A student at the Herkomer School of Art, Annie Cawker was originally a painter but subsequently concentrated on weaving. At Bushey she was a good friend of Beatrice MICHELL (later Beatrice NANCE). Some four years after Beatrice's early death she married Robert Morton NANCE as his second wife.
After their marriage in 1906 they moved to Nancledra, midway between Penzance and St Ives. In 1914, on the outbreak of War, she moved with her husband to Carbis Bay.
Dicon was born in Nancledra midway between Penzance and St Ives in the middle of the peninsula. In the 1930s he worked as an assistant at the Leach Pottery, and then with the potter Michael CARDEW in Ghana during the majority of the war years.
With his brother Robert NANCE (Robin) they re-started a cabinet-making workshop on the quayside at St Ives in 1946 (Robin having started one in 1933 which was suspended while Robin was in the Army (1940-6). They not only made pottery wheels for the Leach Pottery, but also showed the paintings of their friends, George Peter LANYON and others, on the walls of their shop. He was a Founder Member of the Penwith Society in 1949, and after a teaching stint in Thailand for UNESCO, he returned to St Ives as an assistant to Barbara HEPWORTH until 1971.
The eldest son of Robert Morton NANCE, Dicon NANCE being his younger brother by two years. Robin was born in Nancledra, and at the early age of just 13 was the Art Union of Cornwall prize winner (£3. 0s. 0d.) in the 1920 RCPS September show. He was recorded as being from Carbis Bay and exhibiting as Master Robin Nance. This is (at time of writing) the first record of him showing work.
From 1924 he went on to train under the 'arts and crafts' Master cabinet maker, Romney GREEN, in Christchurch, Hampshire, which was to have its own spin-off for Arts and Crafts in Cornwall (See Hardie 1995) when Green sent work in to NAG, namely wood carving and inlaid woodwork, to be exhibited with Robert T Morton Nance.
He set up his own workshop in woodworking in 1933, which was suspended during the war years when he served in the Army. After the war he returned to St Ives, and with his brother Dicon re-opened the gallery/workshop on the quayside. Their work was in furniture- making, as well as crafting pottery wheels for the LEACH POTTERY, who was in Robin's words 'not very practical'. Both he and his brother, like their parents before them, inclined to the Arts and Crafts philosophy of hand-making and natural designs for chairs, occasional tables and honest craftsmanship. In 1951 he published 'My world as a woodworker' in The Cornish Review (Summer 1951, no 8).
Robin closed his business in 1972, and lived in St Ives. He is buried at St Senara's Churchyard at Zennor, Cornwall.
Nance was born in Cardiff, though both of his parents were Cornish, and he enjoyed holidays with his grandparents in Cornwall from an early age. His brothers were Ernest M (b 1868) and Alwyn (b1870). The family moved to Penarth in 1878 and he developed an interest in the ships both in the docks there and at St Ives. A fine modeller of ships in wood, as well as an accomplished illustrator, producing pencil drawings and oil paintings. A poet and writer, especially of subjects concerning the Cornish language. He began his training at the Cardiff School of Art and in 1893 he enrolled at the Herkomer School of Art at Bushey. He married fellow student Beatrice Michell in 1895, but Bushey rules meant they both had to leave.
He returned to Penarth with his wife and young baby and, on the recommendation of Herkomer, he set up a painting school for a short time. In 1898 he had a poem and illustrations printed in the Cornish Magazine and illustrations reproduced in The Studio. In 1902 his wife died and distraught with grief he decided to immerse himself in further study in Paris for a time.
His titles at this time were Across the Western Ocean (1903), and On the Wings of the Wind (1904). By 1905 he was exhibiting studies of old battleships, some of which were used for decorative screens later exhibited in Italy. In 1906 he married Annie Maud Cawker [See Annie Maud NANCE], a good friend of his first wife and fellow student at Bushey. He was one of the founder members of STISA, but rarely exhibited, and a member of the Arts Club. An acknowledged authority on the Cornish language, he was a member of the Gorseth, becoming Grand Bard of Cornwall in 1934, a position he held until his death. Nance wrote Cledry (1956) and Plays, in addition to an English Cornish Dictionary and a quantity of pamphlets on the Cornish language. A portrait of the artist by Phil Whiting hangs in the St Ives Museum
Born on 28 October 1882 in Exeter, his father was William Naper, a Lieutenant-Colonel, and his mother Jane Wyatt Naper (nee Edgell). His education was at Haileybury College in 1898 and the Royal Academy Schools from 1900-1907.
