Coast Defences (Seaford)

This painting shows part of the coastal defences which are in place along much of the British coastline. Initially they appear as an abstract assemblage of two-dimensional geometric shapes. However, the horizontal bands of the sand and sky become clearly recognisable, and the strong overlapping shapes of the boulders give the whole a sense of depth and space. Keith Vaughan was educated at Christ's Hospital and spent much of his early career working for the advertising agency of the chemical firm Unilever. When war broke out he served in the Pioneer Corps, acting for 5 years as a German interpreter in the prisoner of war camp in Yorkshire. Vaughan was a self taught painter, who then taught at various art colleges, including the Slade School of Art. He later exhibited internationally. Vaughan was best known as a painter of striking figure compositions in which he sought a balance between the recognisable, though much simplified, nude figure and purely abstract areas of form and colour. He applied this 'assembly' technique to his landscape paintings, including Coast Defences. These were worked from Vaughan's recollected impressions rather than directly from nature.