A Cornish-born artist, Vivian Pedley returned to Cornwall in 2021 after 35 years. During this time he worked in studios in Montreal, Newfoundland, New South Wales, Los Angeles and London, exhibiting his work both nationally and internationally.
Melanie Peer describes herself as 'Artist in Nature'. She grew up in Scotland, then moved to London, where she obtained an MA in Painting from Chelsea College of Art. She settled in Cornwall in the early 2000s.
Peile was born in Southsea, Hampshire, and in 1930 she moved to St Ives,studying at the St Ives School of Painting under Leonard John FULLER with additional instruction from Enraght MOONY. She had also studied art in Rome.
From 1944 to 1949 she was a member of STISA, when with other artist friends she became a founder member of the Penwith Society of Arts. Though she had been one of those in St Ives without a studio (1947) she later moved into the Piazza Studios where she worked next door to Hilda JILLARD. Another good friend was Wilhelmina BARNS-GRAHAM. Together the three of these held a grand 'Extra Show Day' in 1953.
For some years in the 1970s she lived and worked in Malta, while keeping in close touch with her Cornish colleagues. In 1973 she shared an exhibition with sculptor Denis MITCHELL In Valletta. Ill health and advancing age caused her finally to leave Malta and return to Cornwall where she died in the early summer of 1983.
Her support of St Ives and its artist community was long-lasting and special friends were Shearer ARMSTRONG, Mary PEARCE; in 1975 Bryan PEARCE painted a portrait of her, and in the late 1980s the Newlyn Art Gallery held a studio sale of her remaining work. A purchase from that sale, of a beautifully crafted mixed media collage, The Madonna of Rio, inspired the beginning of the collection which has grown to become the Hypatia (Cornish) Collection of Women's Art.
A native of Blackheath, London, he joined a professional touring company at the age of 19 and appeared in the gala performance to mark King George V's Coronation. A former West End theatre producer, he retired to Cornwall in 1928 to devote himself to painting and etching, but nonetheless found his dramatic talents in great demand.
In subsequent years he devoted himself to stage management and producing, also founding the Cornwall Shakespeare Festival (1933). Although his art seems to have taken a back seat, he became involved with STISA in the 1950s when he lived at Blue Hills, Ludgvan, Penzance, and worked from the Loft Studio, St Ives. The Princess Royal bought one of his pictures from an exhibition in Harrogate at this time.
A relative of the artist has contacted us (2020) with the information that he is in possession of an oil painting of Porthmeor Beach by Ernest Peirce.
The artist was born in Redruth, Cornwall, the son of a mining engineer who emigrated to western Canada with his family soon after he was born. The whole family returned in 1901, and Claughton attended the Slade from 1907-1911, making there a life-long friend in the artist Paul Nash.
In 1912 he visited Italy for the first time, and was greatly influenced by Fra Angelico and other Florentines, thereby positioning himself differently from the on-going developments between Pre-Raphaelitism and the modernists progressing in Britain (Roger Fry's Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition that same year). Imprisoned due to his declared Conscientious Objection to WWI, he and his wife, Marie 'Kechie' Tennent, also an artist, moved to Overstrand on the north coast of Norfolk upon release in 1919, and then in 1927 to Southrepps nearby, where they remained for the rest of their lives.
Pellew began wood engraving in 1923, exhibiting with the newly founded Society of Wood Engravers, and his subjects, based on the revival begun by William Morris and inspired by Thomas Bewick, were country images. In 1925 he exhibited The Return, featuring a village which is probably Mousehole in Cornwall, which indicates at least a further visit to his native Cornwall. Portrait of a Shy Norfolk Artist is a sensitive and loving pen portrait of an extraordinarily skilled artist, who is less well known than he should be.
Leah Pellow works from Krowji studios, Redruth. In 2013 she undertook a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Falmouth University. This was followed by a BA (Hons) in Painting from Camberwell College of the Arts in 2016.
Teresa Pemberton translates the beauty of landscape, coastline, river and garden into vibrant, glowing canvases. She obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Painting from the University of Hertfordshire in 1996, and has worked full time as an artist ever since. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is held in collections worldwide. She lives in east Cornwall and works from the Ocean Studios complex at the Royal William Yard in Plymouth.
Jess Pemberton came to Cornwall to study Fine Art at Falmouth University. Her portraits are an expression of her thoughts and inner conflict. Her work attempts to capture states of feeling, exploring the 'commonality between people'.
Christine Penberthy is an artist, author and book illustrator who was born in a village outside Birmingham. At the age of 15 she attended Sutton School of Art. She has lived in St Ives since 1962.
