The daughter of a Penzance dentist, Phyllis was a childhood friend of Phil Whiting (Mornie) and fellow child model for Laura KNIGHT and Alfred James MUNNINGS, becoming an artist and craftworker herself in later years. During WWI she worked as one of the 'girls' that Munnings employed to carry out war work and supply horses to the military.
She married a Russian antiquarian bookseller (Boris de Chroustchoff), and they lived in London near his shop in Bloomsbury. Some of their circle of friends also had connections with Cornwall, including the writer D H Lawrence and the composer Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine). There is no evidence of this artist showing her work locally, or working here in a specific context, but her son however, in a recent Flagstaff article, noted: 'At Lamorna, she had developed an interest in making silver jewellery and enamelware, probably inspired by the work of her friend Ella Louise NAPER and started to produce her own enamelware boxes in bright colours. She became a craftswoman in her own right working in silver and enamel. She sold her work through Sybil Dunlop, a Scottish jeweller with a shop in London's Kensington Church Street.'
Her exhibit in the Falmouth Group Show of women artists was a series of boxes decorated with silver and enamel (c1921-30), from a private collection. These can also be seen in the Flagstaff article, along with paintings by Laura Knight featuring Phyllis.
The daughter of the late Cornish-based painter John Crockett, Mary Crockett studied painting at Winchester School of Art from 1972 to 1975. She moved to Penzance from London in 1991 and is one of the most experienced printmakers working in Cornwall today. She has organised print workshops in public art venues, and has taught in British and Cornwall's educational facilities since the 1980s. She is a tutor in printmaking at Newlyn School of Art.
From 1998 to 2006 she worked at Stoneman Graphics with the late Hugh STONEMAN. She has engaged with most of the major artists of the area who practise printmaking. Much of her time is spent in working on editions for other artists, though her own work is both as a painter and printmaker (monoprinting, etching and lino cuts).
Maureen Crofts is a self-taught watercolourist who was trained as a primary school teacher. Since moving to Cornwall she has focussed on the development of her art practice. She sells her artworks locally in St Ives and Padstow, and further afield in Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Her solo exhibitions have raised funds for various charities including Macmillan Cancer Care and the Samaritans.
A painting with the title Restormel Castle (1988) by this artist was part of a small collection listed by Restormel Borough Council (now part of Cornwall Council).
Crompton was born in West Tanfield, Yorkshire and educated in London, studying art at the Westminster School of Art (under William Mouat Loudan) and then in Paris. Among her works were watercolours which included harbour and coastal scenes and still lifes.
From 1897 to 1901 she was exhibiting with SWA, and gave her residence as Kensington Court. In 1902, on a sketching trip to Dinan in France, organised by the Newlyn artist Norman Garstin, she met the New Zealander Frances HODGKINS. The two women became great friends over the next twenty years. In 1922, while Gertrude was based in Clevedon, Somerset, she married W Robert Hall. By 1927 the couple had moved to Polruan, near Fowey. In 1934 she participated in a local exhibition, which included several of her paintings of Polperro.
She was a member of STISA from 1946 through 1952, when she and her husband moved to Nailsworth in Gloucestershire.
Suzanne has lived in Cornwall for many years and is inspired by its enchanted landscape and the beauty of its sacred places.
Manchester-born (7 January 1861), the artist trained first as a lawyer and married in Penzance in 1885. According to the 1891 Census he was a Newlyn resident, and he served on the provisional Committee of artists when the new Gallery at Newlyn opened on 22nd October 1895.
He took the tenancy of Vivian House in Newlyn in 1889 with his wife Katt Geraldine, and son Stephen, remaining there at least until 1896-97: a local newspaper cutting in 1899 bemoans his absence, along with some others, 'who have either temporarily or permanently cut themselves adrift from Newlyn, leaving us all the poorer.' (Cornishman)
Crooke died on 11 December 1935, age 74, in London (GRO).
