Mary Ford is a painter and printmaker who grew up in Cornwall and currently lives in Falmouth. She was educated at Byam Shaw and the Royal Academy Schools during the 1970s. In London, her work has been included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and is currently on show at Oliver Contemporary Gallery, where she has been a regular exhibitor since 2002. Her silkscreen of 1978 'Boats - Antibes' is included in the Tate Collection.
Nearer home, her paintings have been exhibited at Wills Lane Gallery and Belgrave Gallery in St Ives, and at Falmouth Art Gallery.
Sophie Fordham obtained a BA (Hons) in Fine Art and Printmaking at Cheltenham Art College in 1996. Her semi-abstract and figurative images, which evolve from memories, stories and experiences, explore a sense of belonging. She has exhibited widely in group shows throughout Devon and Cornwall.
Diana Forrest completed a BA (Hons) in Painting, Drawing and Printmaking at Plymouth College of Art in 2021.
Denzil Forrester was born in Grenada, WI and moved to London in 1967. He obtained a BA from London's Central School of Art, followed by an MA at the Royal College of Art. In 1983 he was awarded the Rome Scholarship, and this was followed by the Harkness Scholarship which took him to New York for eighteen months. In 1987 he was the winner of the Korn/Ferry International Award for work of exceptional merit. He was awarded a touring exhibition by the Harris Museum & Art Gallery in 1991, and in 2000 he won the Scottish Gallery Dianna King Prize for a painting in any medium.
Forrester's paintings of London's reggae club scene and police brutality have been exhibited at Tate Britain and White Columns in New York.
Until he moved to Cornwall in 2016, London's urban life was Forrester's main source of inspiration. His paintings are rich, complex and highly sophisticated and have been exhibited extensively in London over the past 40 years. His work is held in public and private collections in the UK and USA.
Artist potter with Bernard LEACH 1932-34, who gained his skills at the Minton Pottery during an eight-year apprenticeship from the age of fourteen.
In 1932 he was persuaded to join the Leach Pottery by the writer and critic Herbert Read, and in 1934 he left to take over from David LEACH at the Dartington Pottery, Skinners Bridge, Devon, and to teach at Dartington Hall School. He gradually realised that production throwing held no interest for him and he resolved never again to make two pots alike, an attitude he sustained throughout the remainder of his life.
Chris began his art career as an illustrator in a publisher's studio after studying art and graphics in Bristol. He is a self- taught watercolour painter, constantly trying to extend and add to his skills in water-based media. He has exhibited on numerous occasions with the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.
He endeavours to re-appraise his style and technique on a regular basis and this has led him towards a mixed-media approach to his work, combining watercolour, acrylic, pastel and gouache. He is exhilarated by colour and surface and enjoys creating textured layers of dry-brushed colour that allow hints of complementary hue to glow through, thus creating an exciting surface of scattered, broken colour.
He specialises in landscape subjects, exploring the themes of man-made alongside the organic: buildings by water; structure emerging from a rocky cliff, sometimes with figures contributing to this theme, inhabiting the middle ground between buidings and the wildness of nature. He is inspired by downland, coastal scenes of the UK and the Mediterranean, cafe life and townscapes. He tries to capture the sense of a place at a specific moment, season or time of day, always endeavouring to bring passion and immediacy to his work.
Chris was awarded the prestigious F DONALD BLAKE AWARD for a contemporary watercolour by the LINCOLN JOYCE gallery in 2006 at the RI spring exhibition and also THE MATT BRUCE MEMORIAL AWARD for light and colour at the 2007 RI exhibition.
Flora Forshall is an artist printmaker based in Falmouth. She graduated with a BA in Textile Design from Falmouth University, where she specialised in print, producing large screen prints on paper.
The artist studied at the Slade (1905-08). In 1909 he was signed in as a guest at the St Ives Arts Club by John DOUGLAS, but did not settle down to live in Cornwall until after WWI, when he arrived with his wife Katherine (aka 'Ka', nee Cox, a friend of Virginia Woolf, the novelist.)
At first they rented, then purchased, 'Eagle's Nest' at Zennor, the former home of the ANDREWS-WESTLAKE family. Here he built his own studio and constructed a wondrous garden in what was surely 'the windiest' space in Britain, open as it was to the sea beyond. He did not practice art full time, working for the League of Nations and other international causes. A chalk portrait of William Bateson, the Biologist was drawn by Will Forster in 1923, and is in the National Portrait Gallery.
