0:00:02 > 0:00:04SEAGULLS CRY
0:00:05 > 0:00:08The sea has always drawn our gaze.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13It's impossible not to come down to the shore
0:00:13 > 0:00:17and look at the simple geometry of the horizon more intensely
0:00:17 > 0:00:20and in a different way than we usually look at the land.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Being out here now, in the middle of it, it isn't hard to see why.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31It's such a visually seductive environment -
0:00:31 > 0:00:34it's always changing, full of oppositions.
0:00:34 > 0:00:39It's beautiful and yet potentially fatal and always moving and altering.
0:00:39 > 0:00:44It's no surprise then that through the generations the sea should have been such a powerful influence
0:00:44 > 0:00:47upon Britain's artists and painters.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The sea has played a crucial role in our identity as an island nation -
0:01:06 > 0:01:13a place of battles and acts of heroism, where our sovereignty has been defended and defined.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18A place of work and industry where communities have grown.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24It's also a place we can experience a sense of the infinite,
0:01:24 > 0:01:29where the scale of human life is measured against the immense, majestic power of the sea.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36And yet only 400 years ago the sea had very little cultural value.
0:01:36 > 0:01:42It was viewed with great suspicion, rife with bad smells and rotting debris.
0:01:44 > 0:01:50We perceive the sea today as a place of great natural beauty - the last true wilderness,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54a destination for holidays and a vibrant part of our cultural life.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02So how did this dramatic transformation take place?
0:02:06 > 0:02:10In this programme, I'll chart our relationship with the sea
0:02:10 > 0:02:14by looking at the work of British artists over the last four centuries
0:02:14 > 0:02:20who have tried to capture her ever changing essence in the stillness of a canvass or sculpture.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40Sunrise at Leigh-on-Sea on the Essex coast,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42where the Thames Estuary meets the North Sea.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I'm here to meet a contemporary artist who lives
0:02:50 > 0:02:54and works here, and who comes to the shore every morning to draw.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Jon Wonnacott is one of Britain's most respected portrait painters.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09His commissions include some of Britain's most prestigious figures,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12including the Royal Family.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20But it's this coastline that he considers his main subject -
0:03:20 > 0:03:23one that he constantly returns to in his work.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37I've come to absolutely love being able to see a complete horizon all the way around me.
0:03:37 > 0:03:44And I love the way that it's always reflecting the sky, all the time changing,
0:03:44 > 0:03:46according to what the sky is doing,
0:03:46 > 0:03:52and for a painter like me who's concerned with light and space,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55there couldn't be a greater subject to have, you know.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59It just seems to be like it was built for me.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Do you think it's a beautiful scene?
0:04:05 > 0:04:11I was struck this morning that it has a tone of aftermath in it, especially when the tide's gone out.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13Everything that has been left.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16And at the same time we're looking over there to a power station.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20It's a strange kind of beauty, isn't it?
0:04:20 > 0:04:24Well, I suppose so. But then all beauty is a bit strange, isn't it?
0:04:24 > 0:04:26All beauty is surprising.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30What do you mean? You mean a sort of loveliness, isn't there? I think that's true.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34But a loveliness I don't think I would find terribly interesting.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Would you? No, I don't think I would.
0:04:37 > 0:04:43I mean, beauty for me... visual beauty is always to do with a kind of exhilaration.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47I like what man does, I like what people do, I like the way that people interact with things.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51I like it when they build a new cafe and I can go and sit there and make new drawings.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55I like all the stuff they put up around, all the new lamp-posts and the new jetties.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58They're always rebuilding these overflows.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00All these are beautiful.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04It strikes me that there's a theatrical note about it.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Is there an element of the beach as a stage for you, do you think?
0:05:08 > 0:05:10It's pure theatre the entire time.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16You've got to remember the tide is obviously going in and out twice a day, so it's changing continuously.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19I mean, one moment from my window it is just sea,
0:05:19 > 0:05:22another day it's pulled right back and you've got this dazzling thing
0:05:22 > 0:05:25with people going down the road, people out here.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27Yeah, theatre. Continuous theatre, you know.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30The curtains being withdrawn four times a day.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37As someone who works in light, this must be an incredible landscape to work in.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42I was very aware that as we walked down the beach, the quality of the light was changing.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Light has to be at the core of painting.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47I mean, it's all we've got, isn't it?
0:05:47 > 0:05:51All we've got is light being reflected from up there onto different surfaces,
0:05:51 > 0:05:56hitting the retina, then we've got to process that and find some ways of making images about it.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00So, when you've got light that is so continuously bouncing backwards and forwards,
0:06:00 > 0:06:05when you've got light that is encompassing everything and drawing the eye,
0:06:05 > 0:06:07how could you not be a painter, standing among that lot?
0:06:20 > 0:06:25Jon Wonnacott is part of a long tradition of painters who have made the sea their subject.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32It's a tradition that started in Britain over 300 years ago
0:06:32 > 0:06:35when Britain's navy was one of the most powerful in the world.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44The River Thames lies at the heart of Britain's maritime history.
0:06:44 > 0:06:49In the 17th century, 90% of the country's trade would have passed through the Port of London.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54This was the gateway to the global markets from where ships were would sail off around the world.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00It was also right here on the Thames that Britain's illustrious tradition of maritime art was born.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:07:13 > 0:07:18The Royal Naval College in Greenwich was built as a hospital for the relief and support of sailors.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23Its grandeur demonstrates the high regard in which the navy was held.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33At its heart is The Painted Hall,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37planned as the hospital's dining room and decorated with paintings by James Thornhill.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43It was the first major commission for a British painter
0:07:43 > 0:07:46and it took him a staggering 19 years to complete.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53The paintings on these ceilings were designed to celebrate the prosperity and stability
0:07:53 > 0:07:57that had been gained by the newly formed nation of Britain through her dominance of the waves.
