'Porthleven 6' at Falmouth Art Gallery

My daughter Faye's favourite painting (and one of mine), 'Porthleven 6', has been selected for the 'Brilliant Colour' exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery (20 Sept- 22 Nov 2014), to be shown alongside work by Terry Frost, Roger Hilton,Trevor Bell, Grace Gardner.

 

When I moved to Cornwall 9 years ago, it was inevitable that Porthleven would be the subject of my first Cornish paintings: the work of Peter Lanyon and in particular his  'Porthleven' from 1951, had a major influence on my decision to drop my architecture studies and become a painter.  

 

'Porthleven'     1951     Peter Lanyon
 

To start the Porthleven series, I nailed white wooden crosses, (taken from the Cornish flag) to 6 canvases and enjoyed the painting problems that they created. In 'Porthleven 5', halfway through the process, the cross was removed, leaving a imprint of the cross in the heavy paint. I repeated the action in 'Porthleven 6', which revealed the remarkable sharp edge of the bottom left pier - one of the most fantastic moments in my career as an artist. We need and crave surprise in our work.