SUN 15 MARCH
Around the painting one more time this morning, fine-tuning colours and edges, bringing colour inside the lines and adding a group of soft golden brushmarks/waves towards the bottom of the painting. A quiet presence (6). Very happy with the painting now - those yellows are gorgeous! - making simplicity work.
(6)
(5) On our best wall!
(4)
SAT 14 MARCH
Reworked the yellows today and the stripe on the right, now with a slight, slight bend (4). I also brought in image detail, a tiny crane and an almost invisible boat (3). The big boat in the title is, of course, the harbour! Tried several things in the bottom yellow, but kept returning to simplicity, shape and space. This simplicity is rare in my work: Matisse can do 'simple', Milton Avery and Etel Adnan too - why not? The question is whether this is enough, whether I can accept it or whether the painting needs to go further? This painting is about the centre, the interplay and shift in language between the almost soild building and the orange drawing. It is essential that if I make changes I make, this orange-line keeps its strength.
(3)
TUES 10 MARCH p.m.
Small moves today, working with the simplicity and building up the paint (2). Loving the repetition of shapes with the orange roof, the flattened orange wall and the open linear Fisherman's Pier, which I might repeat with a simple clocktower in the bottom right corner.
TUES 10 MARCH a.m.
It's only the first session (1) but enjoying the composition and the drawing and simplicity - perhaps an antidote to the flamboyance of 'Porthleven 91'! Working title is 'The Island', a reference to how the pier in front of the Ship Inn, in high tide and storms, becomes disconnected, adrift...