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.
Anthony Viney was born in London and grew up in Surrey. In 1976 he became a student at West Surrey College of Art & Design in Farnham. Upon graduating, he moved back to London and became a full-time painter. He went on to study graphic design and typography at the John Cass School of Art, Design & Typography. After several years in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, in 2011 Viney and his wife moved to Cornwall. He works from a studio in Wendron, near Helston.
His abstract paintings respond to the opposing forces of nature at play in St Ives Bay. These he experiences as 'both strong and elemental, and at the same time fragile and transitory.' He shows his work regularly at the Penwith Gallery in St Ives, and recently his work has begun to show the influence of Japanese culture, in particular, haiku. Another aspect of his work involves the use of Japanese watercolour or raw pigments bound with gum arabic, on handmade paper.
Sarah Vivian took an Honours Degree in Education in 1975, with art and craft as the main subjects, and followed the craft avenue professionally. She set up a craft business in 1977, and for over ten years she was a handloom weaver and tailoress in a craft centre in Devon. She moved to her own textile gallery in 1988 and diversified her work, producing a wide range of items in painted silk, printed fabrics, batik, embroidery and applique, and especially patchwork. The gallery also sold the work of over 150 craftspeople, and held exhibitions. From 1982 to 1990 Sarah was a Council Member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, and during this time served on various craft committees, and the local Chamber of Commerce. Her gallery in Devon was sold in 1994, and she moved to west Penwith in 1996. Sarah has now been painting full time since 1998.
She says: 'My painting is an expression of my love of the land in west Penwith ...I try to express the magic or earth energy, the essence or resonance of a place, a stone, a tree. I look for the symmetries and similarities of patterns, the inherent fractals of growth and movement.'
Her work has been widely shown in Cornwall, and her most recent paintings have been done to commission (see website for details). Approximately 500 of her original oil paintings are held in private collections.
George Von Haast was born in New Zealand, the second son of Sir Julius and Lady Mary Von Haast. He received his art training in Europe before settling in Dorset, and eventually Cornwall (with some time in Ecuador too) at the start of the twentieth century.
He lived in Tywardreath in mid Cornwall, and was acknowledged as an established artist, and also as a writer of short plays.
Only one painting by him is known to exist. It is signed GVH and is understood to be of a pilgrim, undertaken while he was visiting his mother in Rome, around 1910.
The painting is in the possession of his great-granddaughter, who contacted us hoping to fill in the gaps in his career.
We welcome any further information on this artist.
Artist born in Maastricht, Holland, who studied in Brussels and Paris and received gold medals in exhibitions in Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Dresden and Brussels before working in St Ives in the 1883-1900 period. He moved on to live and work in the US where he settled and died.
NEW BIOGRAPHY NOW AVAILABLE (See details below) Curnow Vosper was born in East Stonehouse, Plymouth, the sixth in a family of eight children of Cornish parents. His father, Samuel was born in Egloskerry and was a brewer who ran a wine and spirits business in East Stonehouse, and his mother Eleanor Halse was born at Gwennap, nr Redruth. Researcher J Goodman notes that 'he claimed to remain always proud of his Cornish roots.'
He attended King's School, Taunton and Plymouth College before reluctantly doing a 3-year architect's apprenticeship in Plymouth. He then moved to Paris for artistic training at Academie Colarossi, and began earning as an illustrator, mainly in London. In 1902 he married Constance James of Merthyr Tydfil, and they had two sons prior to her tragically young death in 1910.
He spent most of his life in London and in the West country, especially Devon, though the greater part of his known output of watercolours, etchings and drawings relates to Brittany and some to Wales.
Johnson & Greutzner list his attendance at Colarossi's Atelier in Paris, and then give the following locations for his sending-in addresses: Morbihan, France (1904); London (1905 & 1930); Okehampton, Devon (1910); Petersfield, Hampshire (1911 & 1926); Bude, Cornwall (1914); Plymouth (1925); and Oxford (1928). He exhibited widely, with at least 186 works shown at the RWS. Though no Cornish works appear to be in public collections, a watercolour entitled On the Coast of North Cornwall, that was shown at the RWS, London in 1935 is known to have been in family ownership ever since its exhibition.
The article about Vosper that was written for the Lever Collection at Liverpool, was authored by Chevallier TAYLER, who was, of course, part of the Newlyn Colony.
Born and raised in Cornwall, Lyndsey Vowell works from her home studio in Falmouth. Although she studied Fine Art and Design, she considers herself self-taught.
In 2022 she completed eleven paintings which were commissioned by the Headland Hotel, Newquay.
Vuillamy came to Newlyn to study painting at the FORBES SCHOOL (c1911-14) at about the time of Elizabeth FORBES' final illness, and his autobiography Calico Pie gives an impression of the life of some of the younger students in those early years. He subsequently became a writer rather than an artist. His noteworthy book Unknown Cornwall (1925) was illustrated in colour and black & white by Charles Walter SIMPSON.
