10.
Eighty paintings now in the 'Porthleven' series - a landmark. The series began in 2007 as a homage to Peter Lanyon and his iconic 1952 painting, but since then has become a personal motif and a special place for me, continuing to inspire invention and surprise in my work.
FRIDAY 11 JULY
A few refinements this morning -we're done. (10). Working upwards from the bottom-left pier, a new popping pink in the pointy angle, a drag of a lighter tone, like a chalk-mark, across the dark angled line above and finally a series of short vertical blue-violet brushstrokes in the top-right triangle - anonymous before - which echo's the vericality of the surrounding marks. Another 'possibility of window', let's leave it at that - a possibility. The 'shape of water' is now ambiguous: does it include the water above?
9. Detail - the gap
Amazing how the composition barely changed - from raggedy to refined!
8.
THURS 10 JULY 5pm
The breakthrough came with the water breaking through (the gap)! The 'shape of water' is still strong, held now by the near-vertical line on the right (8). I've taken the pink up to the gap, which intensifies the colour there, also adding pink to the water on the right-side. I love the relationship now between the 2 piers on the left, both the colour and the pointy corners, leading up to the third pointy corner in the top corner. I have realised my vision in colour and paint, reconciling the ideas of the distinctive 'shape of water and a triangle as a receding space.
7.
THURS 10 JULY 9.30am
Dark rose in the front pier, enjoying its' colour presence and quality as a mark. (7). A fast curve across the top and losing line - colour versus line, all over. New oranges and yellows, a denser violet, intruding in the shape to the left. Time to find a green for the water.
6.
SUN 5 JULY
Removing the decorative - I want to see shape(s) of water! (6). The left side is exciting now with the long Fisherman's pier revealed and with a new detail of a small dark block, the gap between buildings, which echoes the procession of blocks around the painting. Love the uprightness of the front shape of water and how its friend at the top sits on the line of the pier. The painting is informed by memory and a couple of drawings, below. The first is information (5) the world as it, with an emphasis on the verticals, framing the 'shape of water'. In the second (4), a drawing from the first, the focus switches to the gap between piers, a linear obstacle but I'm enjoying the jouney through. Strangely, the big church has never appeared in a Porthleven drawing or painting before!
The painting is a lttle severe and geometric, the shapes too interlocking. It needs contrasting curves, a softening of edges and the space in the second drawing, space through colour, more green in the water.
This is 'Porthleven 80', a landmark. The painting needs to be extraordinary.
5.
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3.
FRI 4 JULY
I don't know if it's to do with looking at Bonnard recently, but I'm seeing the edges as a window frame with the impossible but exhilarating idea of the upright 'shape of water' tucked inside the frame!
The water is more agitated now (3) with some lively markmaking and there's a new rhythm of smaller, pale-violet marks in the yellow triangle top-left. I've also put a loose wash of yellow lake across the warm tones and picked out the part-shape of the bottom-left pier in grey, a mix of the violet and yellow. Like the way it makes the right angle strong, what's interesting now is the procession of right angles from this to the scrubbed one above to the solid top of 'the shape of water'. Need a drawing or two to work out where to move next.
2.
THURS 29 MAY
Two conflicting/complimentary ideas. The distinctive shape of water of the middle harbour - colours ever changing on my walk to the studio each day - and the concept of a dynamic within the square, a triangle that is both a shape and a representation of a receding space. Away we go...
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