Paul Feiler (British, 1918-2013)
Cornish Beach
signed and dated 'FEILER 53' (lower right); further signed, titled and dated 'PAUL FEILER/CORNISH BEACH 1953' (verso), and signed again twice 'FEILER/PAUL FEILER' (on the frame)
oil on board
30.2 x 65.8 cm. (11 7/8 x 25 7/8 in.)
Footnotes:
Provenance
The Artist, from whom acquired by
Professor Lawrence Ogilvie, thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.

The success of Paul Feiler's first solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in early 1953 returned the artist a little over £300, with which he was able to buy a disused chapel to be used as a studio at Kerris (near Newlyn, Cornwall). Whilst he would split his time between the new studio, London, and Bristol – the landscape surrounding Kerris became increasingly informative to his practice, and this coupled with his connections to artists such as Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter, anchored his position as a key 'St Ives School' artist.

Feiler's works of this period display further refinement in his approach to abstracted landscape, increasingly realised by way of richly applied impasto slabs matched tonally to the atmospheric Atlantic coast. Cornish Beach represents a shimmering, signature example, not previously exhibited. In his monograph on the artist Michael Raeburn elaborates on these works; 'the Cornish views are generally made up of wide horizontal swathes of colour, applied with broad strokes of the palette knife, punctuated by vertical harbour posts or masts of ships. Features on the picture surface can be marked as much by texture as by colour, and by patterning, often with characteristic square spirals' (Michael Raeburn, Paul Feiler, Lund Humphries, London, 2018, p.46).
This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: AR
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