Born in Bentzen, Germany, and immigrant to Chicago in 1880, Wendt briefly studied at the Art Institute of Chicago whilst employed in a commercial art shop. He made a close friend in the artist Gardner SYMONS, and together they painted in California and Europe, coming to St Ives in 1898.
Though Whybrow mentions his name as having presented a painting 'To my friend, James LANHAM' (as signed on the back of a painting sent on to the RA from an house sale in St Ives), she does not assume he had actually been in the area, although they painted in and around the locality, including Hayle. They returned to the USA fully committed to working in the open air.
He married the American sculptress Julia BRACKEN in 1906 and they moved to Los Angeles. He became the co-founder and the first president of the California Art Club in 1911. Due to his enormous success amongst American artists, and amongst California's best known, he is often referred to as 'The Dean of Southern California.' Both he and Symons were schooled in Impressionism, a style well adapted to the strong, bright colours, atmospheric conditions and special quality of light prevalent in California.
Born in Gera, Germany and surviving an appalling home life, Karl spent more than 60 years in Britain after WWII and his release from prison-of-war camp in 1948. Though he was largely self-taught as an artist, he did spend one term in 1949 at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.
'Brought to St Ives by Bryan WYNTER in 1955, Karl was a survivor of Germany's Hitler Youth movement (an enforced servitude from which he suffered all his life in black moods of depression). Having been captured after his first parachute jump and kept in a Scottish prisoner of war camp, he made his way to London on release, and was found by Wynter, working in a Soho stonemason's yard.' (Jeremy LE GRICE)
First he lived in the cottages just below the Poor House at Zennor, previously inhabited by D H Lawrence & Frieda von Richtofen, then later near St Just with his long-term friend and second wife Petronilla Silva.
Seb West is a St Ives-born artist with a studio on the outskirts of Nancledra. His work originally focused on painted linocut reliefs, but he has since diversified across a wide range of media and styles.
Exhibited and sold a painting at NAG in 1910. Another artist, A WEST, is later (mid-1920s) listed as a craftworker (unspec) and may or may not be the same person.
West, a local Falmouth boatman, took up painting first as an amateur and later as a professional. His first exhibition was at the RCPS in 1902 in the Amateur Oils section. By 1912 he was described in Lake's Guide as a boatman and artist.
Working and living from a houseboat on the Bar, Falmouth, in 1925, he had two sheds for his boat building and a studio at 7 Minnie Place. His work was sold by local picture dealers, and some he sold himself, signing J H West, or J West. Eight of his paintings were shown at the 150th Anniversary Exhibition at the RCPS in 1983, and all were from private collections.
A recent correspondent (2012) has been able to provide his relevant dates. 'He was born on the 13th September 1856 at Falmouth where he died on the 10th February 1938.'
Oliver's work in landscape art printmaking is what he states is his 'response to landscape, rather than a record of it' (Falmouth AG Exh Cat). A graduate of Falmouth College of Art, he has exhibited throughout the South West and London. He has run Proof Print Arts and organises printmaking workshops for schools and other groups.
Emma West lives in Callington, east Cornwall, where she creates ceramics in porcelain.
Born in York, Hugh West's family moved to Wales when he was six. He became a student at Hereford School of Art & Design, going on to take a diploma in ceramics at Redruth School of Art. In 1971 he established his own pottery in Newquay. After four years he moved to Devon until an opportunity arose in 1982 to spend a number of years in La Borne, Cher, France. Here he acquired an insight into traditional techniques of wood firing still practised in that region.
West returned to Cornwall in 2014, settling in Perranwell near Truro. He has held numerous solo shows in the UK, and collective shows in Europe, Japan, the USA, Saudi Arabia and Korea.
Born at Hertford, England, on 12 October 1781, he was a student at the Royal Academy School when he was selected to be landscape painter on the ship Investigator, under FLINDERS, which sailed from Spithead on 18 July 1801. For two years he made many drawings on the ship's journey, but transferring to the Porpoise was wrecked off the coast of Queensland on a coral reef, to be rescued eight weeks later. He went on to China in the Rolla from there to Bombay, and thence to England in 1805. A few months later he sailed to Madeira and then Jamaica before returning to England, where he at once began exhibiting at the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and from 1810 with the Old Water-Colour Society.