He married Ella Louise Champion [See Ella Louise NAPER ] in 1910, and they moved first to Looe and then to Trewoofe in Lamorna, where they were to live for the rest of their lives. The initial challenge was to buy three fields from Colonel Paynter, the local landowner, and for this purchase they were able to borrow from Charles' family.
Naper designed the house himself to include a large studio for himself, a workshop for Ella, and extensive gardens which they created together. Just below their house was Oakhill Cottage, where Laura and Harold Knight became their near neighbours and closest friends. Other friends were the BIRCH family, the HEATHS and the HUGHES.
During the 1920s Charles was a regular exhibitor on Show Days and at the Newlyn Art Gallery. But in later life he became disillusioned with his painting. Reclusive and uncommunicative, he was increasingly dependent on Ella. They were both devoted to each other, and Ella's greater success did not cause friction between them. During repairs to his studio, he deliberately destroyed almost all of his studio paintings, and some he had by other artists (MUNNINGS, Laura KNIGHT).A few later paintings survived with the family, and they depict the awesome cliffs of West Cornwall.
Born on 9 February 1886 in Charlton, SE London, Ella was the fourth daughter (of nine children) of Alfred Champion (aka Adolphus Couchman-Steele), a fireman, and Mary Ann Champion (nee Weeks). She attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1904 to 1906 under the jeweller, Frederick James Partridge.
The School had been founded in 1896 by John Passmore EDWARDS, the Cornish philanthropist who had given the Art Gallery to Newlyn the previous year. As her biographer, Branfield comments, 'It was Ella's first link with Cornwall.' Her training there was thorough, and she learned a wide range of techniques in metal, wood, enamelling, and design in general.
Two major influences on her work were those of Art Nouveau design, the rage of the times, and the work of C R Ashbee, as filtered through to her by Partridge. She married Charles William Skipwith NAPER in London in 1910, and they made their honeymoon trip to Looe, Cornwall where they remained for two years, prior to making their permanent home at Trewoofe in Lamorna.
Much of her work was sold through events such as 'Arts and Crafts Exhibition', 'Woman's Art Exhibition', Newlyn Art Gallery craft exhibitions after 1924, and other venues such as Liberty's of London. After WWI Ella, together with her friends Kate WESTRUP and Emily WESTRUP ran the Lamorna Pottery, which continued in production (and exhibition at NAG) until 1935. The Napers were close friends of the artists Laura KNIGHT and Harold KNIGHT, and their neighbours Professor and Mrs Alfred Sidgwick (the novelist). Likenesses of Ella were made by Charles, Laura & Harold Knight, and Ruth SIMPSON, and she is also one of the models in Harold HARVEY's painting The Critics (1922). Ella and Laura Knight collaborated on the design and making of several small enamels based on the artistry of the ballet.
A full page of her enamel jewellery appears in colour in Hardie (2009, col pl section 4, facing p304) together with an essay by John Branfield in the section 'The Marriage of Art to Life'. Two examples of the ballet series are illustrated in Wallace (1996) pp21-2, and in Branfield's essay.
A painting by this artist, entitled St Ives Fish Sale, is in the permanent collection of St Ives Town Council.
John Nash and his wife the ceramist Mim NASH work from the Old Well Studio, Lamorna. His paintings include landscape and coastal pieces, and hand-lettering work inspired by early Celtic manuscripts and Cornish language.
He exhibits with the Lamorna Valley Group and more information is available at http://www.lamornaartsfestival.co.uk/members.php
The artist was one of the select band represented at the opening exhibition of NAG in 1895, though no sales were recorded until the spring show of 1897 when he exhibited Silvery Sea, and it was sold for the second highest price taken during the exhibition (10 guineas). At the 12th exhibition of NAG (1899) the artist exhibited and sold The Incoming Tide. In 1900 he exhibited Ever shifting Sands, Pentreath Beach, Kennack Sands and an untitled work, and in 1901, Penberth Cove.
