Tate Britain: Ithell Colquhoun and Turner

I wanted to see a painting by Colquhoun in person as I'm writing about it in part of my research paper. It was certainly interesting to see the brush work up close and the difference between this earlier painting (when she was emerging into the Surrealist group and influenced by 'the double image' as with painters like Dali), and her later work (that I've largely looked at in books) that shows a deeper dive into automatism and the occult. The defined shapes and smooth forms feel very typical of Surrealist paintings.

Colquhoun was first enthralled by the Surrealist when she attended the International Surrealist Exhibition exhibition in London in 1936. Scylla was painted in 1938 and so you can see how the movement had impacted her work.

Writing about an art work is something I've been keen to develop skills in and writing the research paper has really helped this. I'm sure there's a lot you can say about Scylla (and lots I'm missing!) but I've got this so far:

"In Scylla (1938) We see the double image of two tall rocks protruding from a pool of water surrounding by seaweed, and at the same time, two thighs bent at the knee in the bath with the same seaweed positioned as pubic hair. A boat sits in between the thighs, its pointed bow headed in the direction of where they meet. We feel a sense of the still relaxation of being in the bath, and the sensual evocation of two legs set gently apart- and yet, the thighs are rendered in varying shades of dark peach brown and painted in fragmented sections. They are reminiscent of raw meat stacked and crushed together.

This is accompanied by the foreboding sense that, as rocks, the boat is on course to collide with them, surely signalling its destruction. The water does not need to be stormy or lashing to sense this end and the title of the piece gives indication to its perilous undertone. The name Scylla refers to a female monster from Greek Mythology who occupied a narrow passage of water and lured passing sailors to their deaths. This double image, juxtaposing sex and destruction, reveals something of Colquhoun’s personal symbolic language that was emerging at the time and that played out in subsequent paintings from this period".

I used the notes from the Tuesday workshop with the writer Laura Roberson on June 13th to help me and it's been really useful!

Although this painting is much later (and came at a time when she was in the process of turning her back on London, having already moved away from the Surrealists) it's still possible to see how she used some of the movement's central ideas in her work.

"Ethereal and luminous"

I also had a look at the Turner collection. I've always loved Turner's later work, when his eyesight and health was failing. There's such a sense of movement and emotion in this later work and I particularly like the way that figures are subtle and almost mirage like in these examples. I often grapple with figures - wanting them to be in my work but struggling to find how and where to depict them.

I use watercolour and inks, and use this layers as Turner is described as doing here. I sometimes think what my work would look like if I used oils - and maybe I will try at some point, but I think for now, I'm enjoying my experience with watercolour and how this hs evolved into using brusho.