'Porthleven 70' will be on show at the Old Lifeboat House, Porthleven, where it was made, on Thurs 5, Fri 6 October.
20 SEPT 2023
The 70th painting in the 'Porthleven' series - a landmark. Epic reds and writhing blues collide: a synergy of boiling emotions and boiling sea, the force of colour, the force of nature. Made in the Old Lifeboat House, with the sound of the sea a constant. When the sea is wild, the red ball goes up on the pier...
(4)
Shape and elegant line - below (2) - were never enough. The introduction of the heavy blue (3), brought tension, infiltration, threat... then the reds were overwhelmed (4) before new reds flooded the top-left corner. Now the central cadmium-red pushes back against the blue. Who's the daddy now?
(2) (3)
I brought anger to this painting - how do you become visible as an artist? - it was always going to be red, informed by a simple-drawing (1). The pink underpainting was the worst preparation, so before the reds came blues and greens. Find contrast in red, find a shape...A fabulous shape emerged - angel wings, but a too-sweet blue (2): after all, this is Porthleven...
R.E.M's awesome reflective, melancholic 'Automatic for the People' was an appropriate soundteack to this painting,
(1)
