TUES 27 MAY 2025
A final session, a final look with time and space and silence. Looking for questions and finding the answers, Taking risks with the painting...
Refinements of colour and line and simplification of the composition: the 'eyes' more prominent, the curves of the harbour stronger, the blues even denser and less fragmented. The big move was taking out the dark-line on the left and simplifying the bottom edge to focus instead on the tuned-up yellows on the left edge and the cut, near-horizontal, which now talks with the angled line of the pier above and the blue slant above 'the eyes'. It is strong!
detail: 'the eyes'
Blue on blue, (below) with jewel-like incident of startling yellows, orange and a new translucent rose. A final flourish of vertical brushmarks, redrawing the harbour and the dark blue line on the left subverting both the space and the square. The final version has more drama and contrast, energy and difference. Love the colour proportion now and the procession of surprising marks, both conscious and revealed, across the top third. I have been aware of the eyes of the piers throughout the 'Porthleven' series - glowing more than ever in this painting.
In an earlier stage below (left), a yellow harbour shape is reminiscent of Soutine's 'Carcass of Beef' or the curved hip of a Modigliani nude. The broken red line is strong but the painting felt too graphic and known. New blues followed (right): I enjoyed the cascade of rectangles across the centre and the new horizontals but it's too flat with the harbour losing its' strength and definition.
The painting is a reflection of the blue and yellow palette of Porthleven this week, where the sun shone every day...
Appropriately, 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis is the perfect album for looking at this painting
PS After finishing the painting, I went back to 'Porthleven 53 (The Clock & the Moon)', now much closer to the idea and the experience. Looking good together!
