Mary Piprell was born in St Peter Port, Guernsey. She studied drawing and painting at Regent Street Polytechnic, and moved to Mousehole in 1936. She exhibited with the Royal Academy from 1937 and with the Newlyn Society of Artists at Passmore Edwards Gallery from 1939.
She is buried at Paul, near Mousehole.
Marcia Pirie lives in Saltash and exhibits with Drawn to the Valley.
Litz Pisk was born in Vienna and studied stage architecture with Oskar Strnad and kinetics with Franz Cizek in the State Arts & Crafts School. She was also a visiting pupil in the Max Reinhardt Theatre School. In 1932 she was the stage designer for Bertold Brecht's and Kurt Weil's production of The Rise and Fall of the Town Mahogany, in which Lotte Lenya played Jenny. From this event she held her first solo show of pen and brush drawings, and her caricatures of musicians and actors were reproduced widely.
Movement was her great interest, and her future was to be in the sphere of choreography, costume & set design and teaching. She took up residence in England in 1937, after visiting first in 1933. Her work was directly with the Old Vic Theatre, the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal Exchange, Manchester, the English Opera Company and for TV and film productions. She worked with many stars of the stage and screen in relation to their movement and flow within their roles. For example, notably, she choreographed the movement for Vanessa Redgrave in the film, Isadora (Duncan).
Her teaching career included employment with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Old Vic School, Bath Academy of Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama.
She moved to Cornwall in 1970, purchasing a home on Trencrom Hill near St Ives. Aside from keeping up with events in London and showing her work there in exhibitions of drawings, the Newlyn Art Gallery mounted a major retrospective of her drawings in 1986. She died in Cornwall on 6 January 1997.
The WCAA holds her Archive, a gift from her executors.
The artist, a member of the distinguished Pitt family which had produced two former prime ministers, arrived in St Ives with a manservant to care for him as he was crippled and confined to a wheel chair. One sister lived in Norway Square nearby, whilst two other sisters remained in the family home in Clifton, Bristol.
Pitt worked from the White Studio, a wooden chalet on the cliffs at Porthmeor Beach, which was open to the public, painting views of The Island and Clodgy Point. He opened his studio for the 1911 and 1913 Show Days at St Ives. Returning from Clifton, after an illness, in 1920, he found that his studio had been broken into, and eventually it was destroyed in a storm. He lies buried in Barnoon Cemetery.
The artist came from Birmingham, and painted English views, especially in Devon and Cornwall. An oil painting by Pitt of St Mawes, Cornwall (39.5 x 75) is in the collection of the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro.
As at 2008 [Waterside Gallery notes, Street-an-Pol, St Ives]: After studying illustration at Swindon College and Kingston School of Art, Surrey, the artist arrived in Cornwall to paint full-time. He admits to the direct influence of his favourite painters, Vermeer and the American Edward Hopper, that can be observed in his paintings. From 4 Sept to Oct 3, 2008 his work was shown locally at the Waterside Gallery, St Ives. [www.watersidestives.com]
Pittam in 2010, was part of the exhibiting group which shows work regularly with Gallery TRESCO on the Isles of Scilly. His work for the Autumn Collection included acrylics on board with titles such as: Mackerel and Pineapple, Cooking Apple and Sea Bream and Crab with Blue and White Plate - all still life - and Bryher from the Castles, Tresco and Bishop Rock being landscapes.
Tony Plant was born in Cornwall. In 1990 he obtained a degree in Fine Art (painting) at Chelsea College of Art. His work encompasses a wide range of media, from moving image to photography, performance to painting, sculpture, time lapses, temporary interventions and drawings in the landscape.
An environmental artist, Plant has worked as a visiting lecturer at arts institutions and universities across the world. Exhibiting venues have included the ICA London, Riverside, Opera Australia, Ocean Film Festival and the Cornwall Art Biennale. Commissions/residencies include Australia, Bermuda, Scotland, Indonesia and Europe. One of his forthcoming projects is a crowd-funded drawing trip to Iceland with adventure photographer Tim Nunn.
