Born in Amsterdam, the son of a diamond dealer, he moved to England with his family at the age of five, attending various London schools. These included Toynbee Hall, St Martin's and Kennington Art Schools, and the Bolt Court School, where tutors Walter Bayes and Walter Seymour were significant influences. He later became a British subject. Initially a newspaper illustrator, becoming well known for his drypoint etchings, he also illustrated books and designed book covers. As a painter he was best known for his portraits, and he is remembered for his etchings of the British legal system at all levels of operation.
His involvement with St Ives seems to stem from visits in the 1930s, exhibiting with STISA in 1933 and joining the Society in 1936. He returned regularly, spending part of the War there, as many of his RBA exhibits of that time were St Ives scenes. Known as 'Jack', his book cover designs were signed J Abbey or, occasionally, C Morse.
For the last thirty years of her life, Pat van der Eyken lived in Cornwall, and was much influenced by its light and colours. She exhibited at the Camel Valley Gallery.
Joyce van der Hoeven was born in the Netherlands, in the village where Van Gogh painted his 'Potato Eaters'. She started training as a florist, later studying graphic design and taking up oil painting. In 1993 while visiting Wales she started carving into granite and realised she had found her medium. In 1999 she moved to Cornwall and began to focus fully on sculpting. Her work has been exhibited at Cornwall Contemporary in Penzance, and she is also represented by the Summerhouse Gallery, Marazion.
Van Dop was born in the Netherlands and moved to Canada at the age of six. In 1968 he gained a degree in Philosophy at the University of Ontario.
He moved to Cornwall in 1973 and set up his own workshop, beginning with the creation of beautiful boxes using different metals - silver, gold, nickel, copper, bronze etc used for colour where appropriate. Pieces are cut-out, soldered, textured, assembled and polished. Each of his pieces is a unique study of nature and/or wildlife and his jewellery is collected and treasured. His work is greatly influenced by the Japanese metal tradition.
Becky van Vestraut is a Falmouth based artist who has a Fine Art degree from Bath Spa University.
In 2023 she joined Prime Women Artists, a supportive and creative network for women artists of all disciplines in Cornwall.
The only daughter of Captain Gilbert Mair, Kitty Vane came to England from New Zealand to study painting in London, and with Lamorna BIRCH in Cornwall before the outbreak of WWI, remaining until the 1930s. During that stay she exhibited at NAG in December of 1926.
She travelled widely, returning many times to New Zealand before settling at Matapouri, near Whangarei, becoming best known for landscape paintings. She specialised in South Island mountain and snow scenes, elements of which can be seen in her films. Signed : Hon Mrs Katherine Airini Vane
Dor's first and only solo exhibition of her flower paintings, Flowers from my Garden, filled the Jamieson Library, Newmill, Penzance, with strong and impressive work, both in oils and watercolour. 'The launch of Dor's show coincided to the day with the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, formerly the Duchess of Cornwall.
It was impossible to cancel her long-planned exhibition. Ultimately this was wise as many travelled long distances by train and car [to attend] and her fresh and happy colours served to lift the spirits at such a sad time. Throughout the week, more and more visitors attended and her exhibition was a virtual sell-out...It seemed wholly appropriate that throughout that sad week, when millions of people were placing floral tributes in central locations in remembrance of Diana, Dor's lovely flowers were in the garden of Hypatia's Cornish home.'
Birgitta Varcoe was originally from Sweden but has lived in Cornwall for most of her adult life. Her subject matter tends to reflect both Cornish and Swedish landscapes and seascapes. She has exhibited at the Camel Valley Gallery.
Born in Blackpool and brought up in Manchester, Gladys Vasey was one of twin sisters. She studied in the evenings with a Polish painter around 1909 after attending finishing school in Germany, and came to Newlyn to study with Stanhope FORBES; she also visited the Samuel John Lamorna BIRCH classes. She wrote for the Art Quarterly.
Elizabeth Glascott Vawdrey was born in Redruth, one of three daughters. Her father, George Vawdrey, was a surgeon with a practice in Hayle.
She studied at Plymouth School of Art, South Kensington, Heatherleys, and in Paris. Her exhibiting addresses were Paignton (1902), Falmouth (1903) and London (1905). By the time of the 1910 Inland Revenue Survey, she was resident in Polperro, and remained there until at least 1935. She was a regular visitor to Sturminster Newton in Dorset, where her nephew lived. She held solo exhibitions at the local school there, in each of the years 1933 to 1936. These included a number of her watercolours of Polperro.
Her depictions of cathedrals from her extensive travels were some of her most highly regarded work. By the time of her death, she was living with her nephew, but her funeral was held in Polperro.
Sophie Velzian works from a studio in Mawnan Smith, near the Helford River. A seascape painter in oils, she also creates art panels in fused glass, using the medium to evoke light and water.
She graduated from the Slade School of Art in 1994 with a First Class degree in Fine Art. After graduating her creativity was channelled into web design, and she followed a career in technology for many years. She moved to Cornwall in 2020.
In 2023 she joined Prime Women Artists, a supportive and creative network for women artists of all disciplines in Cornwall.
From 1968 to 1969 Martin Venning was a student at the West of England College of Art. Subsequently he studied graphic design at Central School of Art. After graduating in 1972, he worked as a commercial artist in Cardiff and Bristol, going on to teach art from 1976 to 2003 at secondary schools in Bristol.
In 2003 Venning moved to Bude in north Cornwall.
With her husband Frank VER BECK, she came to St Ives in 1913. By November 1914, The St Ives Times reported that the couple had been working in the town "since last mid summer". Her daughter from a previous marriage was the artist Theresa Rion ABELL.
