Floating Island

This is a series of small studies on paper called Floating Island. It is about my daily swim in The Monk’s Pool, a sea lagoon at Castlerock Beach.

My swim connects me to this place, my native landscape: nearly drowning in a deep rock pool as a toddler, learning to swim in these waters as a child, watching my father, a strong swimmer, help rescue another man who had been pulled out of his depth by strong currents. This Monk’s Pool becomes my metaphor for belonging, home, my place, deep-rooted, history.

But it is foremost about the sheer physicality of the swim. Cold water on skin, the shock as it runs into me instantly, submerging further into the deep, treading water far from shore, meeting incoming waves, bobbing, and floating, carried along, cocooned from the sea by a wall of seaweed covered rocks.

Suspending the shapes in sparse colour arrangements is important. I painted thin translucent layers against strong flat opaque areas to create buoyant islands of colour. Colours float up, glistening, unclear what is the top or bottom. The colours jar with intent, a thin dirty burgundy hue sits under a glowing yellow and a veil of murky grey blue is flattened and held by a rich strong sea turquoise.

I have distilled marks, using gestural strokes to retain spareness and luminosity within the paint. These marks are intentionally just out of alignment, never quite fitting together, reflecting the lagoon’s shifting water lines changed daily by the tides.

The colours and marks describe both the swim and the water itself, its weight, depth, and presence. On freezing bitter days, it will be a rushed and quick dip, yet there is always a primal urge to go back the next day… pushing forward again into the cold depths.

This series is ongoing and was developed in late June during the exploration of my daily beach walk and swim in The Monk’s Pool for the summer School 2022 Walking The Land online course led by Emily Ball and Katie Sollohub. I want to look at bringing found object, beach shapes into the pieces, exploring relief layers and shadows