0:07:57 > 0:08:03It isn't surprising therefore that they're absolutely packed with maritime symbolism and iconography.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09Up here above me the four corners of heaven are supported by cannons and coils of rope and anchors.
0:08:09 > 0:08:16While down at the eastern end of the ceiling, we can see navigators and astronomers like Sir John Flamsteed.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Up here, at the western end of the ceiling,
0:08:19 > 0:08:25there's a Man of War flying the British flag which symbolises not just the navy,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29but also this youthful and recently formed nation of Britain itself.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Represented here, crucially, as a ship.
0:08:33 > 0:08:39The King of Britain, Charles II, understood the importance of commanding the sea.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42During his reign in the 17th century, Britain was under
0:08:42 > 0:08:47threat of attack from Spain, France and the Netherlands.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51He wanted the best painters to record his growing navy
0:08:51 > 0:08:57and his maritime victories. And his eye soon fell on the undisputed master of the genre -
0:08:57 > 0:08:59Willem Van de Velde,
0:08:59 > 0:09:06a marine draughtsman who recorded real-life battles from his own first-hand experience.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Charles II invited this celebrated Dutch artist and his son
0:09:13 > 0:09:18to set up their studio here at the Queens House in Greenwich.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24It's remarkably detailed.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28It is, yeah. I mean it's incredibly painstaking this technique.
0:09:28 > 0:09:34And it's not surprising that he charged high prices for them.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39We can see that there's an enormous amount of labour that goes into these images.
0:09:39 > 0:09:44They're based on drawings that he produced in the battles.
0:09:44 > 0:09:51So he actually sailed into these battles, and he would be among these ships making his first sketches?
0:09:51 > 0:09:53That sounds very unusual.
0:09:53 > 0:10:00Yes, it is. He really is the first war reporter in certainly modern times.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04He's somebody who is sent into battle, you know,
0:10:04 > 0:10:09given a boat, a captain is told to take him wherever he wants to go,
0:10:09 > 0:10:16and he would sit in the boat with a long roll of paper drawing the battle as it happened in front of him.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Making notes, sketching incidents,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21producing these documents of war.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34When the British invited Van de Velde to come here, they got two artists for the price of one
0:10:34 > 0:10:37because his son Willem Van de Velde the younger
0:10:37 > 0:10:40turned out to be an exceptional painter.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45And eventually overtook his father's reputation with a different style of work altogether.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52We get a sense here of the visual drama
0:10:52 > 0:10:54that he was capable of with paints,
0:10:54 > 0:10:58and the way in which he could paint these very powerful images
0:10:58 > 0:11:00which are fictional, on the whole.
0:11:00 > 0:11:06What we're seeing here is a sort of dream of an English ship
0:11:06 > 0:11:11destroying a pirate, a North African Muslim pirate ship
0:11:11 > 0:11:16blowing up before us with this huge cloud of smoke coming out of it.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18So, really,
0:11:18 > 0:11:24the reason for his painting has changed quite significantly from that that his father had?
0:11:24 > 0:11:26His father was recording these battles.
0:11:26 > 0:11:33In a way, his son is recording sort of the past glories of those battles and also keeping that glory alive.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Yes. He's dramatising what has been established in England,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42which is this culture of maritime power.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47So really maritime art was very much about contributing
0:11:47 > 0:11:50to this myth that we had of ourselves,
0:11:50 > 0:11:55or this story that we could tell about Britain during this period.
0:11:55 > 0:12:01Yes, absolutely. It's wind and tide that helped Britain to conquer the world.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12This was the beginning of Britain's reign as a supreme military power,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16which would last almost unchallenged until the 20th century.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Ships were the most advanced machines man was able to produce
0:12:21 > 0:12:25and crucial to the development of a powerful navy.
0:12:27 > 0:12:32The British fascination with this period has led to a style of painting that celebrates
0:12:32 > 0:12:39the drama of life at sea, and the precise details of ships and naval battles fought during this time.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45It's a process of assembling a lot of reference material...
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Geoff Hunt is one of the foremost painters of the genre today.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53His work features on the covers of Patrick O'Brian's bestselling novels.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58The paintings are drawn from data sourced from the original naval logs.
0:13:02 > 0:13:04The starting point is the Master's log book
0:13:04 > 0:13:08because the Master was the guy on the ship
0:13:08 > 0:13:11who was the navigating officer, but his responsibility was also to
0:13:11 > 0:13:15note down the weather and the wind conditions and the sea and all that.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19So there's an enormous amount of informative detail.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23So how do you then translate all of that detail onto the canvas?
0:13:23 > 0:13:28Well, the easiest way of organising that material, if it's something complicated you're doing,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31like a battle or an engagement, is to do a set-up like this,
0:13:31 > 0:13:37which is a plotting board where you've got these little tiny ship models,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40but is also flagged with the compass direction, the light direction,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43the wind direction and obviously the time of day.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48And you squint a bit and you try and figure out what would be a satisfactory painting,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50what would work as a composition.
0:13:50 > 0:13:55So you've got the factual details, but you try and reconcile those
0:13:55 > 0:13:58with something that also makes an interesting picture.
0:13:58 > 0:14:04Why do you think that now, in the 21st century, there is such an appetite, such a demand,
0:14:04 > 0:14:10such an interest in your work, in these depictions of 17th and 18th century naval battles?
0:14:10 > 0:14:16Certainly from a British viewpoint, that period was the golden age of the Royal Navy
0:14:16 > 0:14:19and what they did was just phenomenal.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22It was so resourceful and courageous.
