Alex Lowery and West Bay; Eileen Agar

Sladers Yard

Sladers Yard

Art First

BBC Your Paintings

Brief Biography

(Note reference to Eileen Agar in West Bay, 1934;
see also Painting, "Bride of the Sea", 1979, and this BBC offbeat animation)

From Tate article on Agar:

"She knew of other artists who had used a camera alongside the pencil and paintbrush, which made the idea of shifting between mediums both more possible and more attractive, the most immediate example would, of course, have been Paul Nash, with whom Agar had worked and begun an affair in Swanage in 1935"

Paul Nash, Shell Guide, Dorset (1936)

“Bridport: Gate to the West. A delightful town set back from a wide street of fine red-brick houses. Formerly it had a busy life and considerable importance. The making of nets and rope still goes on, and there is a slight coasting trade. The sea lies 2m distant at West Bay, which is being developed from a quiet watering-place into something different. On every side the country is magnificent. The coast rears up a shaggy orange cliff which slopes backwards in tumultuous downs, ribbed with dark hedge lines. Across the coast road, inland, downs continue ample movement, revealing many barrows and other earthworks in their course. Here and there sudden pyramids are thrown up – actually conical in form and sometimes topped by clumps of trees.”