Anna Vyce's art is inspired by the beautiful and varied landscape and wildlife surrounding her home on the Lizard peninsula.
In 1998 she obtained a BA (Hons) in Visual Communication, specialising in Illustration, at the University of Westminster. This was followed in 1992 by a Foundation in Art & Design at Central St Martins.
After leaving university, Anna worked in the voluntary and public sector before moving to Cornwall in 2015, where she practises full-time as an artist.
She contributed to the first STISA show in the Porthmeor Gallery in 1928.
Huhtamaki Wab was born in Tokyo and lives in Cornwall. He graduated from Chelsea College of Art in 2008.
His practice operates within an animistic and non-anthropocentric world where interconnected spirits and humans create a rich ecology of non-hierarchical relations.
His work has been exhibited widely in the UK and Europe.
Waddington was born in Buckinghamshire, and moved with his family to Cornwall in 1971. His foundation work in art was at the Falmouth College of Art (1978-9) and his degree from Dyfed College of Art.
He taught O and A level art in Braintree, Essex and worked on Roman and Iron Age archeological sites before moving back to Cornwall in 1983. Since that time he has exhibited widely and become well know for his paintings and woodcuts often employing a favoured motif, the crow. He also creates sculptures from found objects.
Wade graduated from Falmouth College of Art in 1992, and then went to work as a ward orderly in Sheffield, Yorkshire. From this working experience she is able to 'draw reference from the biological body, cellular structure, chemical properties and the periodic table' (artist's statement: Falmouth 2000).
Current to 2000 she was continuing research into painting and installations, studying for the Integrated MA Degree at Falmouth, alongside teaching part time at Cornwall College (in Art History and Art Practice).
An update on her work would be welcome.
An art student at Falmouth College of Art, Karen Wade went on to work at Exeter Museum, and as a graphic artist. She lives in Cornwall with her husband and two children. Her paintings are inspired by the landscape of Cornwall. While abstract, they possess a sculptural quality and have been praised for their 'poetic sensibility'. She has been represented by several commercial galleries in Cornwall, exhibiting also in London, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. For further information see http://karenwade.com/
Dot Wade is a British abstract painter who was raised in Cornwall and studied art at Falmouth School of Art and Dartington College of Art, and art history at Oxford Polytechnic.
After living in the Rocky Mountains of America, Dot has returned to Cornwall and now lives on Bodmin moor, where her new work is influenced by sculpture, landscape and post-minimalism.
Her work has been widely exhibited and can be found in collections in the UK, the USA and Europe. In Cornwall she is represented by Tregony Gallery.
Wadsworth was born in Great Yarmouth, and undertook his art studies at Ipswich College of Arts (Art and Design) and then at Falmouth College of Art (Fine Art).
Paul's work is well represented on the web, where images of his paintings are available. He has exhibited extensively and travelled widely (especially in the Middle East) to produce an impressive body of work. Paul works from studios in Trewidden Gardens, Penzance and Porthtowan, and paints abstracted images from the landscape and seascape around him.
He teaches the three-day Expressive Painting course at the Newlyn School of Art in Chywoone Hill, Newlyn, and is also a tutor on the School's weekly Life Drawing evening sessions.
Pupil of John Anthony PARK, who at the age of 17 arrived in St Ives to become a full-time resident student in 1924.
Born in Wiesbaden, Germany of a German father, Max Wagner, and an English-born German mother, Julie Lange, Gerard was the youngest of three sons. His father, always in delicate health though a successful and wealthy entrepreneur in metal manufactory, died when Gerard was two. The family was brought back to Britain when he was six, to be near his mother's family and to be educated in England. Altogether a highly cultured family, the Wagners were musical, attended the theatre and filled their home with art. A favoured painter of works hanging at home was the post-impressionist John Anthony Park, and contact was made through family friends, Edgar SKINNER and his wife Edith, who lived in St Ives.
His recent biographer and former pupil, Caroline Chanter, tells 'The language of colour was to become Phil Whiting's chief interest along with a strong desire to decipher it...John Park felt he could teach his pupils most things about art but a feeling for colour was something each had to discover for themselves.' [Quoting from Austen Wormleighton, Morning Tide] His friendship with John and Peggy Park was close, and he became part of their family for the year that he stayed in St Ives, and always thereafter. A high-point of that time was a sketching tour that Gerard took with the Parks in and around St Tropez in Provence in the spring of 1925.
Through the good offices of Bernard LEACH, arrangements were made with William Rothenstein at the Royal College of Art in London, for Gerard to work on his drawing skills from later that same year. From there he was to move on to Dornach, in the Jura mountains of Switzerland. It was the summer of 1926, and Rudolph Steiner who had established his colony there, had died the previous year. Helping to sustain and extend the work of this artist and educationalist, Gerard Wagner set up his own artist's studio in the village and was to remain for many years, working on his own and attending events at the 'Goetheanum' (the name given by Steiner to his establishment). He was to cultivate a great interest in plants and trees, working with natural images fused with colour.
