Blackmore End I

In 1964, Vaughan bought a row of derelict cottages in Essex close to the village of Toppesfield. Over the course of a year or so he renovated them and created an extensive garden. After a week spent painting and teaching at the Slade, he drove to Harrow Hill Cottage for the weekend. On the upper floor he installed a studio to work on his gouaches and small oil paintings. The local hedgeless fields, open countryside and agricultural buildings soon began to replace his interest in painting groupings of male figures.

During this period Vaughan was keen to re-impose a sense of structure on his subjects. He became concerned that the sensuous viscosity of his paint had become too pronounced, his compositions somewhat shapeless and his application over-sumptuous. A desire for additional formalisation, therefore, emerged in his painting around the mid-1970s. His subject matter also altered as he began to reconsider with fresh eyes the familiar landmarks surrounding him. Many of the old barns and farm buildings close to Harrow Hill Lane began to appear in his small-scale, landscape paintings. The gable ends of barns, open window frames and chimney pots were incorporated into a series of orderly, methodically constructed compositions.

We are very grateful to Gerard Hastings for preparing this catalogue entry.