I’m back in my shedio transcribing sketches into paintings. The sketches were made in Pembrokeshire a few weeks ago and again last week. I love its coastline and have been visiting and sketching there for at least 30 years. One of my most visited parts is the St. David’s peninsula. There is a deep sense of layered history there going back to Neolithic times. A landscape with voice.
I’ve just ‘completed’ (for now) Three paintings of Porthgain and one of Porthclais which was famously painted by Graham Sutherland in 1935. Jasper the Jack Russell terrier, Sue and me walked the path from St. David’s to above Porthclais harbour to near the spot from where Sutherland would have stood. I believe I found it, or was as close to the spot as I could get – recognising the curves and curls of the river and its journey to the green sea. I think we upset a few fellow walkers as I partly blocked the path as I sketched, but others stopped to talk to Jasper.
Of the two smaller panels, one is of the view from the windy headland down to the harbour entrance itself, here I tried to capture the light and breeziness of the day. The washes of watercolour over the grain of the plywood helped to give a sense of light and movement, I had to restrain myself from over working it.
The third painting of the harbour itself, facing out to sea is much more heavily pigmented with layers of watercolour and laquer because I was trying to convey the depth of the harbour, it has steep sides and jetties. The harbour made me feel uneasy, it feels slightly dangerous with its brick buildings tight against the harbour walls. I still wanted a raw feel to this post industrial seascape.