Martin Procter, Artist
Martin Procter, Artist
“Returning from a winter on the Californian coast, full of new ideas about how to look at the landscape, about colour and the margin between realism and abstraction, my old studio- based approach seemed restricting and uninspiring. Time to make changes, time to get away from my usual subjects- harbours, cities, hill country; I needed a fresh challenge, and the South Devon coastline was on my doorstep.
From the outset, I decided I would focus on a very limited number of locations. I started at Beesands, with a canvas wedged between the sea defence rocks, mixing acrylic paint straight from the tube on to the rain-soaked canvas: an hour or so of that, and into the Cricket Inn for a pint. I love Beesands- this tough row of simple cottages strung along behind the sea wall, vulnerable to the storms and tidal erosion that did for Hallsands just to the south. I’ve often sailed around Start Point, and felt the pull of the tides there, and heard the doleful toll of the Skerries Bell.
Next I went to the other side of Start Point, where I did the painting ‘Raven’s Cove 1’. I was perched at sea level, hidden below the coast path, and narrowly avoided being hit by rocks thrown down by unaware children above. No damage done, but again the wind and rain eventually forced me to leave. Recently, I have been doing more abstract paintings, and I want to concentrate my work more and more in this direction. The painting ‘Coast Lines 1’ started from drawings of the cliff structure lines near the Start lighthouse.
Earlier this year I met Richard Godfrey, a well-known potter/ceramicist who makes wonderful contemporary pieces; he has his workshop right on the coast near Mothecombe. I have spent a lot of good days this summer there with Richard, sharing ideas, painting along to loud blues music - I’ll always associate this time with the music of Steely Dan and Van Morrison. It was the perfect site, Bugle Hole and Gull Cove are just below the workshop, with Mothecombe an easy stroll to the east with more than enough to paint. It’s a wonderful, quiet, bit of coast, with ravens, rooks and gulls clearly in ownership of the coves and cliffs.
Several of this new collection are based on Mansands. I’ve been to Mansands many times, and walked the splendid coast path from Brixham to Kingswear often. The coastguard cottages sit defiant on the cliff bluff above the beach. The curving lines of the hills and valleys are in strong contrast to the rocky shoreline, and I can recall trying to capture this in paintings many years ago. Now I am using more colour and simpler shapes of blocks and strips, to represent the various elements within the landscape in a more expressive, abstract way, and ‘Mansands 2’ and ‘ Crab Rock Point 2’ are examples, ‘Man Sands 4’ focuses on the curves and contours of the landscape.
I had envisaged spending the mid-summer months out on the cliffs and coves, sun shining and sea alive with colour; in reality, whenever I started drawing and painting outside, rain and wind were never far away. It has been a great reminder that the South Devon coast is all about weathering and erosion, sun, wind, rain andtides - lots of energy, and I hope I have captured a bit of this in the Coast Lines collection.”
First Published December 2008 By The Dart