Brought up in Cornwall, Crosby did his foundation work in Fine Art at Falmouth School of Art, prior to taking a BA in 3-D at Kingston Polytechnic. Returning to Cornwall in the mid 1980s, he has worked as a graphic designer, art school tutor and community artist, while living near Falmouth.
His work was exhibited in the Kneehigh Theatre exhibition 'Skin of ya teeth' (1997), the 'All Hands on Deck' automata exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery (1998) and in the '20 Years of Contemporary Art at Falmouth Art Gallery' exhibition (1998). A primary interest and love is automata, due to the way this kind of sculptural and kinetic art crosses so many fields of creativity and skill.
Jean was a talented painter-member of the Lamorna group of artists that originally surrounded the late artist Lamorna KERR, the painter daughter of S J Lamorna BIRCH. The Lamorna group continues to this day and holds annual exhibitions at the Lamorna Village Hall, also opening their studios to visitors for Open Studios weeks.
Jean was born in Workington, Cumbria and was a trained nurse (now retired). Her husband Martin Crosfil was a Consultant Surgeon latterly at the West Cornwall General Hospital (retired), and the couple have two children, a son and a daughter.
A self-taught and meticulous artist, her work was primarily in watercolour but also in other media. She concentrated on landscape paintings. Jean worked from her purpose-built studio at home, and exhibited her work regularly at Open Days/Studios held in West Cornwall at Village Halls and other venues.
Mentioned in Whybrow's 1921-1939 list of artists in and around St Ives. No further information is currently available.
Pat Cross regularly showed her weaving with the Cornwall Crafts Association at Trelowarren and Trelissick, and in many invited exhibitions around the county of Cornwall. She was the wife of the late Tom CROSS.
Tom Cross was born in Manchester. His art training was at the Slade School followed by two years travelling and painting in France and Italy.
His first administrative post was with the Welsh Arts Council, before lecturing in painting alongside his own work at Reading University. In 1976 he became Principal of the Falmouth School of Art (now College, and part of the University College Falmouth). Writing and lecturing continued in his eventual retirement (1987), and his books, emanating as they do from his considerable artistic ability and academic knowledge, form a trilogy recounting the history of the Newlyn and St Ives Schools of Art. He continued to write and lecture, as well as paint in his own studio until his death in 2008.
His bibliography is impressive, and includes the now standard works on the histories of the Newlyn and St Ives schools of art, which he treated together, though recognising their distinctive differences. The special strengths of his writings are in presenting the views and critical opinions of a professional artist, together with a recognition of the ebb and flow of styles through time. His widow and long-time manager of his studio, Pat CROSS (who died in 2022) was a talented artist-craftworker in her own right (1988 Craft Work South West exhibition).
Both he and Pat contributed significantly and fully to the unique flavours of Cornish arts and interests in a variety of ways. Cross also contributed entries on many artists to the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB).
In 2023 Tom Cross's son David and daughter-in-law Carol took over Tom's estate, including his extensive art collection. This can be accessed at: https://tomcross-painter.com.
The artist came to Cornwall c.1999 from Bristol, and exhibited in local commercial galleries and events. Her handmade books and large handcoloured drawings (also relief work) were shown in a solo exhibition in the Hypatia Temporary Gallery, Market Jew Street, Penzance in 2000. She died in a road traffic accident in Cornwall, and is buried at St Levan.
Two paintings of Newquay Harbour (both oil on board) are part of the collection held by Newquay Hospital, that celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2006.
Crossley studied 'advanced applied design' at Halifax School of Art, winning a King's Prize. After WWI he worked as a carpet designer before becoming a full time artist in the 1920s.
He was a painter, printmaker and designer, noted for his landscapes and architectural subjects. He also produced scenic watercolours and still lifes in oils. In 1928 he did a series of etchings of Halifax, and provided illustrations for Hanson's Old Inns of Halifax (1933). After WWII, and in the Spring Exhibition of 1949, he gave his address as Norland, Parc Bean, St Ives. He and his wife both died in St Ives.
In 1962 a Memorial Exhibition was held in Bankfield, nr Halifax, Yorkshire, where he was born and began to show his artistic talents; a further show of his work was held there in 1973.
