Keith Purser, Elements

 

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From 'Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Keith Purser (b. 1944) lives and works on the edge of a huge shingle bank in the shadow of Dungeness power station, in a village called Lydd-on-Sea in south-east Kent. His home, on the tip of a headland, faces onto a wide expanse of beach and looks out to the coast of France. This is a place of light and vast skies; of open shingle dotted with the few plants that can thrive in the weather-beaten environment, and with the abandoned supplies of the local fishermen. With a landscape so devoid of features, Purser finds himself free to make determined studies of its textures.

 

Purser’s paintings are rich in surface and often include objects discovered on his daily walks. Sand, driftwood, netting, gravel, shells, sea glass and broken ceramics can often be found. In some paintings, an impression is all that is left, with the objects inscribed into their surfaces transferred and then removed. If one of these articles stays in the artist’s mind for long enough, it becomes the spark that determines a painting, spiritually present if not physically. The irregular black shapes that features so often are, for instance, reminiscent of the dozens of fishermen’s crates that pepper the shoreline.

 

Purser first sketches his compositions and then retreats to his studio at his home, from where he can watch the ships passing along the Dover Strait. Working with a calm palette of lemon and chrome yellow, ultramarine, cerulean and Prussian blue, along with the careful use of metallic pigment, he captures the light that inspires him. With flashes of whites and reds and the sparse black features, Purser recreates the light of the land, sky and sea.