Clevedon study no II

The present drawing relates to a number of works on paper that Lanyon produced when he took a group of students to Clevedon, near Bristol, in May 1964. Alan Bowness writes, 'The weather was evidently fresh and spring-like, with some sunshine. Lanyon took his camera and sketchbook. He was attracted by the pier, especially the charming decorated ironwork of its pavilion and balustrades and supports. He appreciated its structural quality. He noticed the swimming pool, and the boating lake, and the line of tethered pleasure boats, newly painted and numbered for the Summer season. This is what he photographed, and then translated into freer form with his pencil, trying to compose as one can only do to a limited extent with a camera' (Exhibition catalogue, Peter Lanyon Clevedon drawings, gouaches and paintings 1964, Bristol, Arnolfini Gallery, 1970).

From the studies on paper and a number of photographs, Lanyon later painted three oil works, which were among his last works he made (see C. Stephens, Peter Lanyon At the edge of landscape, London, 2000, pp. 175-7).