 2008 and whilst taking sales calls, inspiration struck me whilst leafing through the pages of the then latest Lands’ End catalogue. A leggy brunette wearing a tankini top and swim briefs, photographed in profile, bending down to pick something from the sand. To me it didn’t seem like the usual image you’d find in a fashion magazine; no super white grin nor fake enthusiasm. Instead, what I saw was potential.

Now normally I prefer to use photographs I’ve taken myself but for this I made an exception. I transposed the girl onto a different background, with different waves and a slightly different sky and included what I felt the original images were lacking; a reason for her to be doing this. Not just plain sand but shells and stones instead; doing something that people have loved to do on the beach for years.

Four layers of paint, each thicker then the previous one, each layered with greater details than the last. Six weeks of painting to chisel out a harmony on canvas. ‘The Beachcomber’ was born. Judge for yourself whether it is a success or not; I do not mind either way. I just wanted to tell the story of how sometimes, even artwork has a very humble beginning.