By 1897 he gave a Plymouth address, with no further detail. The artist was a fruit merchant, according to his death certificate (Bednar).
Mim Nash creates ceramics inspired by the land and seascapes of Penwith and its Celtic traditions, but also employing the style and minimalism of the Far East. She hand throws and builds using stoneware, earthenware and ironstone decorated with her own glazes or wax resist method, while some of her work is decorated by her husband John NASH. She works from the Old Well Studio, Lamorna.
She exhibits with the Lamorna Valley Group and more information is available at http://www.lamornaartsfestival.co.uk/members.php
William Nash has exhibited at the Veryan Galleries on the Roseland Peninsula.
Phil Naylor is a Course Leader in Foundation Studies in Art & Design at University College Falmouth (2010).
Jannine Neale has lived and worked in Cornwall since 1981. Her childhood was spent in the small village of Luxulyan.
Clementine Neild is a Penryn-based printmaker with an MA in Illustration: Authorial Practice from Falmouth University.
London-born Nevinson studied at St John's Wood School of Art and the Slade (1908-12) and at Julian's in Paris (1912-13). In 1913 he became a Founder member of the London Group. Richard Cork comments in a recent review that 'when the war broke out, he had been a faithful follower of Marinetti's Futurism...' but after travelling to Dunkirk with his Red Cross unit, the utter brutality of war swamped the illusions of Futurist ideas, and left him with a determination to interpret grim reality and the never-ending nightmare. When his images of war went on exhibition in 1816, there were many critics, but he continued to hammer at his war themes, taking what he needed for his work from those Cubists, Futurists and Vorticists who were also treating of the events.
A Star Shell, exhibited by Nevinson in 1916, was purchased in 1962 by the CHANTRY Bequest and is in the Tate National Gallery. In St Ives, post-war he studied with Alfred HARTLEY in St Ives and the Nevinsons were introduced to the Arts Club by Nora HARTLEY in 1920. The artist was mentioned on the BBC (2005) as being the first painter to go up in an airplane in order to paint the landscape from the sky. More recently, of course, this was also a routine adopted by both George Peter LANYON and Roy RAY.
After the war he continued to travel extensively, and Buckman comments that he found a suitable subject for his talents in painting the cityscape of New York City. Nevinson was the author of Paint and Prejudice (1937). In 1938 he was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur. He was elected an Associate of the RA in 1939.
Angela Newberry is a painter and printmaker who has recently settled in Calstock, east Cornwall.
Newell is a highly acclaimed ceramist of studio pottery, primarily wheel thrown and raku fired. Her work is exhibited nationally in art galleries and in private collections. She creates both decorative and functional items, and works from her studio at Hollydale, Lamorna.
The history of the little Gallery at Newlyn is well documented, as an exhibition centre for contemporary art, as made by local as well as visiting artists. The principal idea was that it offered an exhibition space for artists, prior to sending in their work to the RA and other venues in London and around the country. It provided an all-weather gallery whereas the original BATEMAN's Meadow studios and the Meadow itself as a showing ‘hall’ were found wanting at times of poor weather.
The Gallery building itself was constructed (1895) at the expense of John Passmore Edwards, a well known Cornish philanthropist and London newspaper scion, who was also responsible for the creation of the South London Art Gallery (Camberwell, 1893) and later the Whitechapel Art Gallery (1900). His gift to the artists of West Cornwall was made in memory of ‘The Cornish Wonder’ John OPIE RA, and recommended to the artists of the Newlyn area as their ‘show place’ ‘for the public good.’