0:14:22 > 0:14:27But I think the other thing that people like so much about that period
0:14:27 > 0:14:32is that it was just about the last time when you could understand what was going on.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38I mean, if you gave me 20 tons of wood, I'd have a crack at building a ship.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And it was that last period when science and technology and culture
0:14:41 > 0:14:46and everything could be sort of grasped by one person. That's the appeal of that period.
0:14:47 > 0:14:54What do you think it is about the sea that draws you so powerfully, personally?
0:14:54 > 0:14:59I think the thing that concerns me about the sea is that it's very scary.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02It's just this natural thing, but it's an alien element.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07I think the sea is a very beautiful thing, but it's also a rather unsettling, scary thing.
0:15:07 > 0:15:10And ships are really a very clever trick, particularly sailing ships,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14you figure out you can get the wind to take you wherever you want to go.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32The British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805
0:15:32 > 0:15:34confirmed the nation's maritime supremacy.
0:15:37 > 0:15:43Britain had defeated the French and Spanish fleets and removed the threat of Napoleonic invasion.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45But in the midst of this celebration,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49a nation mourned over the death of the British fleet commander, Admiral Nelson,
0:15:49 > 0:15:54struck by a French sniper as he strode the quarterdeck of his flagship Victory.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05One artist who depicted this battle
0:16:05 > 0:16:11is one of the most brilliant and influential of all British painters - JMW Turner.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26This is such an unusual painting for Turner in so many ways.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28I mean, the first thing is just the scale of it.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32This is by far his largest painting,
0:16:32 > 0:16:38and then also there's the fact that it's a scene that he wasn't actually naturally given to painting.
0:16:38 > 0:16:44He wasn't really normally someone who would be up for painting battle scenes like this.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48And he wasn't even particularly keen on painting the human form,
0:16:48 > 0:16:53so you can appreciate what he was having to tackle here, because he's painting the Battle of Trafalgar,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56so you can't avoid these thousands and thousands of men.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59But what I find really fascinating about this work
0:16:59 > 0:17:05is that here he is depicting one of the most important naval victories in our history
0:17:05 > 0:17:09and yet the ship at the centre of it, The Victory, is not in the foreground.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11It's here, it's in the centre,
0:17:11 > 0:17:18and you can appreciate the grandeur of it, but in the foreground there's this incredibly harrowing scene
0:17:18 > 0:17:22of these sailors clambering onto the lifeboats, drowning.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27Here we've even got a solitary hand as someone goes under the waves.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32And also very powerfully you've got the Union Jack which is down and in the water,
0:17:32 > 0:17:39so what this seems to say is that whilst Turner is acknowledging the grandeur of this battle,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43he's refusing to turn away from the darker side of it,
0:17:43 > 0:17:49and the very real tragedy of individual loss.
0:17:54 > 0:18:01Finished in 1824, the image remains a powerful, uncompromising depiction of war.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09A controversial artist in his day, Turner would go much further,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13breaking the rules that bound many of his contemporaries.
0:18:13 > 0:18:19A daring innovator, his experimental approach was incomprehensible to more conventional painters.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24During a career spanning more than 50 years,
0:18:24 > 0:18:30he left behind the literal tradition of maritime painting like that of the Van de Veldes.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35Although Turner was interested in human activity on the sea,
0:18:35 > 0:18:42he increasingly found his subject in the elemental power of the sea itself.
0:18:42 > 0:18:47In these later paintings, he leaves out discernable forms,
0:18:47 > 0:18:51concentrating on the radiance of light on water and enveloping skies.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01So this would be one of Turner's later works, am I right in saying that?
0:19:01 > 0:19:05Yeah, this was the picture he exhibited when he was already 67
0:19:05 > 0:19:09and by this stage his art was seen as eccentric by his contemporaries.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11They said things like,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14in previous years he'd thrown chocolate and cream at the canvas,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17and this year he'd thrown the whole kitchen utensils at the canvas.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20But just in terms of the way he composes the picture,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23it's so radical - there's no regular horizon line,
0:19:23 > 0:19:28we're looking at a place you can't really gauge where you are or what you're standing on even.
0:19:28 > 0:19:33Would you say that at this stage in his painting life, Turner is more interested in evoking
0:19:33 > 0:19:36the feeling than any kind of historical accuracy, really?
0:19:36 > 0:19:39I think for him there was a sense of accuracy there.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43This was how he saw the world and so that was enough.
0:19:43 > 0:19:50But he wanted to create a much more passionate sense of the vision of the world, what it felt like for him.
0:19:50 > 0:19:57How does this compare to how other painters of the same period would have been painting a similar scene?
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Exactly how radical was he?
0:19:59 > 0:20:06I think if you look at any of the pictures of nautical tradition from the 1840s, there's nothing like this.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09I mean, Turner has disrupted all of those conventions
0:20:09 > 0:20:12of painting the rigging with that kind of very detailed precision
0:20:12 > 0:20:15or showing weather effects in a very stylised way.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18For him, it's all this churning motion - that's what he wants to convey.
0:20:20 > 0:20:28What struck me standing here is how that light shines from the back of the canvas. How did he achieve that?
0:20:28 > 0:20:32What Turner did was to prepare his canvases and the mill boards he was using
0:20:32 > 0:20:38with a white ground which was different from, or completely the opposite of, conventional practice.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41So instead of working from dark up to the lights on the top of the canvas,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44he would work from this brilliant white.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49It guaranteed this greater luminosity and the more vibrancy of his colour.
0:21:01 > 0:21:07Turner often made studies in the open air, sketching and painting at the shore.
