The Ship Inn

The Ship Inn, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

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The Saltburn School

The Saltburn School, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

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Emmanuel Church, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

Emmanuel Church, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

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Saltburn Pier

Saltburn Pier, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

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The Marine Hotel, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

The Marine Hotel, Saltburn-by-the-Sea

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Images of Saltburn-by-the-Sea

Over the last couple of weeks I've been working on a set of drawings of Saltburn-by-the-Sea which will be available as prints and postcards. Now, I'm heading back into a more motif-based theatre of darkness and candles; over the next few months some more discernable forms should be gathering themselves together of the shadows. In the meantime I'll post some images of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. This is the first one: it's Saltburn Community Hall and Theatre, a lovely old building just down the road.

Saltburn-by-the-Sea Community Hall and Theatre, graphite

Study of Richard Hayward, oil

Maybe it's a memory of Nativity plays at primary school, all bound up with the excitement of Christmas. Maybe it's simply the visual magic of sparkly things in the vast blackness of night. Maybe it's the allegorical power of the Search: the quest for Truth; the single-minded focus on the distant and beyond-grasp. Perhaps it's having been born on the Winter Solstice (!). Anyway, I've always loved midwinter, which, to me, is a festival-of-light, sparkly-things-in-darkness metaphor for a sublime experiential truth: the all-and-nothing of existence; magnitude of import and insignificance at once; a bright light, tiny in the void. So I'm still working on this theme, which I began with 'Searching for Light'. There has to be three of them, I think. It is, after all, a magic number. This is a study for another 'wise man'. It's Richard Hayward, who is, as I've suggested before, a first-rate sculptor. Here's a link to some of his work. It's worth looking at. http://www.craftsguild.co.uk/sculpture/richard-hayward/