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Last
autumn I began a series of paintings around Bosigran - a headland
on a stretch of Penwith's northwest coast between Bojewyan and St.Ives
that forms a triangle with Watchcroft and Carn Galver. It's a great
beast of a place; full of surprise, totally vertigo, scary and exciting.
To
resolve different experiences within any one painting I've broken
with the idea of a single view: In 'Watch Croft' I'm up on
the high ground looking down, but also out to sea looking back.
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Watch
Croft
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'Bojewyan
Highway' is about a return journey from Bojewyan to St.Ives and
parallels the story of Cadmus, who loads up all his memories onto
an oxcart and sets out from Thebes with his wife, Harmony.
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Bojewyan
Highway
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Sometimes
a name from the Greek myths comes to mind when I'm painting
but I don't always recall who it is: with 'Semele' I
discovered her story had parallels with the painting - she's
the daughter of Cadmus and mother of Dionysus - Zeus makes
love with her and she goes up in a plume of smoke.
Another
group of paintings relate to a homecoming - 'Summer's
House', 'Out of the Woods', 'Psyche' and others. My
wife was critically ill at the time and nearly died; we
were living for the day on the hour, calling up some strength
inside us.
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Psyche
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Out
of the Woods
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Painting
sustained me through this period and to carry on was to
hold on to the thread of what had come before. I was painting
hopefully, in a way that might make the outcome hopeful
- bringing it into the arena, into the light to remake
the world and make it well again, like a rain dance or
a prayer.
It led to completing something new and that was energising.
There's been a shift; an ease with risk has found me.
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Copyright ©
Matthew Lanyon 2012. All rights reserved.
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