Marriage and motherhood meant that her career had to be put on hold, but when time permitted she attended life classes at St Ives School of Art during the 1960s, and was taught by MARJORIE MOSTYN and LEONARD FULLER. In 1991 she completed a foundation course at Falmouth School of Art.
The artist was born into the fishing community and brought up in Mousehole, near Penzance. He began painting in 1936, attending the Penzance Art School for some years before WWII. Later he went on to study in Athens, Exeter and Bristol and did not return to Mousehole until 1956.
Most of his active artistic career took place after WWII, and Pender participated in many group and solo shows locally. In 2008 Penlee House Gallery and Museum mounted a major retrospective of his work, and their website provides ample information about the artist. Two of his paintings are in the permanent collection at the RCM.
He was married to Madeleine, who survives him and who is an active supporter of the Friends of the Penzance Art School and the Friends of Penlee House.
Amongst the class members in copper working at the same time as John CURNOW, George MILDREN, and John Edgar LAITY from about 1912 up to WWI. Some pieces marked JP may be his work. One of the later coppersmith-artists at Newlyn.
Penhale was born in Port Talbot, the son of Stanley Penhale (1900-1967) and his wife Nancy Llewellyn (1909-1996). His schooling was at Fowey Junior School, Fowey Grammar School, and completed at Bridgend Boys Grammar School in 1967, before studying at the University of Warwick at Canley.
After some years working and painting 'up in England' he returned to live in North Cornwall in 2002. From 2006 to the present he has been a member of the Penwith Society of Artists. He has also served as the Vice Chair of the Cornwall Watercolour Society from 2005.
The Penlee House Art Gallery & Museum is the municipal repository for the history of the surrounding area of the Land's End. It is also the gallery of choice for art exhibitions focussing mainly on the work of artists of the early Newlyn and St Ives schools/colonies up until the mid-20th century. The West Cornwall Art Archive and this website works in tandem with Penlee House, and the Director of Penlee House is a Trustee of the charitable trust which supports it. An excellent bookshop stocks the books that are mentioned in the reference sections of these entries, as available and in print.
The history of Penlee is fully explored on their own website.
The Museum has a collection of many thousands of photographs of the area from as early as 1870 and actively collects works by photographers working today - including artistic, landscape, genre and press photographs. The collection includes works by photographers such as Francis FRITH and VALENTINE, and also by local photographers such as Robert Hawker Peniel PRESTON, John MOODY, John GIBSON, RICHARDS and PENHAUL, etc. Some photographic albums are held within the collections, including albums originally owned by the Branwell family, an album of photographs of the Newlyn artists at work and play, and others of more topographic interest. Copies of the photographs can be ordered for personal use (copyright permitting).
A former member of Taking Space, an exhibiting group of women artists.
A photo of Ian Penna was featured in the Cornishman (11 Aug 2011) together with his Immeasurable Mass sculpture, an impressive part of the 'Uncharted Landscapes' exhibition at the Mariner's Gallery, St Ives (until Sept 3).
Penna's large works are a 'mine cap plug complete with brass plate and pillars which as well as reminding one of Cornwall's past mining industry is also an essay in space, dark and light, and ends with his Rabart's Time Piece, carved from solid acrylic paint.' (F Ruhrmund, p33)
Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, the son of a Wesleyan minister, he trained with a firm of architects at Leeds before setting up on his own. He was a successful architect before he retired to take up painting, unsurprisingly he was particularly attracted by interesting buildings and old bridges, the design of Wesleyan chapels being one of his specialities. In 1935, after retirement and determined to learn to paint, he and his wife Hilda travelled through several Mediterranean countries.
In 1939 they settled in Carbis Bay, Pennington studying at Leonard John FULLER's St Ives School of Painting. He put on exhibitions in St Ives in the following years, featuring Sicily and the fruits of a five month sketching tour of Southern Spain and Morocco. His oils, particularly of St Ives street scenes, show the influence of John Anthony PARK. Before the Second World War, he was a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists and a candidate for their hanging committee afterwards. On the death of his wife in 1957 he moved to Chichester, joining local societies but still exhibiting with STISA until 1959.
Gwynne Penny's work has been widely shown in Cornwall and beyond.
She has undertaken a number of short courses at St Ives School of Painting, as well as online courses during the pandemic lockdown.
In September 2022 she performed a temporary installation on Porthmeor Beach, created from driftwood and stones.
