Robert Jobling (1841 - 1923) Robert Jobling was a former shipyard-worker who at the age of 27 became a full time artist. He had started exhibiting his paintings when he was 25, but it took a further two years to become well enough established. Later he moved to Whitley, very close to Cullercoats the place that featured in a great number of his paintings. His second wife was Isa Thompson, an artist in her own right. The painting to the right is the famous 'The Day is done and the Darkness falls from the Wings of Night' 1886. showing the Cullercoats Watch House, Lifeboat house and cobles in the fading evening light. The Day is done and the Darkness falls from the Wings of Night 1886, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Sea Fret, 1884. Laing Art Galley, Newcastle upon Tyne In the late 1880's the Cullercoats colony of artists was at it's height. Robert Jobling lived in Beverley Terrace, overlooking Cullercoats Bay. Isa Thompson lodged along near Whitley in Victoria Crescent, John Surtees had a house in Beverley Terrace, and H.H. Emmerson had lived in John Street for years.

Isa Thompson (1850 - 1926) Fortune Telling is one of the first of Isa Thompson's larger exhibition pictures. It shows everyday activities of fishing people in the back lanes of Cullercoats. Fortune Telling, 1887. Private collection.