Red, Yellow and Blue

Although abstract, Terry Frost's paintings nearly always draw on his experience of being in the world, and many are particularly evocative of Cornish harbours. His work is always grounded in things seen and felt, and he has created a distinctive and personal visual language of shapes and colours that vividly communicate this experience. After settling with his family in St Ives in 1950, Terry Frost was introduced to the Cornish landscape by the painter Peter Lanyon, who, unlike most of the other St Ives artists, was born in the area.

Colour and form are the two essential elements in Terry Frost's painting. He writes, "Certain colours do people's hearts good, other colours they dislike in various degrees. It is a question of reacting via the eyes through the heart and head for a full sensation... colour for feeling, to do with imagination and reverie, inspired by actual visual experience." The two quarter-disc forms in ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ clearly derive from the stern-ends of boats, slightly rocking and almost nudging against each other in a crammed harbour. The brilliantly coloured discs above them are like suns or moons against the sky, or alternatively bright maritime signs.