Influenced by cartooning and street art. A little of Malcolm Morley in the 'efulgence'. I painted three paintings in this sequence all highly coloured and deliberately so as involved in community arts at time and trying to mix that in with previous painting style. No one 'got it' least of all me. Painted over eventually as found asked too many questions and I had no answers at the time. Soon as painted over somebody offered to purchase..c'est la vie!
Pastor Moritz was a german cleric who wrote a travelogue around Britain and described the area near my hometown. The ship and church images refer to a story in book where he mistakes a gallows pole for a ship's mast...if I recall correctly will have to check :-)
When I had got about eight miles from Nettlebed, and was now not far from Dorchester, I had the Thames at some distance on my left, and on the opposite side I saw an extensive hill, behind which a tall mast seemed to rise. This led me to suppose that on the other side of the hill there must needs also be a river. The prospect I promised myself from this hill could not possibly be passed, and so I went out of the road to the left over a bridge across the Thames, and mounted the hill, always keeping the mast in view. When I had attained the summit, I found (and not without some shame and chagrin) that it was all an illusion. There was, in fact, nothing before me but a great plain, and the mast had been fixed there, either as a maypole only, or to entice curious people out of their way.
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/moritz/karl/england/chapter10.html