Through a subscription system, the Gallery was supported by the artists themselves as ‘Fellows’ and by their interested pupils, friends and benefactors of the arts. Intermittently the Gallery has been called the Passmore Edwards Art Gallery (PEAG), the Opie Gallery at Newlyn, the Newlyn Orion Galleries (when amalgamated in 1974 with a commercial gallery, The Orion, in Penzance), and most commonly the Newlyn Art Gallery, the name by which it is now officially known (1995 Council Minute). From 1924 a Craft Section was introduced. A Board of Trustees was responsible for the condition and structure of the building, though not for the activities within, the latter being planned by the Newlyn Society of Artists (NSA).
Through several renovations, and various reforms made necessary through the grant-funding systems of successive Arts Councils and economic situations, the Council of Management, with the assistance of a paid executive team, now run the Gallery and plan its programme, with decreasing and little input from the artists in the area, and from the NSA, which body now sends two representatives to the standing Council. Inevitably this has meant a substantial change in influence and practice for the artists making up the NEWLYN SOCIETY of ARTISTS, who must in the managerial climate prevailing, find other venues and occasions for showing and selling their work. Nevertheless, a subscription system - for the artists and their supporters - still operates, the major proportion of which goes to support the Galleries.
A major renovation programme was completed and launched in 2007 whereby an in-town venue THE EXCHANGE was added to NAG to create a two-sited exhibition space for the Galleries' programmes, visual, performance and educational in objective. In both galleries there is also a book/gift shop with crafts for sale, and at The Exchange there is a cafe/bar for visitors. The conversion and extension project was designed by MUMA, and have been awarded Design prizes for their innovation.
The Newlyn community had always supplemented its income with crafts connected with seafaring, but the influence of several artists together with the financial support of T B Bolitho, the Liberal MP, led to the establishment of organised craft tuition in the village, and in time a self supporting repoussé metalwork industry. Much of the influence for this came from the Arts and Crafts Movement that was concerned with the notion of 'the dignity of manual work' and the promotion and preservation of craftsmanship in the face of the increasing industrialisation in the late 19th century.
John Drew MacKENZIE arrived in 1888 as a painter and illustrator, and in 1890 founded the Newlyn Industrial Class, instructing local people first in fretwork, then in metalwork; enamelling and embroidery. Classes were run within the same complex of courtyard workshops by the painter Reginald Thomas DICK and his wife. Other artists involved in the project were Thomas Cooper GOTCH and Percy CRAFT.
The Industrial Class was enriched by the contribution of John PEARSON who came in 1892 from the School and Guild of Handicraft (formed 1888, by C R Ashbee) in London’s East End. However, it was MacKenzie who was largely responsible for what was to become known as Newlyn Copper. It could be said that the golden era of production lasted until WW1, during which time there was a considerable output of excellent repoussé metalwork from the class. Perhaps the most notable examples are the four large copper plaques (See O’Donnell in Hardie 1995), earth, air, fire and water, that decorate the facade of the Newlyn Art Gallery. These were designed by J D Mackenzie and T C Gotch, and worked under Pearson’s supervision by Philip HODDER, considered to be Mackenzie's right hand man. In 1899 their work was exhibited in the Albert Hall by the Home Arts and Industries Association. The Newlyn Art Metal Industries exhibited in December 1924 in the first show to include crafts at the Newlyn Art Gallery and continued to show at subsequent craft exhibitions.
In 1986 Berriman recorded that no examples of the said embroidery work of the Newlyn Classes had at that point come to light, and to date this unfortunately remains the case.
It is recorded that Mrs Ellen S DICK ran a class in needlework for local girls. Mrs Kneebone (nee Rouffingnac) recalls: 'I remember the sewing classes that Mr (Reginald Thomas DICK) and Mrs Dick started. Mr John Drew MacKENZIE invited me to join and I really loved it; Mrs Dick taught us all the embroidery stitches and after we completed an article it was sold and she gave us all the money'.
This suggests that this class was also a paying concern and 'Pauls' advertisement of 1897 lists 'Newlyn Enamel and Art Needlework' among its stock. Mr Wilfred TONKIN recalls that the class was still running in 1912 and was held in a room above the enamelling workshop. The work was 'tapestry' (probably canvas work in wool or silk - another favourite medium of the Arts and Crafts Movement) and they made bags, cushion covers and 'pictures' etc.