His 2016 Royal Cornwall Museum exhibition was described thus: 'This work is rooted in the Cornish landscape and the experience of moving through it one step at a time.'
Marcel Theroux, writing in the Guardian, remarked: 'Tony Plant is an artist in the really pure sense of the word. To him, making these things is as natural as breathing.'
Originally from London, he moved to Newlyn; in 1893 was resident at Pembroke Lodge.
Steven Platt spent his childhood in Newlyn and Hayle. After graduating from Coventry University, he started a career in car design in Paris. Back in the UK, he still feels closely connected to his Cornish roots - which is reflected in his subject matter.
In 2023 he created a vibrant series of paintings inspired by the chalets at Riviere Towans in Hayle.
Born into the distinguished English aristocratic Radnor family in Berkshire, Katherine became interested in potting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, where she studied ceramics under Dora Billington. She first met Bernard LEACH at an exhibition of his, and after an initial refusal from him to become a student at the pottery in St Ives, she was invited to attend at the point of Shoji HAMADA's departure; as the new kiln being built by MATSUBAYASHI was in progress, she could be helpful 'doing odd jobs', and learning from Leach and Matsubyashi.
At the Leach Pottery between 1924-5 (Michael CARDEW was doing similar assistance work at the same time) Katherine also made the acquaintance of Norah BRADEN, who would join her in future years. When she left in 1925, with a specialised knowledge and lasting interest in stoneware, she returned home to take over and convert an old mill to become her pottery in Coleshill, Berkshire. This she did with the help of Matsubayashi and a student friend, Ada MASON.
Norah Braden was to join her from 1928-36, and together they developed a wide range of vegetable dyes to extend the quality and vitality of stoneware effects in varied tones of glazed and matt surfaces. Norah helped her set up her final pottery at the Maltings, Kilmington, Dorset, by building an oil-fired kiln, and then an electric one, for her domestic stoneware and experiemental pieces.
Ella Plumb and her husband, Gerry, decided to leave their London (Chorleywood) lives in 2005, giving up conventional jobs and monthly salaries, and settling into the countryside of West Cornwall. Now, instead of the daily commute, they spend every morning walking their two Scottish deerhounds on a nearby ancient common, from which there are spectacular views of the Atlantic coastline.
What they had decided to buy was an old miller’s cottage, together with a watermill, granary and piggery, built around a courtyard and surrounded by four acres of land. Set within a small wooded valley, the property is reached via a bumpy farm lane and feels miles from anywhere, though in fact it’s little more than a stone’s throw from Penzance. The house, of late Georgian vintage appears older, needed only a small kitchen extension, and conversions of the piggery into Ella’s studio and the granary into Gerry's.
Gerry was born and raised in London, and studied at Shrewsbury School of Art during the 1960s. He began his career as a press artist before returning to London to work as an illustrator in advertising and publishing. He now lives with his wife, Ella PLUMB, in a 17C Water Mill in the very far west of Cornwall, where he finds the harbours and natural textures a constant source of inspiration.
Anita Plume was born in London. She moved to Cornwall in 1988. Former hairstylist, hotelier and now running a B&B, she has always pursued her passion for painting. She lives in Padstow but travels to St. Ives on a regular basis to study at the St. Ives School of Painting. She studied Fine Art part-time at Falmouth College of Art, graduating with a B.A. (Hons) in 2000. Anita is also a member of the Porthmeor Group. Her inspiration comes from the landscape and the lush tropical gardens of Cornwall. She responds to her own experience in the landscape by seeking to capture that intimate sense of place, atmosphere and mood.
Lesley Plumridge graduated from Falmouth University in 2005 with a first class Honours degree in Textile Design. More recently, in order to develop her painting skills, she undertook a 12 month painting course with St Ives School of Painting. Based at Krowji studios, Redruth, she works in oils and mixed media to create abstract images based on the passing of time.
Sylwia Podlaska's work is based on personal narrative and is created on long rolls of paper, reminiscent of ancient bas-relief.
