Portland residency

I was lucky enough to spend time with some amazing artists at a residency with the Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust. 

While the others shaped the beautiful Portland stone in Tout Quarry, I took myself into the hills for some outdoor painting. 

Painting in the landscape changes the nature of what I produce. Partly there are practical considerations: the uneven ground comes through when I press the paint on the canvas, the wind plays at the edges of the fabric and moves the liquid paint. But there’s also a freedom of movement that comes from being outdoors. While I waited for the paint to dry, I floated in the sea - and that free-flowing motion poured back into the painting when I returned. 

I found I was drawn to the vertiginous edges of the quarry. Just beyond where I was painting, the footpath ends in an abrupt drop where the cliff has cleaved away - a dramatic reminder of how precarious this coastline is. There’s something about painting in these spots - high up, no one around, just a view of the sea and cliffs - that makes me feel like I’m on the edge of the world. 

One of the unexpected delights of the view from this part of Portland is the way that Chesil beach arcs into the horizon, and creates the optical illusion that you can see the curvature of the earth. If your eyes could see past the horizon, from this peninsula you might just graze the tip of Brittany. Or from the right angle, the line could carry on across the Atlantic to the coast of Guyana or Venezuela. What a sea crossing that would be…