The architect visited Newlyn first as early as 1900, when he purchased two paintings from NAG while staying at the Queens Hotel, a painting by Miss L FLEMMING, An Autumn Evening, and The Little Wood by Lamorna BIRCH.
In 1904, writing from Hanover Terrace, he wrote to thank Stanhope FORBES for sending several of Birch's paintings up to him in London, from which selection he had chosen one, The Brook (?unclear). He commented that his wife was sorry to have missed Mrs FORBES [in London] the previous day, and that he hoped the construction of their house [Higher Faughan] would go on successfully.
She is first mentioned in a review of Show Days in 1923, and in 1924 exhibited at Skiber War Vor Studio. Her exhibits in 1924 were given three paragraphs in the detailed St Ives Times review, and some of her work was termed 'characteristic', indicating that it had been noticed previously. Amongst the named titles was Salaam in decorative tempera work, depicting two brass figures of elephants, a difficult subject skilfully painted, against a bright curtain; two small porcelain Japanese figures below look up at the Mahout. Another was A Goddess in Ecstasy, the subject being a brass lacquered goddess against an oriental background. Yet another depicted a bronze fish against a madonna-blue background. She does not appear to have been living in St Ives when STISA was formed, and her involvement was limited. She is recorded as a member in 1932 when she was living at West Malvern.
According to Jennie Shelley, his great great grandniece who lives in New Zealand, Webb was born William James Webb on 13 July 1830 at Redruth, Cornwall, and baptized on the 23rd of that month at St Austell, Cornwall. One of eight children, he was the son of Rev Samuel Webb (Wesleyan minister) and Sarah. Webb married Besse[?] sometime before 1871, and they had 2 children, Wilfred and Ethel. He was living on the Isle of Wight in 1856, and in the 1901 census William (aged 70) and his wife Besse (aged 52) were living at 4 Marlborough Rd, Ealing, Middlesex, his occupation described as Artist.
His brother Samuel WEBB was a pottery manufacturer in Stoke on Trent (Webb and Walters, also Webb and Co), and William's mother came from generations of pottery manufacturers. Webb himself illustrated many Bible stories for children and poetry books. William's son Wilfred Mark WEBB OBE wrote books on nature study, which his father illustrated. Wilfred wrote Heritage of Dress, and two volumes of Eton Nature Study (text books for Eton College). William's illustrations of insects in the text books are in very great detail, and some of his pictures can be found on the internet: his picture The Collared Thief can be found on many poster sites. Art.com lists many of his paintings that have come up for auction. "He must have done over 30 painting in his lifetime. Somewhere in NZ there is an original painting done by William J Webbe of two of my relatives. The painting has been damaged in a fire, but myself and many of my relatives have copies of it."
Frankie Webb moved from Bristol in 2008 to settle in St Just, in Penwith. Her work has been shown in Bristol, Bath and Coventry and in Cornwall she has exhibited at Morvah Schoolhouse Gallery. Together with Gabrielle HAWKES, she produced the book 'Between the Ocean and the Sky', published in 2012.
In 2022 Frankie Webb left Cornwall to settle near Bristol.
William E Webb was a Manchester artist best known for his marine paintings. Colleague George Bednar has found two Cornish paintings (2014) at the BADA fair in London.
A potter since 1972, John Webb creates salt-glazed stoneware pots from a studio in Lostwithiel. Although largely self-taught, he gained valuable experience at the start of his career in Michael Cardew's Wenfordbridge pottery. In 2012 Webb abandoned hand-painted earthenware in favour of the salt-glazed technique, which was discovered in the sixteenth century. He uses a wood-fired kiln which adds a random speckled finish to his pieces, made from local St Agnes clay. These practical domestic vessels, characterised by simple scraffito patterning, are most attractive.
Webb sells his work locally, mainly through the Cornwall Crafts Association at Trelissick and Trelowarren galleries.
Jenny Webbe was born in Hull, Yorkshire. After a Foundation Course at Tameside College, Ashton-under-Lyne, she completed a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University, followed later by an MA in Art & Design at Sheffield Hallam University. She lectured in Fine Art at Tameside College from 1985 to 2003, when she moved to Cornwall. Alongside her painting practice, she has in recent years turned her talents to ceramics.
The artist was born in Leipzig, and studied with Wilhelm Krause in Berlin. In 1856 he went to Paris to continue his studies and exhibited at the Salon. He achieved an Honorable mention in 1861, 1863 and 1889 in the International Exhibition. In 1900 he was awarded a Bronze Medal, and in 1901 he exhibited in Munich.