The artist was born in Redruth, Cornwall, the son of Richard PENPRASE and his wife Susan Ann. He studied art at the Redruth School of Art and as a student he had nine sheets of drawings and studies purchased by the Victoria & Albert Museum. He also assisted his father in church decoration and restoration, with drawings.
In 1911 he moved to Belfast as a teacher in the College of Technology, College Square, from which he retired 42 years later. He exhibited his work at the Royal Ulster Academy and at the Ulster Arts Club of which he was President.
In 1936 he began to build 'Bendhu House' at Ballintoy, County Antrim. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland showed his work in special exhibition 1977, and he died the following year.
The father of the artist Newton PENPRASE. His birth is registered in the first quarter of 1859 in the Penzance Registration District (which includes Madron Parish) as Richard Henry Penrose PENPRAZE.
A painting by this artist, entitled Murdoch House, Cross Street (1897) is in the collection held by Redruth Town Museum.
He married Susan Ann DUNSTAN in 1883 in the Redruth Registration District and is recorded in the 1891 Census for Redruth as a 32 year old, 'Employed Decorative Painter', married with 3 children, born in Madron Parish and living at 7 Blights Row. Mr R H Penprase is mentioned in the 1906 Art Union Exhibition as receiving a cash prize (Cornishman) for an unidentified piece of work. This was also at a time when his son Newton Penprase was studying art at the Redruth School of Art and giving some assistance to his father.
The main occupation of RHPP was in church decoration and restoration.
Dave Pentin is a design graduate of Falmouth School of Art. For twenty years he conducted art courses in the French Alps. He has returned to live in Cornwall, where he shares his fascination for working in gum arabic and acrylic inks by running workshops in this layering technique.
R T Pentreath was born in Mousehole, near Penzance, in August 1806, the son of Richard Pentreath, a schoolmaster, and Julia (nee Badcock).
He won the Silver Medal (lst prize) in the 1835 EXHIBITION of the newly 'crowned' Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society (RCPS) of Falmouth. At that stage he was a servant at Clowance, one of the family seats of the St Aubyns (of St Michael's Mount), and later an attendant on Sir R Vyvyan of Trelowarren with whom he travelled on the continent, recording the places visited.
His painting at the RCPS was Newlyn, The Pilchard Factory, and was fulsomely described as a very beautiful picture attracting general admiration, and affording an admirable specimen of native talent. 'The houses and the pier of Newlyn, with the brig lying beside it, all partook of that harmonious colouring, which constituted one principal excellence of this picture.' In 1846 he took the Bronze Medal (2nd prize) for his painting of Pilchard Tucking in oils. He became a popular portrait and landscape painter, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy from 1844 to 1861. This resulted in him receiving a number of portrait commissions in the capital.
According to Holmes many of his works are unsigned and attributable only by the engravings produced. Some of his work, due to the subject matter, and being unsigned, have been attributed to Thomas Hart. Many of his works were engraved by Vibert & Tonkin and Besley at Exeter.
Aside from his painting, Pentreath accepted commissions for map-making. He is believed to have been responsible in 1841 for the 'Plan of the Tenement of Bossigran (sic) in the parish of Zennor' then the property of H C Phillips Esq. This very large map, 34 inches x 51 1/2 inches, was gifted to the Hypatia Trust in 2008 and is now lodged permanently with Kresen Kernow.
He married in London in 1831, and in 1841 was living with his wife, Mary Ann and two sons at Clarence Street, Madron, described as a Spirit Merchant. However, ten years later, while still living at the same address, he is then described as an artist. By 1856 he was living at Exmouth in Devon, while in 1861 he and his wife are found as one of three families living at 30 Moore Street, Chelsea, London. Whether this was a short term visit or longer is not known, for he died in Exmouth in January 1869, at the age of 62. Around 90 of his paintings were drawn together for a memorial exhibition in 1884.
A correspondent has been in touch (2024) to tell us of a portrait of Rev. John Foxell in the Morrab Library, Penzance, which has now been attributed to R T Pentreath, on the basis of an article in the Cornwall Advertiser of 30 December 1846.
The Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall was founded on the 8th of February, 1949, following a meeting arranged at the Castle Inn, St Ives. Nineteen artists were the founder members. The new society was formed by many who had resigned from the St Ives Society of Artists and others who sympathised with their dissatisfactions concerning STISA and its policies. The Penwith Society would include both painters and craftsmen, unlike STISA, and would also offer both professional and lay memberships.
