Late in 2022 Mountjoy began cycling to Plymouth and the Cattedown working waterfront. Stopping at Mountbatten, Hooe, Oreston, and Turnchapel he drew the wharves and quays that receive and process oil, cement, and other cargos. He wanted to study industrial foreshores and explore the contrast with the remote coastlines that featured in his previous project.

Mountjoy believes that the act of looking hard, to make a drawing of a subject is the best way to understand it. The resulting drawings are of lesser consequence than the intrinsic value that the activity generates … and drives the subsequent response. His quick sketches were enlarged and reworked as with other projects; revisiting the scene and deepening the cognitive response. The Waterlines series of paintings continue evolving from the drawings but are beginning to develop their own momentum.

To date (October 2023) he has completed 40+ paintings in acrylic on board, using layers of colour scratched through to evoke the abrasion of industrial use and the transformation of the waterfront as time and tide fights back..

The first paintings are clearly figurative but with the oil tanks, warehouses and silos reduced to tonal blocks. Underpainting revealed by scratching through to replicate the water conditions plus the wear and tear, attrition and abuse. As the series progressed the blocks became uniform in size and organised into grids of square filled with the lines that characterise the waterfronts.