Renate Forsyth was born in Germany. After moving to London she studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Slade School of Art (under Professor Coldstream). In 1964 she qualified as a teacher and worked in a number of London schools until moving to Cornwall in 1969. She continued her teaching career in north Cornwall and to this day combines her art practice with part-time teaching.
No details are extant about this artist or his work, but he is listed as exhibiting at NAG in 1909.
See Mrs Cecilia ELWES
This is a correction to Hardie 2009 of entry for Mr C Forsythe.
A Birmingham-born artist (29 July 1850), shown in the 1891 Census to be a Newlyn resident; he is also listed by Charles MARRIOTT as a St Ives artist. Before taking up painting, and studying in Paris, he spent some time as an engineer of design. His subjects were landscapes, genre relating to ships and boats, and still-life. In 1883 he went to Venice for further study.
On his return he exhibited at RBSA (becoming ARBSA in 1884), and in 1885 moved to Newlyn with Phil Whiting (Frank), then to Paul, where he was near his close friend Stanhope FORBES (mentioned in 1885 Forbes letters), after which he moved to St Ives in 1894, settling in Treloyan Cottage and working from the Malakoff Studio. A colour plate of his painting The Forge (By Hammer and Hand, All Arts doth Stand) is included in Hardie (2009), and reflects the depth, richness of colour and realism of the Newlyn school of artists.
At the St Ives Show Day 1911, he exhibited Fuel and Intruders. He was one of the signatories of the Glanville letter (1898) expressing artists' concerns regarding over-development in the town. In 1899 he was Elected RBSA . He specialised in subjects showing work in the countryside such as woodcutting, hoeing and blacksmithing, working more in the Newlyn tradition of narrative painting. He often rode a horse cross-country, with his paints and easel strapped to his back. He died in St Ives age 73, and is buried at Zennor.
Hailing from Carmel, California and educated at St Margaret's Convent, Edinburgh, the artist was a devout Roman Catholic, and in later life founded a Guild dedicated to the revival of ecclesiastical art. She studied at St John's Wood School of Art and in New York with the Art Students' League. In 1915 she won a Silver medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. From 1921-23 her sending-in address was care of J Bourlet (agents) in London, but she was travelling elsewhere, accompanied by her mother who was also an artist.
A review of the St Ives Show Day in 1922 described her as one of the new artists of the colony whose work was likely to stimulate those around her with a deeper sense of regard for painting in the open air. At the 1923 Show Day she exhibited Summer Morning at St Ives, a painting that was to receive a Silver medal at the Paris Salon, and a portrait of Mr Jenner. She exhibited and travelled widely in France, America and Europe, and was admired for her bright palette of colours, influencing the group of painters that introduced fauvism and modernism in the San Francisco area, The Oakland Society.
John lives and works at Widemouth in north Cornwall. The surf on his doorstep provides inspiration for his loose watercolours and charcoal sketches, and being a keen surfer he finds watercolour particularly well suited to convey the power of the crashing surf and the occasional tranquillity of the Atlantic coastline.
He is an exhibiting member of the St. Ives Society of Artists, and has published works for a variety of artists’ magazines.
He hosts demonstrations and workshops both at his studio and for art societies throughout the West country.
Many thanks to William Curnow of Florida for coming forth with research information about this artist photographer about whom we knew little. The Pigot's Directory of 1844 recorded this artist as a portrait painter living in Alverton Street, Penzance.
Foss was born in St Just in Penwith, to parents as yet unknown, and married Mary Matthews on 19 October 1829 in that village. By the time of the 1851 Census he was living with Mary and three sons (William, James and Thomas) and one daughter, Elizabeth, (of eight children born to them) at Jamaica Place, Madron.
His death was reported by the West Briton newspaper on Friday, 6 May 1853, and a correspondent (2024) has carried out research indicating that he was buried in the same month at the original Penzance burial ground on Rock Terrace, Heamoor.
Apparently Thomas expanded his artistic range to include photography (a new art of the time), making him something of a pioneer in the new technology. The evidence is provided by the parish marriage registration of his son Thomas which references the occupation of the groom's father as a photographer. As yet we have no information related to his subjects.
