The story behind the painting.
Prospect Cottage at Dungeness is one of those places that you recognise even if you’ve never been there. It has become closely associated with Derek Jarman, his garden, his films and the particular atmosphere of Dungeness. Yet, remarkably, it still feels like a real place rather than a tourist attraction. I admire the people who look after it for keeping it that way.
It has also been painted a lot! I know, because I’ve done it myself before, and there were five different versions of the cottage in one exhibition in Hythe recently. It always draws you in — excuse the pun.
So I wanted to find a different way of looking at it. The blue hour. The hour before sunset is known as the golden hour. The hour after sunset is the blue hour. This painting catches the cottage just as the light has changed from one to the other. At this time of day, Prospect Cottage can become little more than a silhouette against the darkening landscape. It can look almost as though it has been preserved there in time — familiar, but strangely lifeless. But look closely at Blue Prospects and something has changed. You can still see the last warm traces of sunset catching the roof and the garden sculpture. The sky and landscape have moved into the blue hour, while the lights inside the cottage have come on.
Suddenly there are people in there. Or at least, we imagine there are. And that’s where the painting gets interesting. Are you looking in? Or is somebody looking out? From outside, the windows make you wonder what is happening inside the cottage. But from inside, those same windows would frame the huge, darkening landscape outside.
And then there’s the slightly uncomfortable thought: Have you been spotted? I like the fact that the painting doesn’t answer that question. You’re standing outside the cottage, but the warm light coming from inside makes you feel that you’re not quite as invisible as you thought.
There is another reason for the title too. ‘Blue’ refers to the blue hour, of course, but it also inevitably brings Derek Jarman’s final film, Blue, to mind. And ‘Prospects’ refers to Prospect Cottage, but also to the idea of what might lie ahead. So, despite the melancholy that is so much a part of Dungeness, there is something quietly positive happening here. The daylight is disappearing, but the lights are coming on. That is something we all recognise. During the blue hour, we switch on the lights at home, but often don’t immediately close the curtains. For a short while, the inside and outside worlds seem to overlap. It’s a fabulous time for a walk.
That’s the moment I’ve tried to capture in Blue Prospects — the cottage, the last of the daylight, the first of the artificial light, and that slightly intriguing feeling that there is something going on inside.
Prints
I’ve had Blue Prospects professionally reproduced as high-quality giclée fine art prints by a Platinum-certified printshop, using museum-grade Hahnemühle archival paper. The prints are stunning. They retain the subtle changes between the cool blue light outside and the warm light coming from the cottage, which is a big part of what makes the original work.
570mm (~22″) full-size print — £200.
12″ print — £99
Other sizes can also be printed for you.
Email me for details or to order.
Prints are also available of my original painting of the cottage, shown below. A few years ago, the garden was more defined with various sculptural pieces. I hope these have been preserved, rather than stolen, but I captured them before the loss of this nice design feature, plus it was a really bright sunny and positive day.
