I am pleased to hear all is well and thank you for the draft website, I saw it only this morning. Can we do more with the banner?1 In my view we can be telling more of a story with it, use the banner as an opportunity to communicate more than mere design.

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A dear old janner delivered the wood yesterday so everything is in place save the unit but now is not the time to approach Sean as there is a series of enormous spring tides coming in, the sort that can do damage, and he's in no mood. Even over the gunfire I hear him bellowing at Little Pete.2 Because of the tide I haven't ventured far today. You see I want to be around about an hour before the high tide to check on everything then I don't plan on getting off for another three hours maybe if the tide really pushes up. (Did you hear about the floods in Looe yesterday?) So I resolved to execute a view of the car park that I've had my eye on all year. What attracts me is the way the trees relate to the parked cars, they really eat them up. I set my easel at the rear of the car park next to the back gate. I had to contend with the good natured banter from a couple of fellows from the yard, Steve the engineer has a widebeam barge right by the gate and 'Nick the Tug' has his unit there too so I planted myself deep in their territory. Its not every day a plein air painter turns up, but I didn't take the bait and I pressed on without delay laying in an rapid under painting. The composition shows the road in the center, full of deep pot holes which provide splendid reflections. The car park isn't council owned, its Sean’s and so will only be repaired when he says and not before. I'm told he will not do it until some nearby residents who partially use the road pay a share so we're stuck with it. Town houses in the distance. Various walls, gates and posts on the right. The parked cars and overwhelming pines take up the left. Pale sky. On the extreme left side I included the Polish fellows music studio, he was good enough to show it to me, it’s a fully equipped recording studio inside a battered green container...quite remarkable.

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As I painted all manner of people passed by. Just behind is a busy little foot bridge over the water leading to the military wives quarters, it’s the only access from this side and in addition to the usual comments, today we had music. Kevin came out of the yard with his guitar and as we exchanged I inquired as to the progress of the flamenco style he has been working on and before I'd finished asking him he was unzipping the case and he sat next to me on the floor and played some extraordinary guitar for twenty minutes straight. It was impressive I tell you but not easily learned - four hours practice per day! Would it not be a luxury for a painter to put in all that practice with not so much as a penny spent on materials? In the middle of this impromptu bohemian display Mr Huggins strides around the corner with as bemused a look as you could hope to see. I think with the piano in the laundry room3, polish thrash music studio, a flamenco guitarist in the car park, and a plein air painter he must think the world gone mad. He stares for a few seconds, says nothing then continues on his rounds. Half an hour or so later as I was packing away my easel and box I hear him shouting at me from inside the yard, evidently he was not impressed with the build up of odds and ends on the quay next to the Olympic. He shouts "OI"! Then another, this time so loud that his voice slips up an octave, "OIiii...! GET RID OF ALL THAT CRAP ROUND YOUR BOAT. WE GOT SPRING TIDE COMING EVERYONES MAKING A BIG EFFORT AND YOURS LOOKS LIKE A SHIT HEAP!" Needless to say I obeyed. I have never encountered a man like him and yet if you ask people they don't have a bad word to say against him. Apparently if you're in a real fix he helps you out. Nevertheless I would not quibble with him over the rent, even Van Gogh himself would think twice about it4.

In any event another size 20 canvas to decorate the boat and I feel as though I managed to get some life into the trees and the houses but as for autonomous representational motif or harmony in parallel with nature as old Cezanne has it, well, it will come, but there is no sense forcing it and ending up with a formulaic scheme. I'll plough on with my studies but one attempt must be made from now on; I must have energy in the paint, a sense of urgency but this is certainly not just a case of painting quickly, no sir, its something much more difficult to capture. But I'm on the hunt for it now.

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While the tide was up I had the chance to exchange with Tim, a fellow who also lives on an old trawler who had agreed to remove two of my water tanks (I have six and only use them for ballast). We made a deal, if he was prepared to remove them then he could have them. It was no easy job, each one was securely fastened to the hull and had to be cut in two with an electric grinder in order to fit out through the door. As we worked I discovered that Tim is a painter quite an experienced one at that with a deep knowledge of materials and styles. I must say I was amazed, I have lived alongside Tim for months since his arrival and I never knew it. Just like with old Steve, not only did it turn out he was an artist working at the university but he was also a music photographer in 1960's London. We talked about jazz and improvisation and it turned out that he knew Derek Bailey5!

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Well its late now and I must get this off to you in haste as there is much to be put in order below deck.

 

-----------------------------------------In good spirit,

........................................................................................John

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