Where Land Meets Memory — Beneath the Surface

There are places that stay with us long after we have left them, and sometimes I find that what I remember most clearly isn't necessarily the whole landscape, but certain details within it.

Where Land Meets Memory began with Man O’War Bay on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast.

I remember the land falling away towards the water below, the curve of the coastline and the cliffs surrounding the bay. There was the open sea beyond it and that enormous sense of scale you can get when standing above a coastline and looking out towards the horizon.

When I came to paint it, I wasn't trying to recreate Man O’War Bay exactly as it appeared. I was more interested in what had remained in my memory.

I find this happens quite naturally when I think back to places I have visited. Some details remain incredibly clear while others become softer, and sometimes I am not entirely sure whether I am remembering something exactly as it was or how it has gradually settled in my mind.

I allowed that to happen in the painting rather than trying to correct it.

The coastline gave me somewhere to begin, but I wasn't worried about whether every cliff or curve of the shore was geographically accurate. I wanted to work with what I remembered of the land, the water and the changing light, allowing some areas to remain more defined while others became softer.

I have always found coastlines fascinating because they can appear so permanent. When we stand beneath enormous cliffs, it is difficult to imagine them being anything other than what they are, yet the coastline is continually changing. The sea moves against the land, the weather alters it and the light can completely change the way we see it.

We can return to somewhere familiar and recognise it immediately while also noticing something we had never seen before.

Perhaps our memories of places change in much the same way. Certain details remain, others disappear and sometimes something quite small or unexpected is what stays with us.

That became part of Where Land Meets Memory as I painted it.

It is recognisably a coastline, and Man O’War Bay is where the painting began, but I don't need somebody looking at it to see exactly the place I saw.

They may be reminded of another coastline, somewhere they visited years ago or a landscape that has nothing to do with Dorset at all. Or they may simply look at the painting and enjoy it for what it is.

I can tell you where an image began for me, but I don't need to tell you where it should take you.

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