Soaring Flight Peter Lanyon's Gliding Paintings
BACKING WIND NOVEMBER 1961 1961
Peter Lanyon (1918 – 1964)
Details
- Dimension
- 121.9 X 152.4 CM
- Media
- OIL ON CANVAS
- Accession number
- P332
Summary
In 1959 the artist began gliding, and received his licence the following summer. A number of his paintings from then on describe the experience of flight: climbing on thermal air currents high above the Cornish coast and land; and seeing and experiencing land, sea and cloud from differing perspectives. The artist commented that he felt it was actually possible to get into the ‘air itself to get a further sense of depth and space into yourself, as it were, into your own body, and then carry it through into a painting.’
From the text of an illustrated lecture given by the artist for the British Council, 1962.
Glossary
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Painting
Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.