I’m delighted to have Solitude 5 featured in the Penwith Gallery’s Winter Associates Exhibition.
The Penwith Associates’ open calls are always massively over subscribed and it’s always a tense time waiting to hear if you’ve been one of the lucky ones to have artwork selected by the show’s curators. I’m delighted to say that I have again been successful. It’s a very prestigious Gallery and a great honour to feature in it.
Solitude 5 is one of the latest artworks in my VESSELS Collection.
This enduring Collection was initially inspired by boatworks in St Ives Harbour over the quiet, strange times of the first lockdown in 2020 when we couldn’t walk far from home.
Wandering around the Harbour, with only the fishing boats for company, I was struck by the almost eerie sense of stillness and calm that descended upon St Ives.
When a form of normality returned to St Ives, the artworks became more lively and vibrant – with more movement. When times seemed less positive, a more sombre mood overtook the works. In the main, however, they form a joyous collection.
The artworks meld the natural and man-made landscapes of the Harbour. The term Vessel has the obvious nautical meaning referencing the boats but also reflects the water, the sand, and the Harbour sunsets. It also has biblical and biological associations reflecting my responses to events over this time. If you look closer into the bold blocks of colour, you’ll find lines and scratches as though face to face with the side of a boat whose every mark tells a detailed history of each and every turning tide and trip out to sea.
The Solitude mini series of the VESSELS works are a celebration of solitude. Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company. Solitude is a time that can be used for reflection, inner searching or growth or enjoyment of some kind.
One of the positives I have taken from the pandemic and the lockdowns is that solitude, when chosen as part of a rich fulfilling life, is enriching. As Joseph Roux said: “solitude vivifies, isolation kills”.
Another great quote is: “Solitude is like punctuation. A paragraph without periods and commas would be exhausting to read” – Arnie Kozak.
The Solitude works are therefore calm and calming. At first sight, they are just blue/green boats with their hulls resting on the sand, with decorative markings. On deeper inspection, the blue/green appears to be the ocean – with reflections and depth to the water representing my own reflections. The punctuation of the ocean with the stripes of white, copper and red/yellow reflect other aspects of that rich and fulfilling life.