David Tovey, in viewing a 2005 sale at Sotheby's (Olympia) noted a painting credited to Weber of St Michael's Mount with fishing and sailing schooners in the Mount's harbour. Other known titles of this artist, are Dover Sands (1871) and On the Kentish Coast (1873), and also some continental coastal scenes referred to by Brooke-Hart. Speculatively it is possible that he came along the south coast, painting the views that he found appealing. His presence for an extended period is not established through any literature found as yet.
Martin Webster is a painter who lives in the Mounts Bay area of Cornwall.
The artist was born in Leeds, Yorkshire and studied art there at the Jacob Kramer College of Art, followed by Cardiff College of Art and Reading University (MA). For a decade (1976-86) he worked in London and was one of the founder members of the Chisenhale Studios.
Having done some teaching in Falmouth, he moved to the county in 1987, becoming a Senior Lecturer at the Falmouth College of Art. From Falmouth he exhibits in London and around the country. In 2002 he described his Black Circle Society series of paintings as 'a gathering of voices murmuring, arguing, sharing, interrupting, listening - a constant exchange.'
The artist studied at the Slade School under Poynter and Legros, and exhibited from 1877 at the RA, in the London galleries and elsewhere. Successively his working addresses were London (1880), Winchelsea, Sussex (1900) and Hastings (1910).
However, he was a signatory to the Glanville letter on building development in St Ives in 1898, indicating residence there for some period. He had worked in oils on classical themes until 1897 when he converted solely to watercolour; this may have been the point he reached when arriving in Cornwall.
Linda Weir was born in Manchester and obtained a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1982. This was followed by a PGCE in Art Education. She was then awarded an MA in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University. Her many years of teaching experience culminated in positions at the University of Nottingham and Manchester Metropolitan University. She has also studied transactional analysis, counselling and psychosynthesis. Influences include Van Gogh and Picasso, and American literature.
Linda began working in Cornwall from 1978 and settled in St Ives in 2000, where she paints mainly in oils 'en plein air'. Her work has been exhibited widely across the UK. A review of her paintings at the Castlefield Gallery in Manchester drew attention to 'landscapes and domestic interiors into a kaleidoscopic maze of luscious colour. Weir manages to arrange exquisite colours in lovely visual harmonies while avoiding slipping off into the shallow pleasantries of decoration. Her seascapes are particularly spectacular.'
She is a regular exhibitor at STISA open shows.
Born in New York to an American mother and a Scottish father (from Lanark), the artist studied in the US, Germany and England. Her mother was the artist Nina May WEIR-LEWIS, who died and was buried in Lelant, Cornwall just before WWII. Helen had one sister, and the two children were brought to Europe by their mother after their father died.
As an adult, she was permanently based in London but kept Rose Lodge Studio in St Ives and stayed at St Ives Bay Hotel during summers.
Helen worked in clay and bronze, with a particular interest in reflections and textures. She was also an occasional exhibitor of ceramics (Lanhams 1913). At the 1915 Show Day she exhibited a clay model of a rose bowl, which was complimented. Independent financially, Helen was well-liked in St Ives circles and was a good friend of the LANYON family.
In 1933, she took over as Acting President of the Society of Women Artists from Dorothea SHARP.
An artist, author and researcher, Carol Weir was born in Buckinghamshire. After taking an HND in textile design at Bedford College, she moved to Cornwall in 2015 and studied at Cornwall College Camborne. Subsequently she graduated with a First Class BA (Hons) in Contemporary Creative Practice from Plymouth University. In 2018/19 she was awarded the Krowji Graduate Studio Award. In 2021 she obtained a Distinction for her MA in Illustration Authorial Practice at Falmouth University.
Carol is currently based in St Austell. Her work investigates issues surrounding the transience of life, memory and place, using a variety of media and techniques. As artist-in-residence at Wheal Martyn Clay Works, Cornwall's china clay history museum, near St Austell, Carol began an exploration of the Martyn family who founded the china clay pit, and her work continues to focus on the local china clay industry.
Her curatorial projects, both at Wheal Martyn, include Clay Journeys - From Cornwall to the World (2018) and Engineering the Earth (2019).
Living in Cornwall and London, the mother of Helen Stuart WEIR is first referred to in a Review of Show Day 1915; in 1922 mother and daughter held a joint show at Lanham's. She exhibited at a number of the leading London Societies, particularly the ROI and SWA, and had her works Delphiniums in Somerset and A May Morning reproduced as prints. When in St Ives she worked with Helen at Rose Lodge Studio, and contributed to the first STISA show at the Porthmeor Gallery - although she was not as regular a contributer as her daughter was.
Nina May Weir-Lewis was an expatriate American artist. She was born on 11
Aug. 1856 in South Butler, New York, the fourth of six children born to the
Rev. Harlow B. Skeel (1824-1909) and his wife Lucy L. Deuel Skeel
(1824-1905). Her father was a much-beloved minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Church who served as pastor in churches throughout New York State.
