Style File: A Collaboration...

We have recently linked up with Truro's inspired, unique interior company, Stylehome.

Mark and his team at Style Home visited the gallery to size up our space and to piece together a collection of furniture with the brief of creating an area where our customers can sit, enjoy a coffee and browse the gallery catalogues. The result is a beautifully selected set of seats around a long wooden table, positioned in the natural light that flows through the windows from our courtyard.

Already used by many to spend time pouring through our Terry Frost and Sandra Blow books or as a comfortable seat as we go through questions to set up an OwnArt agreement, the space has also become a firm favourite for staff meetings - or, as put into action recently, to sit back and take the load off our feet after a busy private view.

One of our recommended local companies, we are looking forward to developing our collaboration with Stylehome by placing artwork in their showroom at Chiverton Cross, Truro.

'Copper Lustred Blue Pool Bowl', by Sarah Perry.

'Ann Winder-Boyle: St Ives Tales' and 'Summer Show' private view (Friday 4th July 2014)

Ann Winder-Boyle discusses her work.

Ann Winder-Boyle's Solo Show (left) and attendees enjoy the work of Arthur Lanyon and Nick Bodimeade.

Painters Richard Sorrell (left) and Arthur Lanyon (right) with their work.

The entrance to the gallery.

'Ann Winder-Boyle: St Ives Tales' and 'Summer Show' - 5th July - 30th August 2014

Nick Bodimeade

Arthur Lanyon

Richard Sorrell

Jenny Hirst

Katie Almond

Sarah Perry

Karen Shapley

Ann Winder-Boyle

'Wire Book Sculptures' by Ann Winder-Boyle

St Ives Tales

We are currently preparing for our first solo exhibition of 2014, 'Ann Winder-Boyle: St Ives Tales' (5th July - 30th August 2014). This will also be our first solo exhibition of work by Ann Winder-Boyle and, to mark this, the acclaimed mixed media collage artist has turned her focus to St Ives.

'Jolly Holidays', coloured ink drawings collaged onto vintage book cover with beeswax layers, h. 45 x w. 60 cm, Ann Winder-Boyle

Ann Winder-Boyle has become widely recognised for her selection in the Royal Academy Summer Show over five years and her feature on the BBC2 Culture show. Her work incorporates old books, ink drawings and beeswax and takes inspiration from stories and recollections from past and present to create images that at first glance appear to have come from early children’s literature. Reflective of an age of innocence they can at times be sentimental and amusing or have a much more sinister undertone.

The new collection for ‘St Ives Tales’ does not disappoint with playful images of life in the harbour town dotted with edgy scenes that demonstrate the trademark wit that has propelled this artist into the spotlight. Scenes include the historic Royal Blue Coach Service which ran in Cornwall from 1880 to 1986, a reaction to banning of dogs from the town’s beaches and a twist on Enid Blyton’s ‘Five Get Into a Fix’ – from a set of works from which two others were selected for this year’s Royal Academy summer exhibition.

“I have been enjoying holidays and exhibiting in St Ives for several years now. I grew up in Cumbria, more famous for its lakes than its stunning coastline and maritime history but as the great granddaughter of a local Pier master I guess I would always feel a connection to the sea.

“‘St Ives Tales’ is a collection of work based on the local area, historical texts, stories and articles from local press. Through these I have gained an insight into how the town has developed and what is ‘happening’ in the area with the aim of producing a body of work indicative of St Ives.” Ann Winder-Boyle, 2014.

‘Ann Winder-Boyle: St Ives Tales’ will open with a private view in the gallery, with Ann in attendance, on Friday 4th July, 6 - 8pm. Contact the gallery to RSVP.

All works from the show are now available to view on our website.

Horizons

Painting by Marianne Buckley, winner of the gallery's sponsored award from the Truro College 'Horizons' exhibition

On Tuesday 20th May, we were pleased to once again find ourselves in the large marquee on the Piazza at Lemon Quay, Truro viewing an exciting display of the latest artistic talents to emerge from Truro College as part of its student's Art & Design show. For the past three years we have enjoyed spending a day entranced by the creativity and individuality that each year has demonstrated and attempting to select just one artist from the impressive range of talent on show to receive our gallery prize.

The award that we donate each year for the show comprises of a part within an exhibition at the gallery. Past winners include Rebecca Harris whose bold, Hockney-inspired landscape paintings went in to private collections across the UK and Benjamin Ayling whose constructed rope collage is now on permenant display within the art collection of a Cornish-based business (see sixth image down: http://www.truro-penwith.ac.uk/news/amazing-student-art-at-white-out-exhibition/).

This year the winner of our sponsored award is Marianne Buckley whose work struck us from across the room with its jewel-like colour. Marianne has just finished a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Truro College and will be going on to study BA(Hons) Degree Fine Art at Wimbledon University. As stated by the gallery director and curator David Durham, 'Marianne's layered, semi-abstract paintings caught our interest, and we are looking forward to seeing her work develop, and to working with Marianne in the coming months.'

We are now finalising plans to show Marianne's work within one of our upcoming exhibitions, details of which will be announced later in the year. Join our mailing list to be the first to be notified about our upcoming shows.

'St Ives Modern: Abstract Motifs and Symbols' and 'Ceramics Showcase' opening.