0:21:07 > 0:21:13The collection of his sketchbooks here at Tate Britain includes many revealing drawings.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20You can see inside Turner's mind as he's working towards those great masterpieces.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22That's the advantage of sketchbooks.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27You feel you're looking over the artist's shoulder and are part of that thought process.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31It's interesting actually how many of these sketches do have people in them,
0:21:31 > 0:21:35compared to the paintings where you feel, especially this period - 1830s, 1840s -
0:21:35 > 0:21:39he's beginning to pare the human form out of his work, isn't he?
0:21:39 > 0:21:41To really concentrate on the sea and the action of the sea.
0:21:43 > 0:21:49Now, these are the notebooks I imagine he would have travelled around with.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52Would that also have been the case for something larger, like this?
0:21:52 > 0:21:57It seems he's going on to that next level and adding a lot more colour to those early sketches.
0:21:57 > 0:22:02I think in a sketch like this he's actually sort of working directly on the spot.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07There's no evidence of pencil under drawing the way you get in the early sketchbooks.
0:22:07 > 0:22:12I do find this one especially powerful cos you get a very strong sense that you can already tell
0:22:12 > 0:22:15that this is working towards a Turner painting.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18There's something about the concentration of the blue up here
0:22:18 > 0:22:23- and just this dash of the yellow and the red.- The way the paint flickers across the surface.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36The visual experience of being at sea fascinated Turner.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40He took boats into the Thames estuary to study the effects of light.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45His field of vision immersed in swathes of sea and sky.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58Having seen Turner's notebooks and some of his process
0:22:58 > 0:23:03and really spent some time up close with his paintings, you can't help but start to sense he was an artist
0:23:03 > 0:23:10who was really born to paint the sea because of his preoccupation with light at sea.
0:23:10 > 0:23:16One of the most interesting things he does in this respect is to simply remove the horizon.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21He takes away that seam between the sea and the sky which usually anchors us in a seascape.
0:23:21 > 0:23:27And in so doing, of course, he's also removing other horizons and boundaries in art itself.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31He's making it a lot more possible for the artists who follow him to be original and radical.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45Today, the Turner Prize is awarded to artists for new developments in contemporary art.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53A former winner, Anish Kapoor, is one of Britain's most influential sculptors.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58In his South London studio,
0:23:58 > 0:24:05I asked him why Turner's seascapes remain so powerfully resonant for artists today.
0:24:10 > 0:24:16Whatever you do when you look at the big view of the sea, you've got the frame divided in the middle,
0:24:16 > 0:24:21and it seems to say heaven and earth, it seems to say
0:24:21 > 0:24:25all these things about the most simple geometry.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Which of course is actually one of the things that Turner
0:24:29 > 0:24:33eventually ends up taking away. He takes the horizon away.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37Yeah. And then it's blurred, fogged over.
0:24:37 > 0:24:44And what that seems to do is to put a kind of mist between the viewer and the deep distance.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47It causes you to go into the picture.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53They don't throw the question of interpretation or meaning at you.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57What they do is leave the question open
0:24:57 > 0:24:58and look for a response.
0:24:58 > 0:25:04It's almost as if there's no longer any need to look at the sea,
0:25:04 > 0:25:08but it's an internal project and I think that's its real beauty.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16You've spoken about the experience of viewing a piece of art
0:25:16 > 0:25:19as being more of a process than an experience.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Do you think that's the case with Turner, one of his achievements?
0:25:22 > 0:25:25You know, intention in art matters so much.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27I don't somehow feel that it was his intention.
0:25:27 > 0:25:34But somewhere we all have to look at what Turner did as being one of the...
0:25:34 > 0:25:38places that that kind of relationship begins.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42It's almost like an acting out of an idea
0:25:42 > 0:25:46where the stuff of paint almost stops being stuff
0:25:46 > 0:25:50and turns into this religious idea, let's say.
0:25:50 > 0:25:56The way that light represents Christianity or God or whatever.
0:25:56 > 0:26:03It's as if these paintings are allowed then to just become truly the ineffable.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05There's no other word for it.
0:26:10 > 0:26:17Walking through your studio now I couldn't help seeing the curve of the waves in some of your work
0:26:17 > 0:26:23and all of these lit interiors which are somewhat reminiscent of shells, I suppose.
0:26:23 > 0:26:29Am I seeing things because I've been infused by the sea, or has the sea been an important influence for you?
0:26:29 > 0:26:34My father was a hydrographer, so he made maps of the ocean.
0:26:36 > 0:26:40And maps of the ocean, of course, are of this invisible floor, really,
0:26:40 > 0:26:44so they're rather mysterious things in a way.
0:26:46 > 0:26:47I've been...
0:26:47 > 0:26:54I'm deeply interested in organic form, or form if you like that's involuting in one way or another.
0:26:54 > 0:27:01And shells play quite a big role in that inhabited space
0:27:01 > 0:27:05that many of my works in a sense allude to.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22What artists have been able to tap into especially powerfully
0:27:22 > 0:27:28isn't just the visual world of the sea, but also our experience of it.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31Just as we look in a different way when we're at the sea
0:27:31 > 0:27:35because of the space, the light, the elemental movement,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38so we think and feel differently here, too.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46This is central to the work of British artist Maggie Hambling.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52In her studio on the Suffolk coast,
0:27:52 > 0:27:57her paintings and sculptures depict the movement and form of breaking waves -
0:27:57 > 0:28:00alive with the energy and power of the sea.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Wow. What a wonderful studio.
0:28:16 > 0:28:23Do you think there's something about remembering the sea that begins the process of interpretation?
0:28:23 > 0:28:27I think it's quite possible because when you're there with the subject,
0:28:27 > 0:28:31the subject is completely overwhelming in front of your eyes.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34And the subject, obviously, is still overwhelming to me.
