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5. Untitled c.1942
Pencil & gouache on paper
9 1/2 x 13 ins 23.5 x 33 cms
Wells found a receptive audience for his new abstract work with
the fighter pilots stationed on the Scilly Isles during the war, who
saw in the grace and poise of his work an analogy to their own
relationship to the land and sea whilst in flight. This encouraged
Wells to make explicit references to his immediate surroundings in
his work, comparing his heightened awareness of the fragile ring of
islands to the shapes that he placed together within his collages.
The frequent journeys made on his doctor’s rounds, from island to
island, brought about an intimacy with the sea and his boat so that
much of his subsequent imagery can be seen as referencing boat
and sail like forms. Wells introduced areas of flat constructive
colour into his work from early 1942 having acquired several tubes
of gouache the previous autumn.
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