Peter Lanyon

Fossiland

Peter Lanyon was born in St Ives in 1918 and, unlike many artists drawn to the town, was a native Cornishman for whom the land and sea of Penwith were lifelong subjects. Though his mature work reads as abstract, it remained rooted in the specific geology, history and weather of his home coastline. In 1959 Lanyon began training as a glider pilot, seeking, in his words, "a more complete knowledge of the landscape”, an aerial perspective that transformed his painting with looser gestures and a new sense of space. Fossiland, made in 1961, belongs to this period, its title evoking the ancient, layered strata beneath Cornwall's surface. That year Lanyon was also elected a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, honoured for his services to Cornish art.