A Closer look at Ithell Colqhuorn

I've been in touch with Tate archive recently as I'd read they had a large collection of early drawings and watercolours by Colqhoun. In the absence of there being an exhibition showing her work, or many books about her, I wanted to deepen my understanding of who she was, and where her artistic language says about her.

Having first seen her work in the Stonehenge exhibition at the British Museum last year. I felt an instant connection with her interests in stone circles and other forms of ancient sites and rituals.

Colquhoun is best known as a surrealist, and later an occultist. In fact, her developing interest in ‘the other’ eventually prompted her to detach from the surrealist movement, rejecting what she considered their stringent rules and expectations.

After the second world war, Colquhoun moved to the far west of Cornwall, seeking solace and restoration from post blitz London. Here, she bought a primitive studio where she lived and worked. It is here that she wrote ‘The Living Stones’, a book I’m currently reading, which offers huge insight into her motivations and (especially interesting to me) her study of stone circles in the Cornish landscape.

She writes: “When the war was over, and I could partially escape from my own entangled life, it was t this region, this ‘end of the land’ with its occasional sight of the unattained past, that I was drawn. There is some balsamic quality in the air that never fails to bring healing; after years of blitz I felt that here I could find some humble refuge from the claustrophobic fight of cities. I determined tat I would never be so trapped again”. Ref: The Living Stones Cornwall by Ithell Colquhoun published 1957

This is really interesting to me when looked at through the lens of pilgrimage – the idea of being drawn to a place and returning to it (Colquhoun didn’t move permanently to Cornwall straight away, but between there and London).

Could she have been encountering feelings of post trauma, having spent the war in London? I can’t help but think of the mobility that her socio economic privilege afforded her. Of course, this wouldn’t have been the case for most Londoners at that time.

Nevertheless, I enjoy the sense of journey, travel – moving away from pain (her departure from the Surrealist movement was concurrent with an acrimonious divorce).

Could it be said that to Colquhoun, travelling to and making art within Cornwall was a pilgrimage? How did this impact her work? I wonder also how her earlier Surrealist work might compare to her later work made in Cornwall.

I’ve been looking at this painting:

Ithell Colquhoun, Landscape with Antiquities (Lamorna) 1955

Ref: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/archive/tga-929-4/colquhoun-artworks?page=2

It reminds me of some arial view experiments I have done, showing the subtle imprint of neolithic sites or barrows. I love how the arrangement of the features aren’t necessarily geographically accurate. It’s not a map in a strict sense but gives us a feeling of place and of a journey made through it.

It was this painting I had in mind when taking part in the workshop yesterday where we were tasked with creating something to the prompt ‘chasing shadows’. I've written about this in the Neolithic forms blog post (one of the posts I keep adding to to chart the journey).

I wanted to explore this idea of 'mapping', thinking about tracing and re tracing footsteps to places of significance. And perhaps avoiding taking certain steps to places of instability. I certainly do this, and am interested to see how I can show this on paper.

There's a place in south Cornwall called Fowey, around which runs a circular walk called the hall walk. I've walked it several times, it's appeal is strong and I think about it often, missing not just the physical place, but also the sense of peace I get from being there.

I started with some quick mark making with watercolour, just trying to get a sense of the enclosed, shady woodland that envelopes parts of the walk. As the walk combines both woodland and higher land above the sea, you experience a huge variation of landscape. It's the feeling of woodland and changing height that is the strongest memory for me.

I added some flecks of blue as they have been all along the banks each time we've walked here in spring time. I also added some flicks for ferns. As I was doing this I was aware of the meditative effect of making these repeated marks. I wasn't thinking about composition or representation, but engaging more with the physical evocation of the place I was recalling.

Below, tried to bring in more tree forms. I think the coverage of paint and less white space works better than the first one. I was thinking about the sense of freedom that can be felt within an enclosed space. Despite the trees and shrubs enveloping this particular part of the walk, the impact is, for me, not one of feeling trapped or constrained. It called to mind how the art therapist I'd spoken to talked about circles (a shape I look at often) is not just associated with infinity and something that keeps going - but also of containment. It could be seen as a representation of a safe space. I'm aware I've been drawn to these safe spaces for many years but haven't consciously explored this on paper yet.

I looked at an areal map of the hall walk in Cornwall with the intention of drawing it once, before re tracing the lines over and over.

Some quick notes I made as I was drawing:

re tracing. Aware of filling gaps left by previous journey around

Pencil more effective as you can keep it on the paper all the time. With paint, I have to keep dipping back into the water and palette.

Aware I like the physical motion or motivation of drawing in this way, but for me, there's not enough form in there. Things are missing. It might be making a point about pilgrimage, but it's just a bit simple for me.

Had a go adding in some marks to represent places along the walk where we had either paused to look at something, or take a break (Iona was with us)

What has merged is not exactly what I associated, at least aesthetically, with a resolving piece, but an interested example of the kinds of drawing I discussed with Art Therapist Carey Bennet. The way in which we can go to a place in our minds, and externalise that place on paper. This can work both for pleasurable and painful places, memories or associations.

I'd like to find a balance between these two things - to evoke a sense of journey, pilgrimage and place using process led marks - but to anchor it somehow. I want it to be represented or recognised - but to what extent yet I don't know. It's made me think about other places I could 'map':