FRI 30 JAN
Pushing, pushing...brave, brave... a sweeping curve across the purple, a line of movement but also a line of definition, redrawing the harbour, taking it outside the painting...possibly. This final mark is transformative: an exquisite balance now in the painting between curves and geometry, line and shape, stasis and energy, freedom and control. We're done.
I think this will be my entry for the RA Summer Exhibition.
(12)
(11)
(10)
THURS 29 JAN
A dash of blue brings colour-glow and excitement to the grouping of shapes in the top right corner (10) hinting at the busyness of boats at the back of the harbour and its scale reinforcing the possibility of a receding space (11). What is the blue? A brushmark, a colour, a shape, an image/boat? It simply belongs.
(9)
MON 12 JAN
Getting a grip of the scale by pushing a new unifying yellow across the painting - revealing the range of yellows (9) The painting now has more movement, with reworked purples and a dry-drag of electric blue across the central orange, springing upwards. Just below, a shallow curve across the bottom of the middle shape/pier, essential amongst the geometric. A yellow boat now sits in the top-right corner a reflection of the curves along the top. A subconscious homage, perhaps, to a favourite painting, Edvard Munch's 'Melancholy Yellow Boat' 1892, with a similar tension between horizontal and diagonal and tumbling shapes. A big thank-you to my son Ollie for his perceptive observations and insights during the making - we are both agreed that the yellow boat brings context, meaning and visual interest to the painting.
yellow boat
'Melancholy, Yellow Boat' Edvard Munch 1892
'Yellow Boat', a motif from my own art history, Munch's symbolism repeated in my autobigraphical 'The Garden of Eden' and three in a row in this subversive early 'Porthleven' painting:
'Porthleven 8 (Yellow Harbour)' 50x60cms 2007
detail
A couple of drawings showing the idea of the repeated paralellograms in the landscape, the fishermans pier and the wall and steps in front of the Ship Inn, with curves of movement/the wind. I can see the drawing below as another painting.
(8)
THURS 31 DECEMBER
A reworked bottom left corner, more physical yellows and sharper shapes with an 'incident' of purple on the left side (8).The blue is now moving and twisting over and behind the yellow curve. and the yellows in each shape are distinctive. If you are working with yellow, you have to find yellow and its tonal range. A purple triangle at the end of the Fisherman's pier, bringing colour and contrast inside the yellow. The painting seems more playful now, with the open and closed triangles and diamonds, shifts in scale and spatial intrigue created with colour and edges, cut and imposed shapes.
(7)
THURS 27 NOV
Giddy with excitement, this latest Porthleven painting is now more extravagant, exotic, magical, fantastical, with new diamond-shapes dancing across an even richer blue! (7). The purples were also revamped and a linear 'v' - crane - introduced onto the bottom edge, bringing context, precision, difference. This small piece of drawing has transformed the painting. It mirrors the triangle on the end of the Fisherman's Pier top-left; it throws the too-flat yellow behind and starts an upwards clockwise movement, linking to the linear diamond and the small shape beyond.
(6)
TUES 25 NOVEMBER
The breakthrough came with intensifying the blues and bringing in new geometric shapes into the bottom yellow, the flat larger shape, carved out of the paint and glazed, the smaller shape leading the eye into the painting (6). Love the interplay between this cascade of geometric shapes and the surrounding curves, my definition of this harbour landscape.
(5)
(4)
19 NOV
The green on the left was extended and the harbour redrawn with liquid Indian Yellow and a new purple line on the right (4, left). In the next session, (right, above), lively brushwork on both sides of the harbour brought in new dynamism and movement, increasing the contrast with the yellow stillness inside the harbour.
(3) Real!
18 NOV a.m.
Things are starting to move! In my sleep, I saw green, introduced first thing as a pour, then extended into a large shape, almost like a heart (4). The central yellows were darkened with Indian Yellow, fabulous against the green/turquoise. I can see two ways to go, explored in Photoshop below. The first is the idea of bringing in a sheet of new orangey yellow over the green, leaving the curves at the top and the slanted rectangle to join the dance of shapes. The second possibility is extending the green to the left edge.
(2) Photoshop
17 NOV
Early days (1) but enjoying the simplicity and the shape of the harbour and the idea of repeated paralellograms. Also the concept of 'blue into yellow without green', tricky with oil-paint!. The purple is more lively now (3) - I'm enjoying the abruptness against the yellow, and how it tucks in behind as it gets darker. and yet there is more to find, it's either the wrong yellow or the wrong purple, I must find the optimum, an exquisite relationship. The painting has no depth or history or surprise - a long way to go.
(1) beginnings