Flinders' A Voyage to Terra Australis (published 1814) had nine excellent large plates after Westall's drawings, and besides painting in both oil and watercolour Westall did a large number of book illustrations. His Views of Australian Scenery (1814) is, however, merely a reprint of the plates in Flinders's volume. He was elected an ARA. in 1812, but though a fairly frequent exhibitor until towards the end of his life, he never became a full academician. He met with a severe accident in 1847 which greatly affected his health, and he died at London on 22 January 1850. A large collection of his drawings is in the library of the Royal Empire Society, London.
Paul Westaway was born in Weymouth. A self-taught artist, he has lived in Cornwall since 1984.
Born in Sheffield, Yorkshire where he also trained in art. After study at Falmouth School of Art, the Slade in London and winning a Travel Scholarship to Italy, he then based himself in Falmouth, creating sculptural pieces that often contained aspects of mythology and personal responses to a combination of cultural and historical references. 'My main concern in sculpture is with abstract, formal and geometric relationships. I use figuration as a device to introduce and direct the viewer towards a consideration of these less accessible elements of my work.'
His work was selected in the centenary celebration, 'A Century of Art in Cornwall 1889-1989'.
With his partner, the artist, Leonie WHITTON, David has reconstructed and developed Il Collegio, a residential holiday retreat for the creative person, in Puglia, southern Italy. This has featured on the BBC in their series Grand Designs.
The artist, a painter of amateur status, was the wife of Professor John WESTLAKE, a prominent international jurist and honorary member of the Arts Club, St Ives. The Westlakes owned Eagle's Nest on the Zennor Road, and were hospitable to many artists and intellectuals who visited in West Cornwall.
In 1864 John Westlake married Alice Hare, artist and key supporter of the women's suffrage movement.
Staying with them for a long period were the St Ives artists, Charles Adrian Scott STOKES and his wife Marianne L M STOKES, who maintained their close friendship after the Stokes left to live in London. The Westlakes also maintained a London home, and Marianne Stokes used this as her sending-in address when she and Adrian were travelling in Europe to paint. Later the painter Patrick HERON owned and lived in Eagle's Nest.
Listed as a 25 year old unmarried Artist, born in Falmouth and living with his parents, Richard and Susanna at Downing's Yard, Falmouth, in the 1851 Census.
Born in London, the youngest of ten children of Robert John Westrup and his wife Fanny. From a wealthy and well educated family, the artist was originally a painter but became better known for her work as a potter. It is not (as yet) known where she studied, but this may have been in London and abroad. An interim sending-in address in 1910 for Kate was New Milton, Hampshire for her painting The Pups exhibited at the RA, and J & G shows her address as St Buryan as early as 1911. In the NAG summer exhibition of 1921 she showed four animal studies, but by 1924 she had turned to pottery and exhibited within the craft sections at the tri-annual shows.
In 1907 and again in 1914, Kate illustrated two books that her sister Emily had written for the commercial children's book market, Doggy Doggerel and Doggy Doings. Houfe lists her as a 'sporting artist' and points to contributions listed below.
She and her sister, Emily WESTRUP (15 years her senior), lived together at Lamorna Gate, and made friends with Eleanor HUGHES and the circle around the Lamorna Valley. Kate partnered Ella Louise NAPER in the setting-up and running of the Lamorna Pottery, in the tradition of Staffordshire potteries of the 18th and 19th centuries, and was a more accomplished painter than Ella (whose great strength was jewellery). Ella made teapots, bowls, vases and jugs, while Kate specialised in studio and figure groups, and especially animals. From 1924 their pottery was always exhibited in the craft section of the NSA exhibitions at NAG. It continued in production as a pottery until shortly after Kate's unexpected death in 1928.
Emily was the second child and first daughter of ten children of an independently wealthy flour & grains factor, Robert John Westrup and his wife Fanny. Her older brother was an architect, and the younger ones went into businesses at the managerial level. She was born in Hackney, London, Middlesex, and thereafter her family moved home to Hornsey, and then Stoke Newington. One younger sister, Nellie Westrup (d 1916), became a prolific illustrator of children's books and her youngest sister, Ethel Kate WESTRUP became an artist and potter. Emily wrote nursery rhymes and stories for children, and also is known to have illustrated children's books, in the style of Kate Greenaway. It is not yet known if she studied art or illustration, though she would have been well placed to do so, either at the Hornsey School of Art, or at Camberwell School of Art, where her later close friend Ella NAPER studied.
