Biddy PICARD

Biddy PICARD
1922

One of the 'Woodcutters' who came first to the Lamorna Valley, Biddy and her husband Bill PICARD were at the centre of the artistic circles of Mousehole and Newlyn for many years. In 1955 the couple established The Mousehole Pottery and Gift Shop, through which they sold their earthenware pots until 1961, after which time they let the shop to a number of other craft workers, for periods of time.  In 1978, Biddy's daughter Greta re-started the pottery from a different location in Mousehole and ran it there for more than a decade.

Born in 1922 in Derbyshire, Biddy attended Chesterfield School of Art before training at the Slade. After a brief period teaching art in Bristol, she moved to Wales and then in 1974, to Cornwall. Both of her children, Peter PERRY and Greta PERRY, have been established artists in Cornwall and abroad since that time, and exhibit their work locally and abroad.

Biddy has been a longstanding member of the Newlyn Society of Artists, and taught painting and ceramics at Penzance School of Art. Now residing near Paul, west of Penzance, since the death of Bill, she continues to exhibit her exuberant and colourful paintings in small galleries and general exhibitions in the local area, and her paintings are highly sought-after in the auction houses. [Further detail: Tyler Gallery, Mousehole, website]

media

Potter, painter, teacher

exhibitions

1972 Artists of Cornwall Exhibition, University of Birmingham (Orion Gallery Touring)

1977 La Societe des Peintres of Newlyn de Cornouailles, in Pont-Aven, France (group show)

1988 Art Share

Contemporary galleries locally & especially in Mousehole

 

memberships

NSA 1972-3 list; 1995 list

references

Brittain, Sarah and Cook, Simon (2001) Behind the Canvas, 40 Artists working in West Cornwall;

Digital Museum of Cornish Ceramics www.cornishceramics.com

Hardie (1995) 100 Years/Diary; pp136, 147

McLeod, Alister J (1973) Newlyn Society of Artists 1895-1973 (NAG 12 page brochure)

Tovey, David (2022) Lamorna - An Artistic, Social and Literary History - Volumes II - Post-1920, Wilson Books 

WCAA file