St Ives

Trip to St Ives in Cornwall – exhibitions, course and talks with artists.

A two-week trip to St Ives gave me a chance to visit some of the many galleries in the area. The largest of which is Tate St Ives which houses a collection of modernist works by people such as Peter Lanyon, Barbara Hepworth and others who lived and worked in St Ives together with other artists such as Joan Eardley. As the reason for my being in St Ives was to attend a course at the St Ives School of Painting looking at the work of Eardley, the chance to get a closer look at her work was keenly taken.

Being able to view the paintings up close allows one to appreciate the brushwork and texturing of the artist, something that is difficult to appreciate when viewing a photograph.

As well as the permanent works there were two other exhibition events at the Tate, a major solo exhibition by Ad Minolti, (b.1980) an Argentinian artist who has created their ‘Biosfera Peluche’ work in the main gallery. This involved the repainting of the walls and floor in bright colours together with the creation of geometric installations and animalistic figures to create an alternative biosphere based on an interpretation of queer and feminist theories.

The other event also involved direct painting on the gallery walls as it involved creating a work by American minimalist and conceptual artist Sol Lewitt (1928 – 2007).

Works that require direct painting onto the gallery walls are obviously going to be different each time they are recreated depending on the space and the interpretation which can lead to discussions regarding originality.

While I was in Cornwall I also took the opportunity to visit Kurt Jackson’s gallery in St Just to see his latest works.

https://www.jacksonfoundationgallery.com

As with many of his previous exhibitions this dealt with a small geographical area, in this case the Helford River. He does much of the work en plein air before returning to the studio and usually works on large unstretched canvases laid on the ground. This means that there are often twigs, leaves and other detritus incorporated in the paintings.

Chats with artists:

Stephanie Sandercock

Back in St Ives I visited the Penwith Gallery where I came across the work of Stephanie Sandercock, she is originally from Preston but moved down to Cornwall about eight years ago. Her abstracts struck a chord with me and a book of her work was on sale at the gallery. A visit to her website revealed that she had a studio in the next street to where I was staying and that she welcomed visitors so I called around the next day.

The book had revealed that she drew her inspiration from the rocks near her home on the coast, in particular the rocks in the cliff at Gwydian. We chatted about the patterns and textures to be found in rocks and stones and she explained her technique of using different t

ypes of plaster to build texture and applying layers of acrylic paint that are then sanded down and carved into to create the desired effect. She also uses thin sheets of mica that she obtains from the cliffs embedded into the paintings to create a reflective surface. 

We also talked about promoting her work and getting prints, greeting cards etc. made and she gave me copies of several magazines that had featured her work. All in all she is not only a very good artist but also a thoroughly nice person.

https://stephaniesandercock.com

Richard Holliday

A second visit to the Penwith Gallery led to a meeting with another artist working with stones but this time as a sculptor. It transpired that although now living down on the Lizard he was originally from Cambridge and had learnt his stone carving skills as an apprentice with a local building firm. Needless to say this led to long reminiscences about Cambridge pubs that have now closed and the lack of gallery facilities that are available for contemporary artists in the city.

https://richard-holliday.co.uk

Richard’s latest work can also be seen on his Instagram page:

https://www.instagram.com/richardonholliday/

He explained how he works with different soapstones from around the UK which give him a variety of textures and colours which he then combines within his pieces. 

St Ives School of Painting Course –

“Joan Eardley: Land Sea and People” with Jill Eisele

This was a three day course at the Porthmeor Studios looking at the work of Joan Eardley both in terms of her paintings of people, especially children, in Glasgow and her work in the coastal village of Catterline. It was this latter subject that interested me most as Catterline shares many similarities with Shingle Street. 

It was very much a hands-on course using a diverse range of media and techniques which we started by looking at her approach to figures:

A series of experiments with poured India ink and acrylic paint that resulted in some amazing textures and patterns:

Looking at Eardley’s landscapes and seascapes:

A series of seascapes from beach level using charcoal and chalk:

And finally, a seascape from a high vantage point:

This was painted using a palette knife and a limited ‘Zorn’ palette consisting of just cadmium red, cadmium yellow, ivory black and titanium white.

Cornish take-aways (and not just the pasties):

Two weeks spent in a town so saturated with art and artists is bound to have some sort of effect. Having the chance to not only see contemporary art at close quarters but to be able to talk to the artists themselves has been a useful experience. Seeing Stephanie Sandercock’s work and having the chance to talk to her has boosted my enthusiasm for my work using the textures and patterns that I find in stones. Spending a few hours with a sketchbook and camera among the rocks and cliffs on Porthmeor beach has given me a collection of source material if I wanted to expand my geographical range beyond the shingle coast of Suffolk. Her use of different types of plaster to create textures on the canvas also made me think back to some of the work I had done previously with assemblages and maybe I could combine some of those ideas with the work that I’m currently undertaking.