Foster was born in North Shields, but lived in London from the age of five. He studied as a wood engraver, and spent his early career working on book illustrations (London Illustrated News). In 1858 he took up watercolours, painting rustic subjects in a gentle and nostalgic manner.
Christopher Wood, in a long entry on the artist's work in illustration and painting, remarks that he painted in Surrey and elsewhere, scenes 'peopled with children and milkmaids.' The engraving of St Michael's Mount, upon which this entry to the WCAA index is based, was possibly engraved from his drawing (on wood) by his life-long friend Edmund EVANS with whom he travelled in 1846-47 to produce a series for the Illustrated London News. The series was entitled The Watering Places of England.
NAG Exhibitor who sold two paintings in 1905 and 1906 respectively, about whom nothing more has yet been found.
Mentioned in Whybrow's 1883-1900 list of painters in and around St Ives.
A portrait by this artist of the Cornish philanthropist John Passmore EDWARDS (1823-1911) is in the possession of the Passmore Edwards Institute at Hayle, Cornwall. This Institute is one of the twenty benefactions that were funded by the subject in his home county. When serving on the Hayle Herritage Committee she provided designs for a set of commemorative mugs to aid with fund raising.
For biographical detail, see Ann Foster's personal website that contains both illustrations and biographical information related to exhibitions.
Ann lives at Tywardreath, Cornwall and works from her home studio. She has exhibited widely in the county and abroad, and has works in private collections in the UK, USA and the West Indies.
Matthew Foster studied Fine Art at Kent University from 2004 to 2006. He then worked for Joseph Clarke at the Millennium Gallery in St Ives. In 2015 he joined the Leach Pottery as the second Seasalt Bursary Apprentice, where he is now the studios production manager.
His main interest is in form, surface and gesture of making, always focused on the pot’s suitability to its function and aiming for his interpretation of the Mingei Philosophy . He is influenced by potters such as Shoji Hamada, Bill Marshall, Warren Mackenzie, John Reeve and the potters in the studio, and is currently looking at peasant stonewares of the Korean Yi dynasty, Gongxian pottery, Tang dynasty Chinese pottery and porcelain pots from the Chinese Sung period.
Lee Foster-Wilson is a Cornwall based artist and illustrator. Her work, both traditional and digital, often incorporates celestial and mystical symbols.
Jean Foulds was born in Derbyshire but her family connection to Cornwall goes back to WW2 and she has lived in the county since 2002. She undertook her teacher training in Huddersfield and obtained an MA degree researching children's drawing from Leicester University.
Foulds is a regular exhibitor at The Bay in Penzance. An article in The Cornishman in 2012 mentioned that she recalled seeing Barbara HEPWORTH in St Ives at an early age. She has worked as a volunteer at Tate St Ives since 2005.
Works held by the art collection at Leicester University include her painting 'Primordial' and a sculpture 'The Stargazers'.
A M Foweraker was born in 1873, the son of an Exeter clergyman and headmaster of Exeter Cathedral School where A M was educated. He graduated in Science from Christ's College, Cambridge and did not take up painting until his early twenties. He studied art in Exeter, and first exhibited with RCPS in 1897, the same year in which he married Annie Triphina Coles.
The couple moved to Lelant near St Ives in 1902, and had one daughter, Marie. Foweraker is best known for his moonlit watercolour scenes, often featuring a figure carrying a lamp and his use of the colour, blue. In 1903 he assisted Algernon TALMAGE with his Cornish School of Landscape and Sea painting, being primarily responsible for watercolour tuition. In 1905 he advertised winter art classes in Andalucia, and his address was given as Villa Camara, Malaga. He held classes in Malaga in January and February, Cordoba in March, and Granada in April, and appears to have made regular trips to Spain and later to France.
Charles MARRIOTT was asked to write a travel book on Spain in 1908, and he asked Foweraker to illustrate it. His only work exhibited at the RA was unintended: having been too late for inclusion in that year's RBA show, the President forwarded it to the RA, where it was accepted and hung. In the mid-1920s he moved to Swanage in Dorset, where he died in January 1942 and is buried at the Godlingston Cemetery, Ulwell.