58 artistMay 2020 http://www.painters-online.co.uk
FRAGILE COAST CONSERVATION PROJECT: 3rd of 6
on the shoreline looking out at the
stormy scene. The figures are placed
dead centre of the picture plane, giving
the composition a completely new
dimension.
The original oil painting was
purchased by a Dr Gooch who,
according to Constable, used to place
it ‘on the sopha while he breakfasted,
as he used to say, on the seashore
enjoying its breezes’.
Why Yarmouth jetty?
Historically, the jetty at Yarmouth was
all-important. Originally constructed
in 1560 as a place to land fish, it was
rebuilt in 1701, before 100 feet of it
was swept away in 1767. Only 20 years
before Constable painted the scene,
Admiral Lord Nelson had embarked
from the jetty to sail with the fleet to
the Battle of Copenhagen, and then
disembarked at the jetty after the
battle to visit the wounded sailors
at the nearby naval hospital in Great
Yarmouth.
During the Napoleonic Wars, the
crews and stores for each ship of the
fleet were transported to and from their
ships, which were anchored in Yarmouth
Roads, from the jetty. William III landed
at the jetty in 1813 but finally, after 400
years of service, the timber structure
was demolished in 1961. None of the
original timbers of the jetty survive.
Roll forward to 2020 and I’m once
again painting in the footsteps of John
Constable. Down on the beach, looking
northwards along the windswept sands
to where the jetty once stood, I try topicture the scene that Constable had
painted.
The North Sea waves roll in, crashing
and hissing on the sand. All spume
and ozone, ghost nets and hen party
balloons. The Constable sky hasn’t
changed since his day but the Nelson
jetty is a distant memory. Next to the
original site, the Victorian Britannia
pier is a straight-up slap round the face:
a candyfloss mash-up of amusement
arcades, donut takeaways and chips.
All wrapped up in a neon and plastic
blanket advertising ‘Camel Derby’ and
‘Long John’s Show Bar’. A headline
showcase of entertainment is lined up
for the season complete with a Michael
Jackson tribute act, an evening with
Peter André and the final stop for an
Elvis impersonators world tour.Try this exercise Use collage/found objects to add structure and interest
Suggested materials
l I use Winsor & Newton
Professional acrylic as the
pigment quantity and quality
gives me unmatched depth of
tone and richness of colour:
cobalt blue, Prussian blue,
cadmium yellow, cadmium
orange, titanium white
l Found paper collage
l PVA gluePainting every detail of a scene in hard-edged accuracy
is certainly a good way to practise skills. But I am always
looking to delve into the essence of a place and by using
found materials and all of our senses we can do just that. This
collage technique is one that I use regularly in my work to add
structure and interest to an otherwise simple acrylic.
p STAGE THREE
I took a piece of thin card to act as a mask before beginning to create hard
edges by painting the negative space – the sky in this instanceu STAGE ONE
I started by painting
a basic glazed acrylic
on location. Trying to
capture the burst of a
sunrise is never easy
with only a few short
minutes to work so I
let the paint do its own
thing without trying to
control it too muchp STAGE TWO
I’m not looking for accuracy in these plein-air studies, but I am
looking for atmosphere, so I pasted found collage material onto
the board to give me the basic Yarmouth pier shapes