The 19 founding members were: Shearer ARMSTRONG, Wilhelmina BARNS-GRAHAM, Sven BERLIN, David COX, Agnes E DREY, Leonard John FULLER. Isobel HEATH. Barbara HEPWORTH, Marion Grace HOCKEN, Peter LANYON, Bernard LEACH, Denis MITCHELL, Guido MORRIS, Marjorie MOSTYN, Dicon NANCE, Robin NANCE, Ben NICHOLSON, Hyman SEGAL and John WELLS.
It was agreed that the Society was to be founded as a memorial tribute to Borlase SMART. Officers were elected, and at a general meeting a longer list of artists and craftsmen was invited to become members. Those invited and those who accepted are listed in the Chronology of the Tate (1985) publication.
By 1950 the cracks had begun to show and some of the founding members resigned, including Segal, Cox, Berlin, Isobel Heath, Lanyon and Morris, due to the suggestion put forward to institute divisions (A, B, C) or groups of artists, divided as to whether or not they were A Traditionalists B Modernists and C Craftsmen. Opposition was most vociferous from Lanyon, and at this point he began to exhibit with the NSA in Newlyn, becoming its chairman in 1961. A number of the Founder Members resigned over this issue. The Penwith Society abolished the A and B group rule in 1957. The Penwith Society still operates today (2013). Kathleen Watkins, appointed Curator/secretary of the Society in 1967 has recently died, and her successor is not yet known.
To: The Penwith Society of Arts.
So sorry to hear of the death of Kathleen Watkins. Having visited and purchased from the gallery over the years, beginning with a drawing by Helen Feiler in 1984, it was always a pleasure to see the familiar face behind the formidable typewriter. I hope she knew she was a bit of a star. Condolences to family and friends. Bob Smith, Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Bruce & Mary Wiltshire sent a message using the contact form at
http://cornwallartists.org/contact.
We just wanted to extend our sincere condolences to Kathy's family and
friends and the Penwith on hearing of Kathy's death. She was an exceptional
person who helped us decide to buy pieces by D Mitchel and W Barnes-Graham
and rewarded us with stories and laughter on every visit to the Penwith.
We last saw her over the August Bank Holiday and we cannot quite believe that
she won't be there when next we visit, she was part of the fabric of St.Ives
for us and surely for so many others. Her loss must be keen for those that
knew and loved her well.
The first Headmaster was Henry Malcolm GEOFFROI. Born in Boulogne in 1825, he came to London in 1840, perhaps to escape the coup attempt begun in his birthplace by the future Napoleon III. Whatever the reason, he trained as an art master at the Department of Art, South Kensington, and was dispatched to Penzance, finding lodgings at 3 Parade Passage. On September 13, 1853, he held the first meeting of the new school in two rooms above the Princes Street Hall, now believed to be today’s Masonic Lodge. At this meeting he detailed to those who attended the purpose of the school and the art that would be taught there.
Interest in the school was strong and crossed the social classes. Everyone from artisans to young ladies wanted to learn how to draw. By the end of the year Mr Geoffroi was organizing a drawing class at Hayle, and then a few years later he established another in St Just. In Penzance there were so many who wished to join his classes that by the year's end he had moved the school from its original two rooms to Old Regent House (adjoining the National school) in Voundervour Lane.
Almost from the school’s outset students were encouraged to take the exams offered by the Art Department at South Kensington. One notable success was William COLENSO who won a coveted Victoria Bronze Medal for his drawings of plants in 1864, the highest possible national honour. Mr Geoffroi also took his pupil’s work to the annual Royal Polytechnic Exhibition at Falmouth where much success was achieved over the years. And then there were the popular annual exhibitions and prize giving ceremonies at the school in the autumn, shared with the science school when art and science departments were merged by central government.
...by 1880 enough funds had been raised for a new art school to be built at the top of Morrab Road, on land gifted to the town by mayor, MP and banker, Charles Campbell Ross.
Designed in the English Gothic style by well known Cornish architect, Silvanus TREVAIL, the new art school came in on budget at £1220. On either side of the eastern facade are Bath stone inset plaques: one has the thistle, rose and shamrock emblem of the Department of Art and the other the head of John the Baptist, the insignia of the borough. The new art school opened on March 7, 1881 with a short civic parade and an exhibition of pupils' work along with oil and water colour paintings and object of vertu from South Kensington (Victoria and Albert Museum). Such was the local pride in the establishment that on a visit to Penzance while on a lecture tour in 1883, Oscar Wilde was shown the art school by the mayor.
[Abstract from the essay 'The Penzance School of Art: the early years' by Peter Waverly pp21-23 (in) Hardie ed (2009) Artists/Newlyn & West Cornwall 1880-1940 A Dictionary and Sourcebook]