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12 K E I T H VA U G H A N ROAD TO THE SEA (FORESHORE), 1953-58 Road to the Sea has a complex history. It was painted in 1953 and originally featured an upturned rowing boat where the present foreground patch of red oxide is situated. At that time Vaughan entered the title of the painting in his studio record book as Foreshore. It was exhibited at the Leicester Galleries that year as Foreshore with Red Boat and, two years later, at Durlacher Brothers gallery in New York with the curious title With Red Boat. In 1958 Vaughan repainted passages of the picture in an attempt to resolve, what he must have felt was, a problematic composition in preparation for its inclusion in a new exhibition. He removed the foreground boat and various whitened outlines within the landscape and it was shown in his retrospective of his work in Bristol with the present title Road to the Sea. Vaughan was brought up in London and, ever since his first trip to Pagham in 1935, beachscapes, ports and harbours had exerted an irresistible fascination on him. They presented the opportunity to paint figures in unpopulated and remote locations – appropriate settings to explore themes of isolation and seclusion inherent in the human condition. Much of his work from the 1940s and 1950s therefore depicts figures inhabiting deserted beaches surrounded by cliffs and promontories that contribute colour, context and atmosphere (see Bathers by White Cliffs, 1947, Sea Urchins, 1948, Grey Shore Seascape with Fisherman, 1950, Fishermen and Bathers, 1951, Finistère: Group of Fishermen, 1951 and Landscape with Two Bathers, 1952). The year before he painted Road to the Sea Vaughan saw the Nicolas de Staël exhibition at the Matthiesen Gallery in Bond Street. Gradually he came to realize that direct representationalism was holding him back and began to evolve a synthesis between observation and abstraction. His pictures of this period are composed of formalized passages of pigment fashioned into patches, blocks and slabs of colour. This enabled him to evoke the sensation of landscape and recreate the experience of it rather than merely depict its appearance. Both the setting and the human form now became refined from memory as much as they were derived from drawings and sketches made in situ. A solitary figure stands in a deserted cove enclosed by steep rocks and mossy cliffs. The tide has receded and a promontory stretches out to the sea and the horizon, leading the viewer into the scene via the red oxide road. Muted, North Sea greys and neutralized ochres suggest an overcast day with no suggestion of sunshine and this bleak climate contributes to the defenselessness of the figure. Vaughan's application of paint is vigourous and spontaneous and lends his forms a solid and tangible quality, despite their abridged appearance. As ever, his intentions are to acknowledge the planar nature of the canvas at the same time as communicating the experience of being alone on a windswept shore. The tilting and flattening of the cliffs into successive terraces and receding layers presses them frontward towards the viewer, without resorting to traditional use of foreshortening or perspective: As far as I can see all space in painting is an illusion, whether it comes forward or goes back. What is real is the flat surface of the picture and the important thing is what is painted there. (Keith Vaughan, exhibition catalogue, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1962)