Exhibited and sold Sardines at NAG in 1905 for 10 guineas, a relatively high price for an unknown artist.
Tim's versatile art practice and teaching together with a multitude of therapeutics (movement, remedial massage, acupuncture, bodyworks) contributes to a self-devised description of him as a 'artist and bodyworker'. His work encompasses visual arts and their teaching & exhibition, performance art and movement demonstration, voluntary and social welfare work. His outreach has been widespread and international; he is regularly abroad as a visiting tutor and performer.
Keith Newstead was born in Romford, Essex. He completed a diploma in graphic design at Barking College of Technology (1973-5). Subsequently he turned down a place at the Royal Academy Schools, as he could not see himself as part of the conventional art world. In the late 1980s he found inspiration in the work of the late automatist Sam Smith, having viewed a TV documentary about this art/craft. He began to make his own automata, attracting the attention of London's Cabaret Mechanical Theatre. His creations were included in the Theatre's permanent collection. This led to commissions, enabling him to pursue his passion full-time. Demand for Newstead's work soon grew, and he embarked on collaborations with other artists such as Ralph Steadman, Terry Gilliam and Sam Lanyon.
In 1995 Newstead moved from London to Falmouth, working from a studio with a large window looking onto the street, which fascinated passers-by, especially children. Not only did his work help to cement the town's reputation as the home of automata, but he became part of a British lineage in automata that included Rowland Emmet, Sam Smith and Paul Spooner.
He was commissioned to make two characters for the 2012 film 'Deception', and created a prototype design for the British Eccentric Garden at the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show. He developed a reputation across the world, from Japan to the USA.
His work was shown in the 'All Hands on Deck' exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery in 1998, and he was commissioned by the Gallery to make the 'Eclipse Automata' in 1999, a part of their permanent collection. One of his most memorable pieces was his masterly depiction of Mervyn Peake's 'Gormenghast' (2018).
The UK's pre-eminent maker of automata, Keith approached his work with modesty. He was unconcerned with raising the status of automata as sculpture, instead hoping, as he put it, to 'bring enjoyment and entertainment to both young and old alike'. His assemblages were ingenious, irreverent, playful and accessible. Many of them were sold in huge numbers in kit form, one of the most popular being 'The Executioner', stocked in the Tower of London shop from 1993 onwards, which sold more than 100,000 copies. He taught regularly in schools, and also appeared on children's TV art programmes such as SMart.
Keith Newstead died of cancer in November 2020.
Born in Hampstead, London, Newton studied at Clare College, Cambridge, Frank Calderon's School of Animal Painting, and London School of Art, Kensington.
He served with the army in WWI, and was invalided out in 1916. Always having family connections with Lamorna, he returned there for two years before returning to London. One of his models was the young Mornie BIRCH. A member of the Newton family of Winsor and Newton, he built 'Bodriggy' in 1912, and in his later years he also had a home in Yorkshire.
While working in Lamorna he painted landscape and figures, quite different from his mature style. From 1923, he was wholly London based, and his particular interest was buildings in London and canals around Paddington; he frequently painted with glazes, producing night scenes which veered toward the surreal. He was the father of actor Robert Newton.
A painter of landscapes, figure studies and still life, especially floral in nature, a large collection of this artist's work is represented in the permanent collection of the Falmouth Art Gallery.
A Londoner, whose addresses included Denmark Street, Soho (1776), Mr Gamble's near King's Arms Stairs, Lambeth (1777) and Constitution Row, Gray's Inn Road (1799-1802), Newton's copper-engraved plates provided many of the hand-coloured illustrations of Cornwall for Grose's Antiquities of England & Wales (1786).
His brother William (1735-90) was an architect, and son William John (1785- 1869) also became an engraver.
Mike Newton was born in Manchester and now lives and works in St Ives. He has a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. In 2006 he was awarded an MA in Fine Art Painting, and in 2013 a PhD in Fine Art Painting from Bath Spa University.
He became a member of STISA in 2025.
Work by this artist is included in the art collection of University College Falmouth (UCF).
Nicholls was a tutor at the Penzance School of Art when Mr William Todd BROWN ROI,became acting head of Penzance School of Art (interim period of six months at the sudden death of James W LIAS). Nothing is currently known about his special subjects.
Obed Nicholls produced copper work of a very high standard, from his home in Duke Street, Newlyn (now demolished). One of four children of a local fishing family, he had been crippled as a child by polio,
John Drew MacKENZIE 'set him up' with tools and materials so that he could earn a living as a metalworker. After the war, he continued working as an outworker for the copper works, cared for by his only surviving sister, Mary Bone Nicholls, who supplemented their income by work in the fish cellars.
Born in Colchester, Essex, Paul studied at Epsom, Portsmouth and Brighton Colleges of Art with the intention of teaching art. For 34 years he taught in Cornwall, both as an art teacher and later as Headteacher, before retiring to paint full-time in 2006. Along the way, however, he also exhibited widely, as a painter, draughtsman and maker of constructions. An oil painting of Paul's was purchased in 2005 by the RCM for their collection (PCF).
Paul Nicholls was elected to membership in the NSA in 1975 (Minutes, NSA), and began to exhibit in mixed and solo shows from that time. Exhibitions have followed both in and out of county including County Hall, Truro, the Lander Gallery, Truro, the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro and with the Churchtown Arts, St Agnes, the latter being where he lives and works currently.
His work is regularly handled by the Lander Gallery, Truro.
A painter who was born in Staines in 1857, and is listed in the 1911 census as an artist living in Evesham.