American by birth, she was a STIAC member from 1914-15, and wrote and illustrated children's books as well as painting. After she and Frank parted, she married Alpheus Hervey in 1921. She died shortly afterwards in Bermuda.
Frank and Hanna Rion VER BECK had been working in St Ives since 1913; by 1914 he was contributing to the paper's 'Tobacco for the Troops' fund with The Tramp's Christmas Sparrows, a black-and-white drawing depicting a tramp cooking a plucked sparrow over a small camp fire.
He was an Associate of St Ives, and the creator of Ver Beck's Bears in Mother Goose Land (c1910), a book in which he re-wrote Mother Goose so that the rhymes feature bears, adding his own original bear rhymes as well, using soft pastel colours in watercolour. He also illustrated stories by L Frank Baum, creator of The Wizard of Oz, and many others.
Ruth SIMPSON who painted several portraits of her fellow artists and friends also painted Frank in oils, and the portrait hangs in the RCM, Truro.
A member of Taking Space, a collective of women artists in Cornwall, from 2006 to 2011.
Lived and worked in Paris; came to St Ives probably in 1885. His prints of the town and its surroundings enhanced its reputation among artists, drawing others to follow. He died in Paris.
Born in Falmouth, the artist completed foundation work at the Falmouth School of Art, before attending the Winchester School of Art (1980-3) and doing postgraduate work at the Chelsea School of Art. Her first solo exhibition was at the City Artists Gallery (1986) followed by four solo shows of her work at the Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery, London. In 1986 she received the Jacob Mendelssohn Award.
In 1987 her work was included in the Celtic Vision Travelling Exhibition at NAG, and in Cardiff (Chapter Gallery).
Verran is a part-time tutor in the Fine Art Course (BA Hons) at University College Falmouth. In 2010 she was the First Prize Winner in the Jerwood Drawing Prize for her drawing, Bolus-Space.
Mark Verry studied sculpture at St Martins School of Art and moved to Cornwall in 1982. He works mainly in wood and stone. His recent work (2018) includes a series of wall hung wooden carvings.
Work by this artist is included in the art collection of University College Falmouth (UCF).
A painting entitled The Island, Newquay by this artist is in the art collection of the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
A correspondent (2021) has been in touch with us to tell us of a work in acrylics by the artist in his possession, entitled 'North Cliffs at Reskajeage'.
Together with James TONKIN, Vibert produced a large number of lithographs of West Penwith landscapes and townscapes, including a series depicting The replacement of the Logan Rock, one of which (1824) is in the Penlee House, Penzance Collection.
Thomas Herbert Victor was born on 6th September 1894, the son of Benjamin and Edith Victor of Mousehole, his father being the village shoemaker. By 1911 he is recorded as an art student.
Having shown exceptional artistic promise at school, on leaving, Victor went to art school in Penzance and was granted a scholarship from the first term there. Further scholarships were offered him to study at the Slade School and other famous establishments.
He would not leave Mousehole, however, and never travelled further than Truro during his lifetime. Nevertheless, his artistic abilities flourished and his watercolour paintings of the harbours and streets of all the local fishing villages are, apart from their artistic merit, of great historic value as a record of Mousehole, Newlyn, St Ives and the Lizard Peninsula as they were a hundred years ago. He also painted views of Clovelly. The compiler's mother can remember Victor carrying around a book of watercolour sketches as a sample to show prospective clients. A family member, when visiting from America, commissioned him to paint views of Mousehole and Newlyn where she grew up, and these were forwarded to her in America. Some of his small watercolours have been made into postcards. He also produced a series of postcards from his own local pen and ink views.
Many of his works were produced for the Morrab Gallery in Penzance. He also produced works under the pseudonym, W Sands and it is understood that as he was under a contractable obligation for his works as T H Victor he was able to circumvent that obligation by signing a proportion of his works under the pseudonym.
During the 1960s he had a shop in Mousehole. He died on 10th March 1980.
His painting, Penzance from Chyandour 2000, is held in the public collection of Penlee House Museum in Penzance. Another painting by Vigg, of Trevean Cliffs 1993 is in the art collection of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust.
Bob Vigg was born in the West of England and lived at Botallack near St Just in Penwith. With a limited palette and an 'army of brushes', he worked quickly to capture and interpret the rapidly changing weather and seasons of land, sea and sky in that far western promontory that is the Land's End. He exhibited often and widely in the West Country and has work in private collections internationally. His solo shows were always very popular with the collector and the public.
Carole Vincent moved to Cornwall when she was 21 and fresh out of Bath Academy of Art at Corsham. Her early work was mainly painting, but gradually she moved to sculpture. Starting with wood, then moving to slate and finally concrete in the 1990s, this progression had followed many years of teaching at Sir James Smith School at Camelford. In her spare time she had painted and finally left teaching to become a full-time painter and sculptor. Her work explored the use of natural colour and texture in concrete for sculpture, and her use of pigments achieved remarkable success.
She had major public commissions in Devon (the Armada Dial in Plymouth), the Devon Pedestrians placed in three locations (Exeter, Plymouth and Barnstaple) and Les Jongleurs (group) sited in St Helier, Jersey. At home in her north Cornwall cottage garden she created an art-full concrete garden of sympathetic pieces and was a regular participant in the NGS (National Garden Scheme). In 2000 she worked on the creation of Bude Light with Anthony Fanshawe.
In 2001 Vincent's work was incorporated into the Blue Circle Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. In 2007 she was the first winner of the British Pre-Cast 'Creativity in Concrete' award.
Carole Vincent died after a short illness in May 2019.