Inspiration in Cornwall - Colin Fraser

I had a fantastic week in Cornwall this year in mid -march. There was constant sunshine and I was able to revisit Polzeath, an area  I have a strong emotional attachment to after spending several holidays there in my teens.

I have always wanted to go there to work and at last I was able to return to the place that has long dwelt in my memory and haunted me from time to time, down the years.

Painting a landscape, for me is not just a matter of recording the scenery. The atmosphere of the place and the feelings this generates is the important thing. It has to be a place that you have spent time in, both physically but also somewhere you have had time to think about and digest the feel of.

To quote Wordsworth” These beauteous forms, are not  to me the landscape as in a blindma's eye but oft amid the din of towns and cities i have owed to them...” 

I made many studies of the coastline during this week and my first tempera to come out of this bulk of work is "Surf Shadows”. It roughly portrays the view across to Stepper point from the cliff pathway walk from Polzeath to Rock.

The constant flow of the tide, with breaking waves and surf was magical, and left a deep impression on me. The memories from my youth remain a part of the finished piece which has changed little since my first visit there in 1971.

Colin Fraser  July 2016