0:28:34 > 0:28:41I'm obsessed by the sea, I dream about it, I see it every morning, and this is a very angry sea.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45It is. I was going to say, you feel almost overwhelmed by this painting.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48You feel as though you're in the sea, rather than looking at it.
0:28:48 > 0:28:54There's something about these sea paintings which makes things much more free and open and edgy
0:28:54 > 0:28:59for people to see what they want to see in them. It's much more...
0:28:59 > 0:29:02There's nothing between the person looking at it and the paint.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08I'm just wondering if you could tell me about your choice of colour in this painting?
0:29:08 > 0:29:15Well, there are sudden glimpses of this high turquoise - almost whatever the sky is doing.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20And as you watch the sea your eye is always moving, moving with the wave going along the shore.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22Moving with the wave as it comes towards you.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26It's all about trying to catch the action, catch the movement,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29and so it's very much about the power of the sea, right?
0:29:29 > 0:29:36When the waves are really, really crashing you, it is terrifying and it is beautiful
0:29:36 > 0:29:43and it's trying to capture - I hate the word - but it's a state, you know.
0:29:43 > 0:29:49The action, the energy, the energy of the sea is really what I feel very much and is what I try to paint.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09On the beach at Aldbrough, Maggie's work The Scallop is a personal response to the sea,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13but also a monument to the composer Benjamin Britten.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19It was this stretch of coast where Britten set his most famous opera,
0:30:19 > 0:30:25Peter Grimes - the story of a socially-isolated fisherman -
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and where Britten walked and listened to the voices of the sea.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42These words that have been cut into the shell, "I hear voices that will not be drowned,"
0:30:42 > 0:30:47- they're from Peter Grimes, is that right?- Yes. I thought they would appeal to everyone.
0:30:47 > 0:30:52It has a sort of universal meaning cos we all have voices in ourselves
0:30:52 > 0:30:57that we talk to and I thought it would be understood by everyone in a lot of different ways.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00It was very important they were cut through the steel,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03so that you read them as if in the sky.
0:31:03 > 0:31:10It also made me think, the fact that it's a shell, the idea that we hold shells to our ear to hear the sea.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14- Was that in your mind as well? - That was the very beginning of the conception of it -
0:31:14 > 0:31:19the childhood memory of holding the shell and hearing the sounds of the sea,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22which is the first bit of magic of the thing.
0:31:22 > 0:31:27And then I chose the scallop shell as a nice classical symbol of the sea,
0:31:27 > 0:31:30and love, you know, the cradle of Venus.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33And then you've split it. You've broken it. Why is that?
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Well, I think that's what Britten did with music.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41I mean, he took classical music and turned it upside down, if you like. Split it, recreated it.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47And here, I mean, this portion almost looks like the fin of a fish.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51I certainly wanted that to suggest a fish swimming
0:31:51 > 0:31:56and these great rafts I think echo the wings of a bird.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02What I love is the surprise of the sculpture. As you come around here,
0:32:02 > 0:32:09it actually has this interior, this kind of shelter, as if you're inside the bow of a wave.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14Yes, but I wanted it to refer to underneath the waves if you like.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18I mean, the light catching the top of it, as the light catches
0:32:18 > 0:32:21the top of a wave, then the darker underneath, you know.
0:32:29 > 0:32:35Do you have any idea, or any theories, about why artists, people who work in still lifes,
0:32:35 > 0:32:42are continually drawn to this, this horizon, this constantly moving, changing seascape?
0:32:43 > 0:32:47I suppose I have a love affair with the sea.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49I think the sea is very sexy.
0:32:50 > 0:32:55As a wave approaches gradually, and then that action, that split second,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58like the moment of falling in love, you know, it can happen very, very quickly.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02That moment of becoming almost solid at the crest of a wave
0:33:02 > 0:33:06before it smashes, dissolves into nothing - it's very orgasmic.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11I mean, it's really... The sea as a subject for me has got everything going for it.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15I mean, it's life and death and sex - all at once.
0:33:17 > 0:33:23Which British artist do you think has most successfully captured the sea?
0:33:23 > 0:33:25Constable was such a great painter.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27He didn't often paint the sea.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31He was rather taking care of the sky and I'm taking care of the sea.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35But, I mean, Constable for me every time over Turner
0:33:35 > 0:33:42because you feel that he has in a much more physical way sensed every mark that he makes.
0:33:42 > 0:33:47It's somehow very particular, which art always has to be, and very precise,
0:33:47 > 0:33:49and very exciting paint.
0:33:51 > 0:33:57John Constable's is one of the greatest of all British landscape painters.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59His seascapes are often overlooked,
0:33:59 > 0:34:05but the sea was central to his interest in the effects of movement and light in nature.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11"Of all the works of the creator,"
0:34:11 > 0:34:15he said, "none is so imposing as the ocean."
0:34:16 > 0:34:23As well as exquisite, detailed paintings, he did sketches in oil directly from the beach.
0:34:23 > 0:34:29This one, painted in 1824, captures the drama of a sudden rain shower over the sea.
0:34:32 > 0:34:37When Constable painted these images of Brighton in the early 19th century,
0:34:37 > 0:34:42it was a time of great change in our relationship to the seaside.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51The Industrial Revolution had brought about a dramatic cultural shift in Britain
0:34:51 > 0:34:55with public holidays and the possibility of affordable travel.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01The sea was no longer a place just for fishermen or fighting battles,
0:35:01 > 0:35:07but for health and holidays and an ideal escape from the smoke-filled cities.