The artist's work has been shown at the Rainyday Gallery in Penzance. Since 2006 she has held regular solo shows at Belgrave St Ives.
A painting by this artist, The Round Barn, Goonvrea Farm, St Agnes (oil on board), is part of the art collection of the St Agnes Museum, Cornwall.
Rebecca was born in Plymouth, Devon . She grew up in Fowey, Cornwall, and then near Tavistock, Devon. After a Foundation course at Plymouth College of Art and Design, she studied sculpture at Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology, Cheltenham, for three years (1982-85) gaining a first class honours degree. She exhibited with The Nicholas Treadwell Gallery in Kent and Bradford for some years, where her work was shown at art fairs both in this country and Europe.
She returned to the West Country in 1987, and now lives and works on Bodmin moor in Cornwall, with her husband and two children. She has exhibited widely in England, has had several one person shows, and her work is represented in select galleries in Devon and Cornwall. In March 2000 she won the Black Swan painting prize, in Frome, Somerset.
Victoria Pond has spent most of her life in north Wales and Cornwall. She is based near the Helford Passage.
Ria Poole studied at Falmouth College of Art and is based in west Cornwall, where she finds the inspiration to paint en plein air. Her painting 'Phoenix' was shortlisted for the Cardiff M.A.D.E. Art Prize in 2016. In addition her work has been shortlisted for Artists & Illustrators Artist of the Year Award (2018), Black Swan Open Art Prize (2019) and Creates Emerging Artist Award (2020).
Alongside her participation in Open Studios Cornwall 2022, in her role as psychologist she offers tutoring and creative mentoring sessions.
Simon Pooley was born in Cheshire, and then trained as an architect at Kingston Polytechnic. After completing his studies he worked as an architect in Sheffield in the North of England.
In 1992 he moved to Cornwall and settled at St Buryan (not far from Sheffield in Cornwall!), and has been a full-time artist since then. His work has been shown at the Rainyday Gallery and Cornwall Contemporary in Penzance.
Born in Birmingham. A Founder member of the Birmingham Art Circle with Walter LANGLEY, Edwin HARRIS, Norman GARSTIN, William Banks FORTESCUE, he also visited or lived in Newlyn. (Ref Langley, Note 8, p144) Studied under Edward WATSON, H LINES and Samuel LINES.
Roger Langley in his new work (2011) on Walter LANGLEY and the Birmingham artists' connections with Cornwall, offers an extensive section on Pope. Pope is known to have first visited Newlyn with Langley in 1880 and thereby becomes one of the earliest of West Cornish visitors. He is known to have submitted nine Newlyn subjects to the Birmingham Art Circle exhibitions and three to the RBSA.
Terry Pope is an artist and inventor who was born in Penzance. In 1959 he enrolled as a student at Bath Academy of Art, and in 1962 was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy in The Hague, Netherlands. Pope describes himself as a constructionist, whose artwork reflects a fascination for science, in particular the concept of regarding space as a medium in its own right.
On returning to the UK in 1963, he was enrolled in the Penwith Society of Artists by Barbara HEPWORTH. At around the same time Peter LANYON beame a formative influence, and Pope also acknowledges a debt to the Constructivists of the 1950s.
Terry Pope has held posts at the University of Reading, Chelsea School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art. Alongside his academic career, he has exhibited extensively in London, Europe and the USA, and his work is held in public and private collections world-wide.
In 2000 he and his wife returned to Cornwall, settling near St Austell.
A regular visitor over the years to the Royal Cornwall Museum, Pope has been honoured with an exhibition there which runs until 27 February 2016. 'Space Visualised' is an interactive show, using optical illusion to challenge the viewer's perception. Included are inventions such as space-enhancing spectacles and a Pseudoscope, which re-maps space by switching the visual inputs to the brain. A number of these creations have attracted attention in the magazine 'Scientific American' and have been used for scientific research.
Mark Poprawski obtained a BA (Hons) in Painting in 1997 from Norwich School of Art & Design. Based in St Ives, he has exhibited his seascapes widely in Cornwall.