The illustrations for Cornwall (1915) were painted by George Frederick Nicholls. The book is one of a number of illustrated books forming a topographical section of the Elizabeth Treffry Cornish Collection at the Hypatia Trust, Penzance. His painting of Newlyn was hung in the Royal Academy in 1917.
He died in Horspath, Oxfordshire, in 1939.
Editor's Note: (2021) It seems that there is more than one artist with this name. A recent correspondent's research has enabled us to correct the original entry.
Marianne Nicholls is a self-taught abstract painter living in west Penwith.
Nicholls was a painter and etcher born on 6 October 1847, Norwich, Norfolk (GRO). Bednar has noted that she exhibited an etching with a Newlyn title, as early as 1880, Pilchard Boats, Newlyn. This is before the bulk of the artists making up the Newlyn colony had arrived. Her major subject matter for paintings and etchings was the countryside around Norwich (rustic scenes), the town itself and also the Norfolk Broads. She died after an active exhibiting life at age 76 in Norwich, on 30 January, 1923 (GRO).
There is a photo likeness c 1963 (Tate 1985, p137) of Simon, and a painting of his entitled 6231 created by him in 1962 is part of the Cornwall Council permanent collection.
Born in Manchester, trained at Manchester School of Art and Colarossi's Atelier, Paris; Medallist at Kensington.
This is presumed to be the artist who exhibited two paintings, A Summer Holiday and The Lacemaker, at the St Ives Show Day of 1911, exhibiting again in 1913. She partnered Emily ALNUTT in the Rose Lodge Studio for the latter exhibition (1913) and in 1915 moved with Allnutt to live and work in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. Buckman notes her final home at Hindhead, Surrey.
She is probably the Miss Nicholson (St Ives) who displayed and sold Moonlight Pastel at Newlyn in 1910 (See Hardie p59: Defining Exhibitions), one of only three sales that were made in that exhibition.
Born at Denham, Buckinghamshire, the son of painters William NICHOLSON and Mabel PRYDE. Nicholson met Paul Nash at the Slade (1910-11) but, was otherwise without formal training. He travelled in France, Italy, Spain and California between 1911 and 1918, but became serious about painting only after 1920 when he married artist Winifred Roberts, and shortly thereafter began abstract paintings influenced by Synthetic Cubism. His association with Barbara HEPWORTH and Henry MOORE dates from 1931 when he was living in London.
With Hepworth he visited in France and met Arp, Brancusi, Braque and Picasso. Later he was encouraged to join Abstraction-Creation and met Piet Mondrian. He exhibited with the Seven and Five Society.Nicholson married Barbara HEPWORTH in 1934, and was co-editor of Circle, the constructivist art magazine in 1937.
The couple moved to Carbis Bay, Cornwall, at the outbreak of War in 1939. In Cornwall he returned to painting landscapes, but added colour to his abstract reliefs previously devised in his constructivist period. Persuaded to join STISA by Borlase SMART in 1944, Nicholson tried to influence the direction of STISA after Smart's death, and was instrumental behind-the-scenes in the split of STISA, being a founder Member of the Penwith Society of Arts. Though not universally liked, he was a great influence on many young artists in St Ives, including Wilhelmina BARNS-GRAHAM, George Peter LANYON and Sven BERLIN. His marriage to Barbara HEPWORTH was dissolved in 1951 and he left St Ives in 1958.
For a brief period between her separation from Ben NICHOLSON (in 1931-2) and moving to Paris, Winifred took rented accommodation in Cornwall, which she knew well from previous visits, and also the Isle of Wight, working on paintings in each place. At the time she had three small children and had not yet decided on the future direction of her artistic life. It was not until 1987 that Winifred Nicholson, six years after her death, received significant recognition with her major Retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London. In the 1920s she was best known for her lovely flower paintings, which were well-reviewed and sold widely. Her solo exhibitions were primarily in London, Edinburgh, Leicester and Cambridge, whilst she also participated in group exhibitions in London and abroad. In the 1950s and in 1970 she returned for painting trips to Cornwall, but favoured landscapes in Scotland, the Scottish islands, and Cumbria, her home. Her daughter, Kate NICHOLSON, however - also an artist - continued to make St Ives her main home.
Kate Nicholson is the daughter of Ben NICHOLSON and his first wife Winifred NICHOLSON, and was born in Cumbria. Peter LANYON was one of her teachers when she attended the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham. After moving to St Ives in 1956 she became a member of the Penwith Society of Artists, exhibiting with them in mixed shows. However she continued to spend time in Cumbria and to travel elsewhere, especially to Greece.
St Ives Crabber 1949 is a painting by Kate Nicholson, included in the Cornwall County permanent collection.
In 1961 she was chosen for the Arts Council tour 'Six Young Painters'.
Born in Hampstead, London, Rachel Nicholson did not begin to paint until 1975, though she grew up surrounded by the accoutrements of art and the finished subjects made by her parents, Ben NICHOLSON and his second wife, Barbara HEPWORTH. Drawing on these experiences, she developed a great interest in still life and the arrangement of objects, which she portrays on her canvases.
Mo Nicklin was a freelance illustrator based in rural Sussex before developing a fascination for etching, and moving to Charlestown in Cornwall.
Born in Brighton, Anton studied painting and sculpture at St Martin's School of Art, London. As a child he lived in Malaysia, and visited both West Africa and India. After selection in 1967 as a 'Young Contemporary at the Tate' he began exhibited across the UK, in London and the South West.
Working as a freelance architectural designer he worked in Paris, Italy, London and also taught printmaking at Croydon College. Upon moving to Cornwall he settled at St Ives in 1994, turning a Methodist Sunday school into a dual living and working space. His work is often quirky and explorative of historical and literary concept, and he constructs much of his work from ephemera, creating thought-provoking pieces, often within boxes.