I take issue with many paintings of the sea. Sickly, twinkly seascapes are the toxic positivity of painting. Where is the truth in them? I’m not closed to the intense beauty of the sea, it is just that the unbridled happiness of such works leave gaping holes in understanding it.
If you have never seen the sea you might be forgiven for this purist idealistic view. But if you have ever spent time beside it, or even better in it, your experience will be more complicated. I have spent a lifetime with it, and know to entirely respect it. It can be terrifying when calm, let alone when it is in a rage.
Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky said “The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good.”
Truth also lies in darkness; the metaphorical idea that truth is revealed through introspection and facing difficult realities. It is a common theme in literature and religious thought, sometimes suggesting that the light can be deceptive, or that true insight comes from confronting the unknown.
The sea scares the shit out of 50% of people, and will be the end of us here in Norfolk where it continues to swallow great lumps of ground and whole houses pretty much weekly. The surface light hides all manner of dark history, lost lands, whole villages, lost people, churches and graves, gigantic creatures, and billions of viruses. It has relentless and uncontrollable power. We industrialise and trivialise it, pretend we can control it. There is perspective contained in considering both aspects of nature, its light and dark, that can’t be reached by dismissing uncomfortable truths; looking only at the surface is missing rich connection and understanding.
Painting the sea quickly became more than attempting to convey moving water while feeling immense love for our patch of North Sea, and it continues to act as a conduit for layered ideas, such as unease, non self, fear, loss and intuition. I like to touch on some duality in a painting, slipping in an uncomfortable perspective, a shadowy figure maybe stripped to the bone, a shadow fleet ship, while flowing patterns, soft shifts in colour, and the calm quiet dawn, gently soothe.