This pen and ink study was done rapidly on returning to the studio after an afternoon visit to Happisburgh on the north Norfolk coast. We walked on the beach and this is essentially in part the view inland incorporating the cliffs – the black bar across the bottom – and various items of cultural clutter in that landscape of which thew most obvious are the (non-existent) jetty, lower right, the boat, lower left, and the lighthouse.

Far more important to me, however, is the style since this represents an early and very conscious attempt to paint differently. The contrast with my often clunky, solid blocks of colour is obvious. The slight ink marks are suggestive of landscape with ‘normal’ elements in it like a road, river, bridge and field system.

This study immediately preceded the ‘Landscape with strong wind’ and ‘Fragments in landscape’.