Bob was born in Northwich, Cheshire, and schooled in Rochdale. After an early career in the North of England, he served in the RAF from 1941-45. After the war he began to show his work in exhibitions nationally, and was elected to the Manchester Academy in 1950.
From 1959 Crossley made his home in St Ives, Cornwall and in London, showing with the Penwith Society of Artists, the Newlyn Society of Artists, Rainyday Gallery (Penzance) and in various London galleries.
The artist attended the RA Schools from 1845, exhibiting his work at the RA from 1846. He was a pupil of Paul Delaroche, and a lifelong friend of Gerome. In 1852 he accompanied William Thackeray as his Secretary on a lecture tour of the USA.
In 1867 and 1878 he sent-in paintings to the Paris Salon from London, usually depicting historical themes, and in 1889 a marine title depicting Portsmouth from the Reform Club.
He is mentioned as visiting Newlyn in Stanhope FORBES's letters of 1886. He died in London, age 86, on 12 December 1910 (GRO).
Born in Brentford, Middlesex, William Croxford studied art during the early 1870s, with a dated work placing him in Scheveningen, Holland, in 1875. He became a regular visitor to Cornwall, giving consecutive sending-in addresses as St Leonards on Sea (1896), Hastings (1889), St Ives (1892) and Headlands, Newquay (1894-96). He continued to paint scenes of fishermen and harbours throughout Cornwall into the late 1880s, exhibiting his work in the London galleries of the RA, RBA, RI and the Fine Art Society. A number of paintings of Polperro were included in these. Wood comments that he sometimes signed as W Croxford Edwards, who is given a separate entry with the same information in Victorian Painters.
William moved to Newquay in 1894, opening a gallery and studio in Bank Street. His cousin Thomas Croxford visited him there a number of times, and together they painted the Cornish scenery. William continued to paint coastal and countryside scenes until his death there in 1926. His daughter Grace Butterworth nee Croxford was an accomplished miniature painter.
Thomas Swainson CROXFORD was also a landscape painter from Brentford, who exhibited Cornish scenes. He travelled widely and also abroad.
A cousin of William Edward CROXFORD, who also hailed from Brentford, Middlesex, Thomas Swainson Croxford exhibited at the RA, SS and elsewhere. Wood notices that, like his possible relation, his subjects were mainly of Cornwall (and in his case the Isle of Man between 1880-84). Thomas married in 1886 but deserted the family home and his son in 1891. He is known to have visited his cousin William in Newquay, where together they painted the Cornish scenery.
Thomas Swainson Croxford emigrated to Australia around 1900, to live in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1903 his wife was granted a divorce on the grounds of adultery and desertion. He remarried in 1906, and died in 1915. His work occasionally comes up for sale in Australian sale rooms, where it is highly regarded.
This may be Constance CRUTTWELL or Cecily CRUTTWELL, niece of the Curator of the Cardiff Museum. She is mentioned in Whybrow's 1921-39 list of artists in and around St Ives.
A group of artists, so-named because they exhibited their work in the Crypt of the Mariners' Church, St Ives. The group was initially made up of Sven BERLIN, Peter LANYON, Guido MORRIS, Phil Whiting and Bryan WYNTER. Their first exhibition took place in September 1946. The catalogue was printed for them by Guido MORRIS, with Borlase SMART being the opening speaker for the occasion.
The initial exhibition raised not only eyebrows but brickbats from more traditional artists, spurred-on by Harry ROUNTREE (1878-1950, the painter, illustrator and caricaturist) who called on the frankly Modernist group to drop the 'French rot' and get back to sweet sanity. However, by August 1947 Wilhelmina BARNS-GRAHAM had joined the group, and seventeen artists altogether showed in the Crypt, including Barbara HEPWORTH, Denis MITCHELL, Alice MOORE, Ben NICHOLSON, Misome PEILE, John WELLS and Bryan WYNTER.
