Nowadays I'm not as busy as I was. In fact more often than not I'm hardly pushed at all! When we can, other obligations., funding etc., we try to get away. Over the past few years we've been fortunate to obtain residency opportunities in both Cornwall and Shetland that have enabled us to spend time in these wonderful locations for artists whose work still depends on stimuli from such experiences. Here I'm using the phone camera to capture something of the Cornish coast in a very benign winter evening. The Cornish trip was especially good. It took place right on the tip of Cape Cornwall, for most of history believed to be the most westerly point of the county, only to be superseded by Lands End when 'proper' measurement came along. But Lands End has been privatised, with all the consequent degradation we might expect. The Cape, saved for the nation through the good works of Heinz (our beans and soups contributing), is only a few miles north but a world away from the commercialised nightmare of the 'End'.
It's a great place to sit and think but also to make work, like the painting above, that I've titled Priests Cove. As so often with my paintings anyone looking for a representational view will be disappointed but I like to think that I capture something of the spirit of the place.