0:35:08 > 0:35:15The West Pier in Brighton, opened in 1866, was once England's finest seaside pier.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23Now dilapidated, it has survived as a curious and enduring monument
0:35:23 > 0:35:30to 19th century seaside England and remains a prominent feature of the Brighton seafront.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38Towns like Brighton were endorsed with Royal Family visits and seaside homes,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42but a crucial change came with the creation of the railways,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45enabling easy and affordable access to the beach.
0:35:52 > 0:35:57In 1837, 50,000 people a year would come to Brighton in the whole year,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01but in the 1850s, after the coming of the railways,
0:36:01 > 0:36:03it would be 70,000 in a week.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07So there was a huge growth in numbers of people coming to the seaside,
0:36:07 > 0:36:14and then there was also the development of annual holidays from the 1860s and the 1870s.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16So then the nature of the seaside changed.
0:36:16 > 0:36:22Artists would paint pictures of the waves, people would read poetry about the sea,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26people would see paintings of waves in the Royal Academy exhibitions
0:36:26 > 0:36:28and that would affect the way they behaved at the seaside.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34Frith's painting, Ramsgate Sands, was the really crucial one cos it's a big painting.
0:36:34 > 0:36:38It's five feet wide, it has lots and lots of figures in it, and it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1854.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46Ramsgate Sands captured a portrait of contemporary life,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49revealing how people with different social backgrounds
0:36:49 > 0:36:53were forced into close proximity on the beach.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57The resulting encounters are depicted in a series of interlocking scenes.
0:36:59 > 0:37:05A gentleman reads the list of marriages from a newspaper to his eagerly attentive three daughters.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11A widow proposes to a young man.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19A young girl hides herself in her mother's skirt,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21afraid of the older woman's approach.
0:37:26 > 0:37:32And a man looks through his telescope towards the part of the beach reserved for bathing,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35despite his wife's disapproving glances.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39All part of the bustle and life of the beach.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45The painting was bought by Queen Victoria, giving this type of art
0:37:45 > 0:37:52the stamp of Royal approval and led to an increase in works, both narrative and comic,
0:37:52 > 0:37:56that depicted the new-found British fondness for the seaside.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01When you were looking at a painting of holidaymakers on the beach, you'd find yourself laughing at them,
0:38:01 > 0:38:06because they were very closely connected with things like John Leech's cartoons in Punch.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10And so there'd be interesting situations where you get people from different social classes
0:38:10 > 0:38:15mixing on the beach and feeling uncomfortable in that situation.
0:38:15 > 0:38:21And suggestions too of the sort of sexual frisson that people would feel on the beach
0:38:21 > 0:38:27because there was the possibility of seeing people bathing and men would try to bathe with nothing on at all,
0:38:27 > 0:38:32although resorts would try and bring in by-laws which meant they had to wear drawers.
0:38:32 > 0:38:37But apparently the wealthier visitors to resorts didn't like that
0:38:37 > 0:38:44because they felt that swimming naked was really important for the health-giving effects of sea-bathing.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02The coast was now available to everyone, irrespective of class or wealth.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06The dramatic social changes that were taking place here
0:39:06 > 0:39:10led to an explosion of interest in the beach as a destination for all.
0:39:12 > 0:39:19It was increasingly people that made the sea such fertile territory for artists and it still is today.
0:39:24 > 0:39:30Photographer Martin Parr has been documenting life at the British seaside for over 30 years.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38I guess it's Britain concentrated, if you like.
0:39:38 > 0:39:45So you go to the coast and everything about Britain is there. All behaviour is almost accentuated.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47It's full of energy.
0:39:47 > 0:39:51When you go on a bank holiday, there's all the people there trying to enjoy themselves,
0:39:51 > 0:39:53there's queues for this and that.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56There's a lot of people and energy and that's what I'm attracted to.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05His series of photographs The Last Resort were taken in the mid-80s
0:40:05 > 0:40:08in the seaside complex of New Brighton, near Liverpool.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18These images reveal the highs and lows of day trippers in bright, saturated colours
0:40:18 > 0:40:21and with an unflinching eye for detail.
0:40:24 > 0:40:31Was there anything specific that you were actually trying to say or to see in those photographs?
0:40:31 > 0:40:34No. There was definitely a political element in those photographs.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38Insofar that Mrs Thatcher - this is the 80s, the decade of Mrs Thatcher -
0:40:38 > 0:40:41was telling us what a great country we were,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44and yet the backdrop to New Brighton was very shabby.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48One of the things I really tried to explore was the contrast
0:40:48 > 0:40:52between this domestic activity and the rather run-down backdrop.
0:40:52 > 0:40:58So all the things like litter and everything else that contributed to the photographs were to be welcomed.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08The seaside continues to be an important subject for Martin Parr.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12No smiling. Just look.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16OK. Great. Thanks.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19As part of an ongoing project on cold-water swimming,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23he's photographing a group who bathe in the sea every day,
0:41:23 > 0:41:28whatever the weather. Even on this cold afternoon in December.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34The thought of actually swimming on a day like today is quite amazing.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39So, I really take my hat off to these people who want to go and swim when it's so cold.
0:41:44 > 0:41:50There's something of "a collector's eye", if you like, in your photography at the seaside.
0:41:50 > 0:41:56Almost as if you are hoarding these snapshots of what Britain is like at certain points in time.
0:41:56 > 0:42:03You're right. I'm trying to think about how to interpret the times we live in through photography.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07I'm trying to think of the images I will collect and make this a lifetime archive.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11So, of course, the British seaside has to be an integral part of that.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22There's rumours of hot chocolate. Is that right?
0:42:22 > 0:42:25THEY ALL SPEAK AT ONCE
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Over all the time that you've been photographing the British seaside,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36how do you feel it's evolved over the last 30 years?