Nina was originally named Sarina in honor of a maternal aunt, but she changed
her name in early adulthood. The 1880 Federal Census finds the 23-year-old
Nina in her parents' household in Pulaski, N.Y., giving her occupation as
landscape painter. She also gave painting lessons. In May 1881 the Pulaski
newspaper reported the following:
Miss Nina Skeel, of this village, who has been in New York city during the
winter, will shortly leave for Europe. This talented young lady is an artist
of no little repute, orders for her paintings coming in about as fast as they
can be completed. So far as it is known to us, there is something in Miss
Skeel's career peculiarly encouraging to students generally; for, as we
understand it, very much of her proficiency and success in the art is due to
her own energy and perseverance. We recall a conversation had with the young
lady some years ago in which the desirability of a tour in Europe was brought
forward and lightly discussed. Said she: "It seems a long way off, and a
great undertaking, but others have gone with light purses, and perhaps where
there's a will there's a way." Time has tested the truth of the remark, and
the young lady's friends will rejoice in this fulfillment of her daydream.
["Pulaski Democrat" (Pulaski, N.Y.), Mar. 24, 1881, 3.]
Nina was twice married. In1882 she married John Weir (1856-1892), a native of
Lanark, Scotland, by whom she had two daughters: Frances Underhill
(1883-1932) and Helen Stuart (1885-1969). John Weir was a naturalized U.S.
citizen and a successful grain commission merchant with the firm Weir &
Hallett in New York. As his career prospered, the family moved from New York
to the affluent borough of North Plainfield, N.J. After John Weir's death
from consumption (tuberculosis) Nina married on July 2, 1898 David Lewis
(1835-1901), a widower and cashier of the Ilion National Bank, Ilion,
Herkimer Co., N.Y. Lewis died in Ilion in 1901. Unfortunately, this
short-lived second marriage was not a success. The Utica newspaper reported
in 1907 that "about a year and a half before Mr. Lewis's death his wife, it
is said, left him" ["Utica Herald-Dispatch" (Utica, N.Y.), Dec. 27, 1907].
The 1900 Federal Census listed Nina Lewis in N. Plainfield as head of a
household that included her daughters and a servant, but no Mr. Lewis.
In 1902 and 1906 Nina and her daughters traveled to Europe, spending time in
Germany before settling in England sometime after 1909. (Scandal continued to
dog Nina. In 1907, an attorney in Berlin claimed she absconded, leaving more
than $3,000 in unpaid advances and legal fees. During the subsequent
litigation the court attached Nina's New Jersey home.)
Though Nina began painting at an early age, it was in England that she
embarked on a career as a serious artist. She became associated with the
thriving artist colony at St. Ives in Cornwall. Unfortunately, her paintings
are not judged very highly these days. Nevertheless, what Nina may have
lacked in talent she more than compensated for in dogged determination and a
rare independence of spirit
The artist was also known as H Welch or Harry J Welch. Born in Birmingham, he moved to Cornwall and painted local subjects, dying aged 69 in Sennen.
Robyn Weldon is based in St Mawes. She was a student at Dartington College of Arts before gaining a BA in Fine Art Contemporary Practices at Falmouth University. In 2012 she was Artist in Residence at St George's School in Ascot.
Born in London, Wells was brought up in an artistic community in Ditchling, Sussex,and educated at Epsom College before going to University College Hospital, London, in 1925 to read Medicine. However, as Cross makes clear, he had known Cornwall all his life, his mother being Cornish and coming from St Mary near Padstow. For many years his childhood summers were spent in North Cornwall. In 1927 he began to attend evening classes at St. Martin's School of Art, and on a visit to Cornwall during his summer holidays the following year spent a month studying at Stanhope FORBES' School; during this period he was also introduced to Ben NICHOLSON and Christopher WOOD.
He qualified as a doctor in 1930 and worked in hospitals for six years before moving to St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly where he worked as a GP (1936-45). In 1945 he moved to Newlyn where he took over Stanhope FORBES' Anchor Studio, working there and in the former Infants School (Trewarveneth Studio) which he shared with sculptor Denis MITCHELL, both of which working studios he bequeathed in trust for the future benefit of artists in the area.
As an abstract and modernist painter, he was more attracted to St Ives, and was a founder member of the CRYPT GROUP and the PENWITH SOCIETY. He also worked briefly as an assistant to Barbara HEPWORTH (1950-51). Since his death in 2000 the Borlase SMART-John WELLS Trust has been formed, headed by the Tate Gallery Director, Sir Nicholas Serota, to create a permanent artistic and educational centre in Wells' studios for the use of artists locally. His portrait was painted by fellow artist Ken SYMONDS (See Hardie, section B in the Newlyn Diary).