On the glorious afternoon of Saturday 17th May we officially opened our two highly anticipated new exhibitions 'St Ives Modern: Abstract Motifs and Symbols' and 'Ceramics Showcase'.

With one half of the gallery dedicated to a fantastic collection of work by Matthew Lanyon, Iain Robertson and prints and originals by Sandra Blow and Sir Terry Frost, and the other focusing on the work of five highly respected ceramicists, the opening was a chance for many to have a preview of what is to be a very exciting exhibition.

'St Ives Modern: Abstract Motifs and Symbols' explores the lexicon of motifs and symbols in the abstract works of selected contemporary and modern St Ives artists.

'Orange Field', silkscreen print, Sandra Blow

Sandra Blow RA (1925 – 2006), a pioneer of the British post-war abstract movement, first visited Cornwall and St Ives in the late 50’s and spent the next fifty years developing a celebratory abstract expressionist response to the light, expansive space, and rhythms of West Cornwall. The paintings, collages and prints selected for this show, feature controlled geometric shapes and motifs, overlaying a mélange of natural forms. Inspired by the view across Porthmeor Beach from her studio in St Ives – and informed by the effects of line and shape created by the tides in the sand – ‘V’ waveforms, grids, and squares recur throughout Blow’s later works.  

'Newlyn Quay Rhythm', oil and collage on canvas, Sir Terry Frost

Sir Terry Frost RA (1915 – 2003) took his inspiration from nature; the sun, moon, water, boats and the female form are recurring motifs in the works here on show. Abstracted into sensuous circles and curves, dramatically coloured in blues, reds, oranges, yellows and black, Frost believed that the interplay of colour and shape could realise an event or image more successfully than imitation.  

 

Matthew Lanyon's work currently on display.

Matthew Lanyon (b. 1951) creates landscape-based, symbol-laden paintings, which seem to be alive with multilayered motifs and references to quantum physics, Greek mythology, and the artist’s own odyssey back into the pre-history of Penwith. A thrilling, dramatic sense of aerial perspective in some of Lanyon’s larger canvases is informed by his love of gliding above the West Penwith landscape.

A detail image of a work by Iain Robertson showing his great skill as a colourist

Iain Robertson (b. 1955) has, over the past fourteen years, been developing his vocabulary of abstract symbols and motifs in richly worked canvases and prints, where expressive motifs tumble and collide. The works in this exhibition owe something to the expressionist CoBrA art movement’s use of vivid colours and spontaneous interplay of line and colour (Robertson been previously been exhibited with CoBrA artists in Denmark). Robertson has lived and worked in Cornwall since 1999,  working from his studio at the historic Porthmeor Artist Studios in St Ives.





'Ceramics Showcase' displays the collections of five highly respected ceramicists working in varying techniques. The works of Tim Andrews, Clare Conrad, John Pollex, Antonia Salmon and Sasha Wardell  

Ceramicist John Pollex with his work in the gallery.

Plymouth-based ceramicist John Pollex attended the opening of the exhibition. With around 40 years worth of experience as a successful ceramicist, John has perfected technique's unique to his work, making them highly recognisable and collected.
John's vibrant, bright glazes combine his skill as a painter with that of a potter.

Internationally acclaimed ceramicist Tim Andrews' diverse collection displaying his skill with the 'Raku' technique.

Sasha Wardell's unique, layered bone china.

Clare Conrad's textured glazes reflect the rugged and rich features of Cornwall's Coast.

Each year the gallery selects a Cornish charity to support and raise awareness for. This year we will be collaborating with Cornwall Food Foundation, registered charity no.1119341.

 'The Foundation was set up to give disadvantaged young people in Cornwall a platform to discover their true potential. We believe food skills are life skills that can unlock the true potential of the most challenged individual.By working with people and food we can improve the economy, environment and health of Cornwall.'

We have set off to a great start with fundraising, offering Prosecco and cakes at the opening of the current exhibition in return for donations. 

We look forward to our upcoming collaborations with the charity and hope that you will all be able to join in!

Gallery Director Dee Calvert with Cornwall Food Foundation CEO Matthew Thompson.

Prosecco and cake provided by Olives cafe in St Ives, raising money and awareness for Cornwall Food Foundation.

'Great art picks up where nature ends'

...so said Marc Chegall.

This statement can perhaps be applied to our current 'Quay and Coast' exhibition where we have seen artists work directly from the Cornish coastline as impetus for their collections, picking up where nature ends; bringing rich, jewel-like ocean greens and blues to our gallery in St Ives.

We have paired together some photographs of Cornwall taken by our Gallery Assistant Izzy, to give you an insight into the inspiration behind some of the works currently on display in Porthminster Gallery.

Sea and Stone - Ceramicist Peter Beard draws inspiration from the colours of the coast.

Stormy Seas - Angela Charles' 'Wettest on Record' captures the force and strength of Cornish waters.

Harbour wall, boats and buoys - Craig Underhill's ceramic work echoes the colours and textures found in traditional Cornish Quaysides.

 

 St Ives' pink skies - painter Erin Ward's inspiration comes from glorious Cornish sunsets.

'Quay and Coast' is on display at Porthminster Gallery until 10th May 2014.

All photographs courtesy of Izzy Adams.