This painting of Charlestown in Cornwall was selected for ‘Open 28‘, the East Midlands Open Art Exhibition in Leicester, which is on at the Old Library Gallery, 50-54 Belvoir Street, Leicester, LE1 6QL from 6 July to 26 August, 2017.

The wide expanse of dockside at Charlestown seemed to lend itself to a marine landscape format. Interesting shapes fan out in all directions with walkways and slipways. Upright bulwarks and railings stand to attention, as do the masts of the fine square riggers, in this scudding light that all but bleaches out the colour and throws hard shadows. A line of dressed stone edges the quayside like teeth around the mouth of the harbour whilst marks in the pink and grey hued concrete spreads out in the foreground in imitation of a sunburst. The windows of the Pier House Hotel and those of a terrace of cottages keep vigil from their vantage point over all. The scene is becalmed in what must have once been a busily bustling port.