On the Promenade depicts two windswept feathers in a desert-like landscape. They appear to interact with each other as if characters in a play. Their forms lean into one another and imply a conversation of sorts. Their quills pierce the sandy earth and they both stand in their own scooped-out zone; the conical forms in the ground are markedly geometrical in contrast to the delicate, organic structures of the feathers. The absence of contextual features distorts the viewer’s sense of the feathers’ scale: they loom enormously against the delicate blue background. The sky is delicately constructed from singular touches of the brush, applied sequentially in a weave-like pattern and graded from a lighter hue at the horizon to a darker hue at the outer reaches of the picture.

In 1947 and 1948, John Armstrong produced a cycle of organic surrealist paintings in tempera. His work from these years mostly depicts feathers, leaves and flowers, which he used to create fantasy landscapes where inanimate subjects twist together and interact like sentient beings. They were painted at the artist’s home in Cornwall, Oriental Cottage, where aspects of the surrounding landscape provided compost for his art. The art critic Andrew Lambirth has described one of these ‘superb tempera paintings’ as ‘a brave and beautiful image of mortality, a statement about what is ephemeral and what enduring.’ Most of the works involve a restricted number of subjects – there are rarely more than four leaves or feathers together – and their dramas unfold in a desert landscape. In many cases, the stem of the leaf or the quill of the feather erupt from the sand as though they were rooted in it. Strong side lighting creates theatrical effects of shadow, with sharp silhouettes cast over the pitted earth. Another example, Flower Piece (1948, Private Collection) (fig. 1), demonstrates the variety of composition and effect which Armstrong achieved within his self-imposed creative restrictions.

The titles of Armstrong’s feather and leaf paintings are studiously ambiguous. The title ‘On the Promenade’ suggests a pleasant stroll along the seafront; it is difficult to read the painting in this light, however. Most other works painted in 1947 have similarly obscure titles. They include: ‘The Summit’, ‘The Passion of the Inanimate’, ‘Nocturne’, ‘Encounter’, and ‘Transfiguration’. Towards the end of the cycle in 1948, more literally descriptive titles came to dominate, as in ‘Harebells’, ‘Lily in Landscape’ and ‘Arum Landscape’.

Armstrong’s work at this time was informed by elements of British and French Surrealism. The paintings of 1947 and 1948 mark the high point of Armstrong’s personal exploration of the Italian surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico. One of Armstrong’s works from the period, The Heralds (1947, Private Collection), introduces a low-lying round-arched loggia into the otherwise barren desert landscape – a feature which is familiar from de Chirico’s own distinctive dreamscapes. The use of dramatic sunset shadows was another element borrowed from de Chirico’s imagery. The natural objects used by Paul Nash in works such as The Nest of Wild Stones (fig. 2) provided another important reference point. In paintings such as On the Promenade, Armstrong developed aspects of de Chirico’s and Nash’s art while introducing original and distinctive motifs, using feathers as leading characters in a drama which is unique to his own paintings.

Tempera painting uses a water-soluble binder medium, traditionally egg, and is distinguished from oil paint by its crisp dry surface and saturated matt colours. Where oil paint is highly workable, allowing an artist to manipulate it after application, tempera requires a high level of skill and an exacting sense of touch. Armstrong’s fastidious technique permitted him to create richly patterned paintings with an impressive level of detail. One of Armstrong’s contemporaries Edward Wadsworth, a fellow member of Unit One, also used tempera painting. Both he and Armstrong used tempera to create hypnotic works such as On the Promenade in which a visionary, dream-like quality is underpinned by pinpoint detail.