Cornish Port - in colour and mono

GAZING from my study window, I found inspiration in the commonplace - a view that confronts me every day.

In fact, there is nothing commonplace in the harbour views afforded by my home village, and I continue to marvel at their magnificence, even after 32 years, but sometimes even the artist's eye tends to overlook beauty near at hand.

This painting is not, in fact, a true depiction of the Penryn River, as seen from my cottage, but a generic view of a Cornish port. However, anyone familiar with the territory will know that its genesis lies in beautiful Flushing, which I've called home - even though I was away in the Bahamas for ten years - since 1986.

So, here it is - Cornish Port. Nothing more, nothing less, though I've chosen to utilise the marvels of computer science by giving you colour and monochrome versions of the same picture. I have to admit that the mono version has a special appeal, and reminds me of something an old sub-editor colleague once said when colour was first creeping into newspapers.

'There's nowt like black-and-white, lad. It has a nobility all its own. Colour? That's for comics, not newspapers!'

He had a point, I think.