Other groups of co-workers exhibited at Newlyn Art Gallery from 1924, carrying such titles as the Barclay Workshops for the Blind, Caradon Looms, Disabled Soldiers and Sailors (with painted fabrics), the St Ives Handicraft Guild (who also showed their work in St Ives venues and elsewhere) and the Weaving School for Crippled Girls. No individuals were named within these groups, and therefore artists exhibiting in this way are as such anonymous, unless making their names as craftworkers from their own studios and workshops. Some individual artists who displayed tapestries and wall-hangings and belonged to the national societies, are individually listed.
Many artists, male and female, worked on banners and church hangings for community and religious events. This craft continues to date, and can be seen most vividly in the Golowan Festival parades and street decorations each summer in Penzance.
I append a list of Newlyn artists who worked there for several consecutive years before the place was known—that is to say before it was flooded with painters, and before the speculative builder stepped in and erected glass studios and all manner of other buildings. [Ed: Benjamin BATEMAN, the so-called 'capitalist'] After that, “swells” came down for a holiday and called themselves artists, took all the available lodgings, and almost crowded the workers out. The character of the place changed, and a good many men left. I think the list is thoroughly comprehensive, and I do not think that I have omitted any names. I have need to put them as near as possible in the order in which they came by groups. Those who came after belong to a different period. It was Birmingham that first discovered Newlyn:
E Harris
Walter Langley
R Todd
L Suthers
Fred Hall
Frank Bramley
T C Gotch
Percy Craft. Stanhope Forbes
H Detmold. Chevallier Tayler
Miss Armstrong (Mrs Stanhope Forbes)
F Bourdillon
W Fortescue
Norman Garstin
You may accept this list as authentic. It is the first, so far as I am aware, that has been compiled.
--One of the Original Newlynites
Newlyn School of Art was founded by Henry GARFIT and opened in September 2011 in the heart of the famous artistic colony of Newlyn. Located in the Old Board School, Chywoone Hill, the School offers courses in a wide variety of media such as oil painting, printmaking, drawing, stone carving and professional development. The courses are led by over 30 of the most respected and experienced artists working in Cornwall today.
Many of the short courses take place on the dramatic Cornish coastline nearby. Longer part-time courses are held over six two-day sessions across a 12-month period. These include the Defining Practice course, Studio Practice course, Mentoring Programme, Professional Landscape Programme and The Figure.
In addition, pre-recorded short courses are available online, as is an archive of online life drawing sessions.
The Newlyn Society of Artists was created originally by ‘about a dozen Trustees, about twenty-six artists, and about seventy associates’ (public subscribers, non-artists) according to Norman Garstin in 1921, when he was again appealing for support to resurrect the Gallery after the Great War.
The group who originally had applied to John Passmore Edwards for the underwriting of a new gallery in which to show their work were Stanhope FORBES, Frank BRAMLEY, Thomas Cooper GOTCH and Walter LANGLEY. Together with John CROOKE, Norman GARSTIN, Albert Chevallier TAYLER and Percy CRAFT (Secretary pro tem) these were the same people who formed themselves into the Provisional Committee to create the NSA, the fraternal arts organisation that would oversee the running of the Gallery and appoint the Hanging Committees for its exhibitions.
Establishing their rules of management, the Provisional Committee set out Articles 1-11 (Constitution of the NSA) specifying the name, purpose, geographical focus, the consent and reversionary clauses related to the Trustees of the building on Newlyn Green, and the rules of submission of works for the Society’s exhibitions. This Constitution remained in force, despite some changes of direction, until 1970, when new regulations and charitable status were introduced.
The longest serving Secretary/Curator of the early years was Henry Meynell RHEAM (1897-1920) who died in post. The longest serving Director of more recent times was John HALKES (1974-1990). A full list of curators, directors, etc. is included in Hardie (1995) 100 Years in Newlyn, Diary of a Gallery, available from the WCAA, and the Newlyn Art Gallery.
The artist was in Newlyn 1911 and may have been a pupil at the FORBES SCHOOL. [This was a period shortly before the death of Elizabeth FORBES in 1912, when there were few records being kept.]