The artist married Elizabeth Koch, his first full time pupil and sculptor in her own right. The two were to travel widely and run their own school of art in Dornach with workshops held internationally.
Chanter's monograph treats of Wagner's life and work with great sensitivity and is to be recommended. She now lives in Dornach and teaches at a painting school near the Goetheanum.
An engineer and lecturer by profession, Terence Wagstaff returned to his roots in Cornwall in 1982. A meeting with Katrina in 1990 (who subsequently became his wife) led to an artistic collaboration. The couple combined their skills, designing and making decorative metal products. This developed into the creation of copper lattice sculptures representing the human torso. Terence and Katrina WAGSTAFF's work centres around the concept of falling leaves, in a unique interpretation of the inherent beauty of nature.
Their sculptures, which are made from recycled copper, have been exhibited at the Harbour Gallery, Portscatho.
Katrina Wagstaff qualified as a furniture designer at the London College of Furniture. In 1990 she moved to Cornwall to study ceramics and to train as a welder. While teaching 'A' Level Design & Technology at St Austell College, she met her future husband, Terence WAGSTAFF. The couple embarked on an artistic collaboration, designing and making decorative metal products. This developed into the creation of copper lattice sculptures representing the human torso. Their work centres around the concept of falling leaves, in a unique interpretation of the inherent beauty of nature.
Their sculptures, which are made from recycled copper, have been exhibited at the Harbour Gallery, Portscatho.
A new correspondent (2011) has given us a wonderful insight into the person of Vera S Wainwright, and we include an edited version of this. The whole memoire has been added to our files.
' I was brought up to call her "Aunt Vera", but her association was with my father whom she always addressed as "DHOST". She became in fact my "Godmother", and persuaded my father to educate me in my early years in the Roman Catholic Faith. As I neared graduation in medicine she urged that I become a "Missionary Physician", obliging my reading in missionary works in Africa, and especially the work of Albert Schweitzer.
I keep three oil paintings made by Vera in Cornwall in my collections. One is a small seascape of the Cornish Coast; two are somewhat larger works - one a pastoral scene to which I am much attached. Vera also had a spinning wheel and often engaged in making small handicraft works = ties; scarves, and such. I have still a tie made on her spinning wheel. I am 84 now and it is not likely that I shall publish any autobiographical writing. I have been away from England since 1949, and now seldom travel back to Cornwall or the West country. As I knew her she was perhaps one of the most kind and gentle persons I have known; empathic, supportive, understanding, with a rare spiritual quality.'
Vera Wainwright exhibited two paintings, both of Devon scenes, at the 1937 exhibitions at the Newlyn Art Gallery. In 1969, poems by Vera were published in book form with the title, Poems and Masks.
Born in Birmingham on 27 June 1855, he was educated at Sedgley Park College (nr Wolverhampton) till he left at the age of 14: first apprenticed to John Hardman & Co - artworkers primarily in stained glass design. Very soon, he was executing most of the design for the firm and was responsible for windows in the north aisle of St Paul's and designs for St Mary's in Coventry.
Noticing William's great interest in painting, the company released him with regret (in 1880) and supported his further study by sending him to study painting in Antwerp under Verlat. From Antwerp he went on to Paris in 1881 where he remained absorbed until 1884. Returning to London, he shared a studio with his friends William Arthur BREAKSPEARE and Phil Whiting, and after some months of casting around for new painting grounds, with encouragement from Walter LANGLEY, Edwin HARRIS and Phil Whiting, he settled on Newlyn.
He is one of the painters in the 1884 Group Photograph of the 'brotherhood of the palette' at Newlyn. Here he painted Mackerel in the Bay, a large water colour, Ferdinand and Miranda (another watercolour, inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest) and an oil portrait, The Burgomaster. He much enjoyed living and working in Newlyn, although the brightness of the sunlight directly affected his eyesight (causing increasing loss of sight in one eye), and having made his mark in the plein-air style, he discovered he preferred figure painting in his studio.
In 1886 he returned permanently to live in Birmingham. His mother, who had devotedly inspired him all his life, died in 1888, and he married in 1890, Bertha Mary Powell; eight children (two daughters who died young, and six sons) were born to them. He was one of the founding members of the Birmingham Art Circle, that group which laughingly claimed (perhaps rightly) that 'Birmingham had discovered Newlyn as a painterly place,' and their fortnightly meetings in each other's studios were a great source of friendship and inspiration. The Turner collation of letters, sketchbooks, coloured plates and essays, presents a life well spent in art. Wainwright died on 1 August, 1931, age 76 in Birmingham (GRO).
Philip Wakeham studied at Exeter College of Art, initially working with pewter, but in recent years he has worked exclusively in bronze. He lives and works near Launceston.