0:42:36 > 0:42:42I'd say, you know, the seaside here still is in somewhat of a permanent decline.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44And decline is very attractive for photographers.
0:42:44 > 0:42:50And, of course, when I think of Britain - when I think of this once great powerful country -
0:42:50 > 0:42:56I always think that the decline you can experience here to this very day of the seaside is poignant.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01And, as a photographer, I'm always looking for that little bit of vulnerability, that contradiction,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04ambiguity - that's the thing that drives me.
0:43:04 > 0:43:10So I can find out, with lots of cream on, and a cherry as well, at the British seaside.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30There is a long tradition of documentary in British art about the coast.
0:43:30 > 0:43:37In the late 19th century, many artists wanted to reflect social realism in their paintings.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41And in particular to show the sea as a place of hard work and honest toil
0:43:41 > 0:43:46by focusing on the fishing communities who relied upon the sea for their livelihood.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56Winslow Homer, one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00travelled to Cullercoats in 1881 on the north east coast of Northumberland.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Here, he found the struggles and perils of life at sea
0:44:08 > 0:44:12and the people of this small fishing village an ideal subject for his painting.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19It proved to be a turning point, grounding his skill as an artist
0:44:19 > 0:44:24in powerful and evocative themes, and providing him with a lifetime's subject matter -
0:44:24 > 0:44:27the elemental struggle of life at sea.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32At the same time, on the south coast of Cornwall,
0:44:32 > 0:44:36a group of British painters formed in the fishing village of Newlyn.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40Here was a place they could live simply and cheaply.
0:44:40 > 0:44:42The light had a distinctive quality
0:44:42 > 0:44:45and they had a rich source of inspiration -
0:44:45 > 0:44:48the working lives of the fishermen and their families.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58These artists were Britain's impressionists.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02They went to Newlyn specifically in search of a rural community.
0:45:02 > 0:45:07They wanted to be face to face with their subjects, working outdoors in vivid colours,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09depicting the heroism, tragedy
0:45:09 > 0:45:12and everyday life of this small fishing village.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27The nearby town of St Ives on the north Cornish coast
0:45:27 > 0:45:32plays an even more crucial role in the story of British art of the sea.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38The artists who came here in the '20s, '30s and '40s
0:45:38 > 0:45:44were not so much in search of a subject, but rather came here seeking refuge and a place to work.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48And, in the years that followed, they had a profound influence on modern art.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55These artists shared an intellectual outlook,
0:45:55 > 0:45:57but their art took many different forms.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01From figurative to abstract, in both painting and sculpture.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14The group included such diverse artists as Ben Nicholson,
0:46:14 > 0:46:17one of England's most pioneering modernist painters.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26Terry Frost, whose work combines abstract and figurative images.
0:46:31 > 0:46:37And Christopher Wood, who developed a primitive style inspired by this coastal location.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47There were many others - influential and pioneering artists
0:46:47 > 0:46:49such as Peter Lanyon...
0:46:50 > 0:46:53..Bryan Wynter...
0:46:55 > 0:46:57..and Patrick Heron.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06The modern artists of the St Ives school mostly came here to escape
0:47:06 > 0:47:10the ravages of the Second World War in London, but in coming here they soon gained
0:47:10 > 0:47:17an international reputation for their distinctive abstract approach towards their physical surroundings.
0:47:17 > 0:47:23Although many of their ideas might have been drawn first from European, and then later American influences,
0:47:23 > 0:47:30the work they produced here would also be profoundly influenced by the native Cornish landscape itself.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34By the quality of its light and, of course, the sea.
0:47:44 > 0:47:49Not all the artists were incomers - some were locals, such as Alfred Wallace,
0:47:49 > 0:47:55a former cabin boy and rag and bone merchant, who took up painting in his 70s after the death of his wife.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02His work was discovered here in 1928 by two artists - Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood -
0:48:02 > 0:48:07when they passed his house and saw images on old bits of card through an open doorway.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12These paintings surprised and delighted them,
0:48:12 > 0:48:18for they captured an authenticity and freshness that they both sought in their own art.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23His work seemed to them to be
0:48:23 > 0:48:25a kind of authentic primitive spirit of painting,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29which is what they were trying to get back to in their work.
0:48:29 > 0:48:35So they were absolutely enthralled by what Wallace was doing and took his work,
0:48:35 > 0:48:40managed to buy a couple of pieces off him for one and six, 7.5p -
0:48:40 > 0:48:43they're not really art world prices, are they?
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Took them back to London, showed them around to their friends
0:48:46 > 0:48:49and Wallace became a kind of avant-garde celebrity for a while.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52And there was this buzz about Wallace and St Ives
0:48:52 > 0:48:55and I think their judgement has proved right, you know.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59You look at Wallace's work today and it still has that clarity
0:48:59 > 0:49:04and freshness and impact that they saw when they first encountered it.
0:49:04 > 0:49:10One of the things that is especially striking about Wallace is that he works with a restricted palette,
0:49:10 > 0:49:15which is something that you feel an artist such as Nicholson was certainly picking up on.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17Very much so.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21I mean, Wallace's attitude to his materials was very interesting.
0:49:21 > 0:49:26He said at one point, when someone asked him what he used to paint with,
0:49:26 > 0:49:34cos he used yacht paint, or house paint, he said, "I use real paint, not paint like artists use."
0:49:34 > 0:49:41So he felt that his materials were, you know, that was important to him that they were real.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Wallace had worked at sea and lived here for most of his life,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52so he painted the sea as he'd always known it.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57But other artists came here from London and elsewhere,
0:49:57 > 0:50:02bringing an international reputation that was central to establishing the town as an artistic centre.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11One of the key figures was Barbara Hepworth.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14She moved to live near St Ives at the outbreak of war in 1939
0:50:14 > 0:50:20and soon developed a strong affection for the sea and the coastal landscape here,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23which had a profound influence on her work.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Hepworth had been living in St Ives for 10 years
0:50:30 > 0:50:34when she bought this studio and garden, which is now a museum.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37"Finding it," she wrote, "was a sort of magic.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42"Here was a yard and garden where I could work in the open air, and space."