The final Crypt Group exhibition included work by David HAUGHTON, Patrick HERON, Adrian RYAN and Kit BARKER in addition to all the previously mentioned exhibitors. It was held in August 1948, opened by Francis Watson.
By February 1949 the new PENWITH SOCIETY of Arts in Cornwall was founded by a group of nineteen, which included the whole of the Crypt Group and others sympathetic to the aims of those who had resigned from STISA. It was agreed that the Penwith Society be founded in memory of Borlase SMART (who had died in November 1947), and invited Herbert READ to be the first President, with Leonard John FULLER as Chairman and David COX Honorary Secretary. Unlike STISA, the Penwith Society included both artists and craftsmen among its members.
The first workers at Crysede recalled that they at first worked in the upper room of a small cottage adjoining Myrtle Cottage in Newlyn until the larger premises at Sambo's Row was complete. Here, using a hand-operated sewing machine and a flat iron heated on a stove for finishing, they made up the silk into dresses as designed by Kathleen EARLE. A very high standard was demanded. The downstairs room became a shop where silk was sold by the yard. Initially, silk was sent down from Alec George WALKER’s business in the North, ready-processed, to be printed at Newlyn with the same designs of spots, checks and stripes he had used in Yorkshire. Later, as more staff were taken on and trained, the silk was fully processed locally from the raw state, and bleached, dyed and hand block-printed.
With his wide experience in all branches of production, Alec was able to train local people in the skills necessary to produce a high standard of finish. Kay cut specially ordered garments from her own designs as well as designing pamphlets and advertising material for the firm. Alec again became a client of McKnight Kauffer, who in 1921 designed a poster for Cryséde.
Following his influential meeting with Dufy in Paris in 1923, Alec began to produce a new range of wholly original designs, and the real success of Crysede became established as these brilliantly-coloured, thoroughly 'modern' designs, based on his watercolour sketches, were immediately popular. Business expanded rapidly, and by the end of the year there were over 3,000 mail order clients and a number of retail shops were opened.
The first, at New Road, Newlyn (now the woodburning stove shop), and several other branches were opened in Cornwall and the South West. Alec travelled widely, maintaining business contacts in London and Paris and with the retail shops. It was considered a great status symbol to own a Cryséde garment. In 1925, with the business established as a successful craft industry at Newlyn, Alec invited Tom HERON, a young Fabian Socialist blouse manufacturer whom he had known in Yorkshire, to come and take over the direction of Cryséde as manager.
Heron persuaded Alec that the firm needed to expand and become a limited company. He found large leasehold premises on the Island at St Ives, and transferred the firm from Newlyn the following year.
Sue Cuff is a self-taught painter who works from a garden studio in Delabole, north Cornwall. Her work is evocative of the north Cornish landscape where she grew up.
In 2023 she joined Prime Women Artists, a supportive and creative network for women artists of all disciplines in Cornwall.
An artist of this name advertised in the Cornishman on 31 Oct 1940, offering drawing lessons for children in Mousehole ('by an experienced teacher and artist').
Two correspondents (2012) have provided some further information about this artist, for which we are grateful. (Lucy) Mabel Culley was born in Costessey, Norfolk, where her father John Culley was a farmer. From census records it appears that she was from a large family of children, the maternal side coming from the Coleman family (of Coleman's Mustard fame). She later lived in Stevenage with or near one of her sisters, where she became a well known figure and published a booklet called A Stevenage Picture Book with a foreword by Lord Jowitt. The book contained 20 sketches and watercolours of her own work of scenes around and about the town.
Many of these sketches can be found on the website, 'Herts Memories' as collated by V Richards. Dates for this production are not confirmed as yet, however the author assumes they were made in the 1950s. This would indicate that she had moved from Mousehole to Hertfordshire, possibly following the war`. Mabel never married and her death is recorded in 1965 in Stevenage at the age of 85.
Daisy Culmer works from Krowji Studios, Redruth. She grew up in west Penwith and is a museum curator in Hayle. The landscape and culture of this part of the county, including its folklore, feature prominently in her work.