Her father died in 1903, and the family remaining at home removed to Fernhill Manor, New Milton, Hampshire. She and her artist sister Kate moved to Cornwall in about 1911 and established a home together at Lamorna. They purchased the Lamorna Pottery which they ran together, Kate being the artist/potter, and Emily being the business manager and housekeeper. A partner in this business was Ella Naper who primarily made jewelry, some incorporating painting as well, and also painting on the ceramic products.
Her writings include Doggy Doggerel being Nursery Rhymes for Doggy Times (1907, Blackie) and Doggy Doings (1914, Blackie and reprinted Dodge Publishing Company, New York c1940), both of which are illustrated by her sister Kate. Her own illustrations are in various publications and annuals, including This Train for Storyland (c1920, Cassell & Co)* where she is one of 8 named illustrators.
She and Kate were close friends with the Lamorna circle and participated in the artistic activities of the Valley and in Newlyn. Emily outlived her sister and remained in Lamorna until her death in her nineties. She is also listed as an exhibitor in the Craft section of the NAG show in 1926, but the item displayed is not recorded.
Described in Tovey as 'a newcomer in Jan 1942 when she exhibited woodcuts and sculptures', the artist was evidently in St Ives at that point.
Born in Altarnun, Cornwall, the artist was the son of Jonathan Whale, and received his first portrait commission in 1816 (yes, at 11 years old). Sir Coleman Rashleigh of Prideaux House became his patron and sent him to London to learn by copying works from private collections.
He was greatly influenced by the work of Joshua Reynolds, and his self-developed style sought to follow the academic tradition in painting incorporating all that which is good and beautiful as well as picturesque. In 1837 he married Ellen Heard of Bideford, Devon.
At the 1846 RCPS Annual Exhibition in Falmouth, he won a silver medal (First Prize) for a landscape in oils. In 1852 he and his wife emigrated to Canada and settled at Hamilton (in what became Ontario), where two sons were born, the second of which, Robert Heard WHALE, also became an eminent artist (1857-1906). In the same year as his wife died (1872), Whale brought his son Robert Heard (age 15) back to England to study at the Royal Academy Schools.
Later Robert junior attended Julian's Academy under Benjamin Constant and Bouguereau, and probably mixed with artists that would return to work in his father's native Cornwall. Like his father, he worked in an academic style, principally in oils, with landscape and genre subjects. Though Robert senior died in 1887, Robert junior taught art and exhibited in Ontario until 1898, when he emigrated to Capetown, South Africa, becoming head of the local art school.
Andy Whall is one half of the art partnership, Art Surgery, and its founder. The other half is his fellow artist Delpha HUDSON. Together the organisation initiates creative projects, usually performance-based and making use of the video as medium. They present art in locations - streets, stages, invitation venues - outside of gallery walls, and often with other groups and individuals.
Born in Gloucestershire and educated at Cheltenham and Clifton High School, Minnie trained at the Gloucester School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Geneva. Also an embroiderer and pewter worker, she was formerly an art mistress in Dundee, then in Truro and Penzance.
Whybrow includes this artist in the time period 1890-1930, amongst short biographies.
Diane Whalley graduated from Liverpool School of Art & Design with a BA (Hons) degree. After a career in media and public relations, she moved to Cornwall, settling in Fowey in 2016. Her work has been shown in Cornwall, Kent and Warwickshire, and is held in private collections in Paris, Dublin, South Africa and Australia.
She describes her abstract paintings as 'immense and immersive'.
She studied at the Slade School and in Paris. She lived in London and Cornwall and exhibited her work as Edith Grace WOLFE before marrying John Laviers WHEATLEY in 1912, also a painter. Moving to South Africa, she held a position as Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Cape Town. She exhibited with the Royal Society of Miniature Painters in 1910 and with NAG in 1914.
Born in in Abergavenny, the only son of Sir Zachariah Wheatley, he studied first under Stanhope FORBES and then at the Slade 1912-13 where he became an assistant teacher from 1920-25. He held appointments as Art Director in South Africa, Sheffield and London.
He was married to the artist Edith Grace WOLFE.
David Wheeler was born in Notting Hill, London. He studied design at Paddington College, where he graduated to become a freelance graphic designer. Nowadays he is based in Cornwall.