0:50:42 > 0:50:47The result of that new found open air and space can be seen not just in the scale of the sculpture
0:50:47 > 0:50:52that Hepworth produced here, but also in the open and expansive nature of their forms.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18She's internalising the landscape, she talks about the landscape
0:51:18 > 0:51:21being to do with "what I saw, but also what I was."
0:51:21 > 0:51:25So it's not just what she's seeing out there, it's part of what she feels she's about.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31She's comparing the way the elements work to the way a sculptor works,
0:51:31 > 0:51:35so she looks at the water coming over the sand and shaping the sand.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39So there's a comparison there between the way the elements work
0:51:39 > 0:51:43on the natural landscape here, and the way she works as a sculptor.
0:51:56 > 0:52:02The legacy of this movement was to make St Ives a thriving centre for artists and galleries.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10Some of the artists here today are based at the Porthmeor Studios
0:52:10 > 0:52:13where many of the earlier St Ives artists also worked.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20Built for the fishing industry, artists moved in to the upstairs rooms in the 1880s,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23leaving the ground floor for the fishermen.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26And they have shared this building ever since.
0:52:27 > 0:52:33A unique arrangement that has existed for over 100 years.
0:52:35 > 0:52:41The place we're living in at the moment is the old cooperage, where they used to make the barrels.
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Next door is the salt, because everything in those days was salted.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50And in the big loft is where the pilchards were pressed.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56When the artists first came, St Ives was quite a religious town
0:52:56 > 0:52:58and nobody was allowed to do anything on a Sunday.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01- When I was a young man, boats never went to sea on a Sunday.- Really?- Oh, no.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05There was a little bit of friction, shall we say, at the time,
0:53:05 > 0:53:10but since then people are a bit more liberal and things have moved on.
0:53:10 > 0:53:14They used to sit on the harbour and paint and draw.
0:53:14 > 0:53:17Didn't have a lot of money, the artists, though.
0:53:17 > 0:53:23Instead of paying with money they used to take a picture in and that's the way they paid for their beer.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41Working in the studio upstairs, Sax Impey is an artist and yachtsman
0:53:41 > 0:53:44who spends long stretches of time at sea.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50An experience that has inspired much of his painting.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01Like Wallace, Hepworth and many of the artists who have lived and worked in St Ives,
0:54:01 > 0:54:06Sax is also influenced by the unique atmosphere of this coastal town,
0:54:06 > 0:54:10which still provides an ideal location for contemporary artists.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16The beach is part of the fabric of life here
0:54:16 > 0:54:22and certainly summer evenings, for as long as there have been studios here,
0:54:22 > 0:54:28the ladders go out and life takes place on the beach.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32And a beer at the end of the evening is part of life here.
0:54:32 > 0:54:38So working form here is not so much about painting that view out there
0:54:38 > 0:54:42as really using it as a trigger, I suppose?
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Standing here know you can here the wind beating against the building,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50so do you think when you are here working on your canvasses
0:54:50 > 0:54:54all of this is feeding into your paintings about the sea?
0:54:54 > 0:55:00- Not just the visual quality, but the sound out there?- Yeah, I think you're probably right.
0:55:00 > 0:55:03It's an immersive experience being in the studio.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07It's elemental. The whole building starts to shake.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10I've had waves breaking on these windows.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14The odd pain of glass will go in the middle of the night.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19- It is almost like painting from a boat.- Yes. Quite!
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Every time I come in here and I look out,
0:55:22 > 0:55:27I am inexorably drawn back to certain experiences at the sea.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32And, of course, it wasn't until spending a great deal of time at sea,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37being immersed in that world, rather than looking at it from the shore,
0:55:37 > 0:55:39that it became part of my work.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42One of the things about it was...
0:55:43 > 0:55:50..actually getting away from the cacophony of the 21st century.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52The inanity, you know,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55the babble of the 21st century.
0:55:55 > 0:56:02And actually having time to think, time to directly experience, you know.
0:56:03 > 0:56:09You're also directly kind of engaging in a world that your ancestors knew.
0:56:09 > 0:56:15You'd have felt the night sky unencumberedby any kind of light pollution whatsoever.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17You're seeing the same stars, you know.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21It's kind of a more direct link with an earlier age.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24I suppose I'm trying to bring some of that back.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00Having spent this time looking at the sea through the eyes of artists,
0:57:00 > 0:57:06I've certainly come to a much better understanding of exactly why a scene such as this
0:57:06 > 0:57:11has always been such fertile territory for our painters and sculptors.
0:57:13 > 0:57:20It's an environment comprised of light, which has the capacity to be so many things at once -
0:57:20 > 0:57:24an ancient wilderness on which much of our history has been played out.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31A place of work around which communities have formed,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35a democratic space available to all.
0:57:38 > 0:57:46It's figurative and yet lends itself to abstraction, with a basic visual constancy that is always changing,
0:57:46 > 0:57:48which offers sweeping vistas of space
0:57:48 > 0:57:54and yet is always framed by the sky, the horizon, or the land.
0:57:55 > 0:58:03Britain is distilled and defined on its shores and this is where art of the sea can really gain its potency,
0:58:03 > 0:58:08with an artist's ability to tap into the story of our changing relationship with the sea,
0:58:08 > 0:58:14to draw upon the sea as both a personal and yet shared experience.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd