The 1891 Census lists him as Allen F G Stokes, born in Goring, Oxfordshire, and married to Charlotte V Stokes, living at The Terrace, St Ives with their daughter Murial (aged 7) in a house owned by the Berriman family. The 1901 Census lists him as head of household, married, but at that time living alone, aged 46, an Artist (Painter) living at 9 Bedford Road, St Ives. The artist worked from St Ives in 1894, but is no longer listed as a working artist in The Year's Art by 1902. From this time he appears to have concentrated on journalism, working for The Studio and other magazines and publishing companies.
In 1915, he covered the work of 'Alfred Hartley, Painter and Etcher' in The Studio (Vol 64). And in 1919, 'The Paintings of Louis Sargent' (Vol 77) in the same journal. His works of book-length which he both wrote and illustrated are listed below.
Born in Southport, Merseyside, WORMLEIGHTON writes of him as one of the 'painters of light' in his admirable study, Morning Tide. His obituary noted especially his interesting family connections, one cousin marrying into the publishing Faber family, and another who became the mother of 'Charles Reade, the novelist, one of whose stories Stokes illustrated as almost his first commission.' One brother, Sir Wilfred Scott Stokes, was the inventor of the Stokes gun, and another, Leonard Stokes, an architect, designed Chelsea Town Hall, among many ecclesiastical and public buildings. The artist and writer on Cornish subjects, Folliott STOKES was his cousin.
Adrian studied at the RA Schools(1872-75) and in Paris. In Pont Aven Stokes met (1883) and a year later married in Graz (1884) the Austrian artist Marianne PREINDLSBERGER. With her he travelled in Denmark working with the art colony at Skagen, and then returned to Paris to work with Dagnan Bouveret in 1885. He made many painting trips to France pre-1900 working in the plein air manner and developing a naturalistic style.
The couple moved to Cornwall at the suggestion of Stanhope FORBES (1886), who had made friends with him in France. First they lived at Lelant, then St Ives. In 1891, they were staying as visitors with John and Alice WESTLAKE at Tregerthen Cottage, Zennor. Being one of the first generation of St Ives painters to arrive, he achieved recognition quickly when the Chantrey Bequest purchased his Uplands and Sky in 1888, a landscape painted near St Ives. The following year he exhibited a view of St Ives harbour at the RA. The couple departed St Ives in 1898 and worked first from 6 Edwards Square Studios, Kensington in London and later other addresses, while they travelled widely, painting in France, Spain, Austria and Italy and exhibiting steadily, returning to Cornwall on occasion and for summer months.
In 1903, the Chantrey Bequest purchased a second painting, entitled Autumn in the Mountains, a landscape in the Austrian Tyrol. His book about the techniques of landscape painting, including an analysis of earlier landscape artists, Landscape Painting, was published in 1925.
Stokes was an all-round personality, and interested in fishing, hunting, sports of many kinds - he distinguished himself on the St Ives cricket team - and the couple, he and Marianne had a wide circle of friends both in Cornwall and internationally. Amongst their closest friends were those of the John Singer SARGENT circle in Europe.
Born in Austria, she studied art under Lindenschmidt in Munich, and won prize money there that enabled her to travel and study in France with Courtois, Colin and Dagnan-Bouveret. At the Atelier Colarossi in 1881 with Helene SCHJERFBECK, the two friends sought out the right places for 'plein air' social realism, and were attracted to Pont Aven in 1883. Marianne met Adrian STOKES there and married him the following year. Later Schjerfbeck would also follow the Stokes pair to St Ives. In 1891, while staying with the Westlakes at Tregerthen Cottage, Zennor, another guest was the great women's rights campaigner, Millicent G Fawcett, who was visiting from Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
Later, when the Stokes' moved on to London (after 1898), Marianne Stokes gave Alice WESTLAKE's London address for many years as her contact for submissions. Her portrait of John Westlake is in the National Portrait Gallery. Candlemas Day (1901) was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the nation in 1977. A tapestry, Honour the Women, is in Manchester. Along with Elizabeth Armstrong FORBES, Marianne Stokes was considered in the first line of women painters in England by the turn of the 19th century, and according to Sparrow 'has worked of late in that most stern and stubborn medium, tempera, and small things of hers in various exhibitions attract one always with the desire to know more of her most attractive work.'
The painting lives of Marianne and Adrian Stokes are fully explored in the 2009 publication, Utmost Fidelity, which appeared with the major retrospective of their work mounted simultaneously by Penlee House Gallery, Penzance, and the Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro in that year, within a national touring programme. Magdalen Evans, the author and a descendant of Adrian, presented an illustrated lecture on 'The Portraits of and by Marianne & Adrian Stokes' at the National Portrait Gallery in February, 2010.
Joy Stokes is a watercolourist who has lived in Porthleven since 1953. She studied at the School of Art in Colchester before travelling extensively in the Middle East, where she has held four major exhibitions. Her paintings are held in collections in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
Emiline Sarah Stokes had been the principal of Sudbury School of Art, and had also taught art at Sunderland Training College, before retiring to Polperro. She was instrumental in setting up the Polperro Art Society, which held two exhibitions in 'The Foresters' Hall' in 1938 and 1939 before closing down on the outbreak of World War II. She had previously exhibited her watercolours with various art groups. She remained involved in the artistic life of Polperro until the mid-1950s but the whereabouts of her Polperro work is unknown.
At the time of her death in 1969 she was living in Perranzabuloe, near Perranporth.
Floating German Dock in Falmouth Docks and two other oil paintings by this artist form part of the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
Nicky Stone is a ceramicist based in Falmouth. She graduated from Falmouth College of Arts in Studio Ceramics in 2000.
Hugh Stoneman was born in London and studied painting at Camberwell School of Art, and etching at W Hayter's Paris Studio, Atelier 17. In 1972 he set up the Islington Studio, followed by the Print Centre in Earlham Street (1979) and then due to Covent Garden re-development, returned to Islington at Barnsberry Street (1988).
Stoneman and his wife Linda moved their printing works to West Cornwall in 1995, and set up his working studio at their Madron farm, near Penzance. In the ten years that he unknowingly had remaining to him, his output was extraordinary, and the artists gathered around him, some following him from London and previous commissions, others local to Cornwall, excited to have professional facility of the highest standard on their doorsteps. All were interested in the power of the contemporary print to introduce and sustain a modern environment, whether commercial or domestic. His devotion to purpose, and passion for the medium of the print, with accuracy and flair, are qualities for which he is remembered.
In 2008 the Tate St Ives Gallery honoured his career with a retrospective exhibition and accompanying catalogue, Hugh Stoneman: Master Printer. From that publication, the true extent of his portfolio can be surveyed, and includes many of the most prominent of contemporary artists, past and present, Eileen COOPER, Ian McKEEVER, Patrick HERON, Breon O'CASEY, Tony O'MALLEY, Bob LAW, Karl WESCHKE to name but a few. Continuing their joint work to the present day, his wife Linda has established Stoneman Graphics, a contemporary arts gallery in Chapel Street, Penzance.
Andrew Stonyer gained the first PhD for studio-based research in the UK, at Leicester Polytechnic with the Slade School of Fine Art. He has taught in Turkey, Holland, Canada and the United States, as well as Falmouth College of Art. Concurrent to 2000, he was Professor of Fine Art at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education.
Movement is the central theme of his work though he also produces static pieces. A major commission was completed for the Newcastle Metro, that was exhibited as Pulse in 2000 at Falmouth Art Gallery.
From the Cornwall Contemporary catalogue (2011): 'Dorset born Simon Stooks trained at Shelley Park School in Bournemouth (1989-1991) and graduated from Falmouth School of Art in 1994 with a BA Honours in Fine Art. He moved to the South of France in 2009 but frequently visits Cornwall where most of his painting inspiration lies. The majority of his landscapes are painted on visits to St Ives and around the coast of West Cornwall. He has work in many private collections both at home and abroad, as well as work in public collections...'
Mary Stork was born in Portsmouth, and studied at the West of England College, where her primary tutor was Paul FEILER. She studied further at the Slade School of Art, London, where she won major awards, and her paintings were toured with the Arts Council Young Contemporaries. At the Slade she met and married the West Cornwall artist Jeremy Le GRICE, and they returned to the county to live at St Just.
Here in Cornwall she met Karl WESCHKE who she credited with great influence on her work, and in 1966 the Hiltons arrived nearby. Mary and Rose HILTON became the closest of friends. Both of them abandoned art in the face of family responsibilities for many years. When Mary remarried after the break-up of her first marriage, she brought up her family in nearby Porthleven.
In 1982 she re-started painting professionally, and showing her work in small galleries including the Rainyday Gallery in Penzance. Mary became a member of the Penwith Society of Arts and also of the NSA. Meantime, she returned to live in St Just when her second husband died. Finally she moved into Penzance, living in the town centre and continuing to produce a steady stream of distinctive work, mainly mixed media (watercolour and charcoal) figurative pieces, much collected.
A former teacher, Debbie Stovell was born in Coventry and moved to Cornwall in 1981. She took up painting in 2006 and early retirement has given her the opportunity to develop her art practice. Her work has been widely exhibited in Cornwall and beyond.
STOX is a painter whose first chosen career was as a practising architect and designer. He now lives in the house in the Lamorna Valley once inhabited by John TUNNARD.
Volker is a member of the NSA, and his digital print Chimera Six, was chosen to illustrate the exhibition poster for the NSA show, 'Uncharted Landscapes' held at the Mariners' Chapel Gallery, St Ives (Aug-Sep 2011).
An established designer of millinery, Denise Strachey has begun to indulge her passion for painting.
In 2023 she joined Prime Women Artists, a supportive and creative network for women artists of all disciplines in Cornwall.
Scottish painter and printmaker who became the student of and then an assistant to Alphonse Legros. Locally he was noticed by Whybrow in her artists' list of 1901-10, of those who visited St Ives.
Falmouth Art Gallery include his portrait of Dr Warre-Cornish (1839-1916), Vice Provost of Eton College in their permanent collection.
Strang worked from his home studio at Gulval near Penzance, and was a prolific landscape and floral painter and exhibitor. His paintings, St Ives Storm (c1992-97) and Towards Penzance, Twilight Mount's Bay 18 October, 1997, are both in the Penlee House Collection, Penzance. His paintings are often large, with paint thickly laid.
He exhibited widely and many of his paintings were acquired by private and public collections. One of his drawings, 'Auntie Marie's Last Sleep' is included in the Ashmolean collection, and his oil painting of St Martin-in-the-Fields now hangs on permanent display in the vicarage of the James Gibb-designed church which dominates the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square.
In 2006 'Cosmic Landscapes : Works inspired by G F Watts' was held at the Watts Gallery in Surrey. In this exhibition, Michael's paintings hung alongside those of Watts, who was dubbed 'England's Michelangelo' and widely lauded as one of the greatest Victorian painters.
He held solo exhibitions in Fowey, at The Cry of the Gull Galleries and at the Falmouth Art Gallery, and participated in group exhibitions around Cornwall, in London, Wales and the USA. Three of his paintings are held in the permanent collection of the Cornwall Council (Education).
Michael Strang died in Truro on 6th April 2021.
See website for: Nik Strangelove, photographer. His teaching studio is located in Trevelyan House, Chapel Street, Penzance (2010), where he conducts intensive workshops in photographic techniques. Nik has exhibited his work in London, New York and numerous mixed solo exhibitions elsewhere.
Nik is a member of the NSA, and his photograph, Monterey, Mexico (where he has travelled recently) is mentioned in F Ruhrmund's review of the NSA Exhibition, 'Uncharted Landscapes' held at the Mariners' Chapel Gallery, St Ives.
She exhibited handprinted silks and stuffs at NAG in the Christmas Show of 1925.
Charlotte Street grew up in Cornwall which remains the primary inspiration for her seascapes, landscapes and harbour studies. She is currently completing an MA in Fine Art in Wales.
Roy Stringfellow was born in Portsmouth but lived for most of his life in Looe and Polperro.
Strong was a painter who often showed with her husband, Henry ISRAEL, and the North Cornwall Seven group of artists. The couple moved to Cornwall in 1962, settling in Tintagel.
She studied at St Martins School of Art and the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1961 and in the same year first exhibiting in the Young Contemporaries Show at the RBA, London. After raising four children she returned to painting in the mid-1980s, a frequent exhibitor for the next 20 years.
Working direct from life in oils on canvas or board, her paintings were, on the surface, concerned with the quality of light falling across a landscape or still life. The apparent simplicity of the approach often masked greater depths of meaning hidden within the arrangement of objects or the way creatures and human figures, or evidence of their activities, appear in a landscape.
Aarron Stroud was born in Surrey. He studied Fine Art at Falmouth College of Art. He is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Falmouth.
After studying fine art printmaking in Brighton, Phil Strugnell spent a decade focussed on black-and-white film photography. He moved from Bristol to Cornwall in 2011 to take up the post of Head of Art at Newquay Tretherras School. His home and studio on the outskirts of Newquay is ideally situated to encourage his love of surfing, surrounded by the majesty and power of the sea.
An abstract painting course at Falmouth University re-ignited his love of painting, encouraging him to develop an art practice exploring colour, shape, pattern and texture. His pieces evolve organically and are imbued with his love of music, and of the ocean.
In 2024 he had the opportunity to create a mural for SeaSpace, a new community-focussed hotel in Newquay. The finished piece is bold, dynamic and deeply connected to the developing street art and creative scene in the town. During his artist's residency at SeaSpace, he held his largest solo exhibition there, as part of the Be Newquay Arts Festival. As part of the event, he produced a large wooden sculpture made from timber salvaged during the hotel's construction, and painted with leftover mural paint, reflecting his love for reclaimed materials. A lot of his wooden reliefs are made from materials pulled from skips or construction sites.
He has begun to experiment with monochromatic palettes and creating guerilla sculptures - quick, rough pieces which he leaves in unexpected places along coastal paths as art inspiration for walkers and the people who live there. During his residency, he ran workshops where local people expressed their creativity by creating abstract collages, which were displayed on exhibition. For many of them, this was the first time their work had been displayed publicly.
Strugnell has become a champion of creativity within the local community.
The St Ives Times records Miss Stuart as a participant in the St Ives Show Day of 1923.
Stubbs was born in Crowlas, near Penzance, where she spent her early childhood, before the family moved to Hertfordshire where she was educated. In 2007 she obtained a BA (Hons) in Art & Visual Culture from the University of the West of England in Bristol. Stubbs has exhibited widely in Bristol and Cornwall. In 2010 she returned to her Cornish roots, settling in Newlyn, where she pursues her art practice alongside her career as a writer.
Her artwork is inspired by a love of the natural world. In 2001 she was presented with the Wessex Watermark National Award by David Bellamy for her environmental mural 'Yesterday, Today, the Future'. Stubbs' owl collage 'Night Flight' took her to the finals of the 2009 BBC Wildlife Artist of the Year Award.