Peter Henshaw moved to Cornwall during the late 1980s. A colour-blind painter, he enjoys the challenge not only of creating balanced compositions, but also of achieving harmony in his paintings through careful colour mixing. As a child he was discouraged from pursuing his love of art, but overcame a consequent lack of confidence through a determination to develop his own unique style. His passion for landscape, seascape and boats is evident in his work.
His work has been exhibited with Padstow Art Group.
Debbie-Marie Henshaw's upbringing in Porthcothan Bay endowed her with a love of the natural world, which finds expression in her paintings.
Her work has been exhibited with Padstow Art Group and Stable Art. She undertakes painting commissions.
Sonia Hensler is an artist and illustrator based in Cornwall, whose work seeks to arouse, amuse and surprise. After studying graphic design at Falmouth University in 2005, she gained an MA in Fine Arts in Poland in 2007.
An amateur painter from Penzance whose oil painting, entitled Dead Game, received the Bronze medal (Second prize) at the Cornwall Polytechnic Society's 1834 Annual Exhibition in Falmouth.
The involvement of foremost female sculptor Barbara Hepworth with West Cornwall is so well documented that it is pointless to list more than a few facts here. Her bibliography is also huge, both in terms of general reference and personal biographical documents. Her studio home and sculpture gardens in St Ives - 'Trewyn' - are part of the Tate St Ives set of museums and galleries, and as such also include a Visitor centre and bookshop. Opening times are posted on the relevant websites.
Her chief influences were said to be Picasso, Arp and Brancusi and most especially Mondrian. (Artists from Cornwall Exh Cat 1992)
Hepworth was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire and studied first at the Leeds School of Art. She was married first to the sculptor John Skeaping, and secondly in 1931 to the painter Ben NICHOLSON (dissolved 1951). She became a Dame of the British Empire in 1965. Her death in her St Ives home was due to an accidental fire.
As a child, Kari Herbert travelled extensively with her mother and father, who was the renowned polar explorer, writer and artist, Sir Wally Herbert. After obtaining a BA in Art she became a travel writer and a published author and settled in Cornwall.
Aside from pursuing her own art practice, Kari is a creative mindfulness guide.
Angela Herbert-Hodges moved to Perranporth in 2021.
She grew up in Cumbria and has lived and worked in London, Spain and Paris. Five years spent in Zimbabwe prompted her series 'Endangered Animals'.
Her work has been widely exhibited in the USA and is included in private collections in the UK, Australia, USA and Africa. In 2022, The Royal Society of British Artists juried her work into their annual show.
Born at Liverpool, the artist studied at Leeds, London, Paris, Antwerp and Munich. He travelled widely, and painted not only on the European Continent, but in Egypt and Australasia, South America and Japan. He became the Director of the School of Art at Canterbury College, New Zealand before returning to the UK, where he exhibited between 1920 and 1932 from addresses in Newlyn (1920) and Wareham in Dorset (1932).
He is also referenced as holding the tenancy of 5 Piazza Studios, St Ives in the early years of WWII, because the illustrator Harry ROUNTREE took it over from him in 1942.
Father of Patrick HERON and friend of Alec George WALKER, who encouraged him to move from Leeds with his family in 1925 to take over the management of Cryséde, the fabric printing and dressmaking company first opened in Newlyn some years before. Heron managed the Cryséde factory on the Island in St Ives from 1926. A photograph of Heron watching Keith ROSS carving a printing block in the Crysede workshops may be found in Berriman (p52).
Susanna Heron was born in Welwyn Garden City, the daughter of artist Patrick HERON and his wife Delia. The family moved to Cornwall in 1955. Susanna attended Falmouth School of Art from 1967-1968, and then the Central School of Art & Design in London, graduating in 1971. Not unlike her father, she is both a multi-talented artist and writer. In 1973 her works were purchased by the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In 1977 she was awarded a United Kingdom/United States Bicentennial Arts Fellowship through the British Council which enabled her to visit the USA for one year, where she was inspired by the work of Sol LeWitt, and developed an interest in photography and performance. Susanna's first solo exhibition of sculpture took place at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1985. An interest in the botanical response of plants to their environment led to the publication of her book Shima: Island and Garden in 1992, illustrated with photographs of the garden at her family home, 'Eagles Nest'. In 1999 she was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Commissioned work includes projects for the European Union in Brussels, the British Embassy in Dublin, the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury and the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool.
Since 1978 the artist has lived and worked in the East End of London. She moved to her present studio in Shoreditch in 2006.
The son of Tom HERON, who brought his family to West Cornwall in 1925, Patrick was born in Leeds. Heron Sr had come to the South West at the invitation of Alec George WALKER to manage the business of CRYSEDE, the design and silks company based in Newlyn.
Patrick's training in art was at the Slade School in London, where his intelligence and socially-aware attitudes blossomed. He was a Conscientious Objector during WWII, and worked on the land instead. Later he returned to Cornwall and worked for Bernard LEACH at the Pottery, returning to painting full-time after the war ended.
Patrick purchased and established his permanent home just outside Zennor, Cornwall in 1955. The dramatically placed Eagle's Nest was the former home of the Andrew-Westlake family and the Arnold-Forster family, both of whom had strong ties to the arts communities in West Cornwall.
In 1978 Heron suggested a novel idea for an exhibition to his neighbour Alethea GARSTIN that a show should be arranged for the works of her father, Norman GARSTIN and her own paintings together. Michael CANNEY was willing to organise this at NAG, and the resulting show was an enormous success, reviewed widely and nationally. In his capacity as a popular art critic, Heron was known to believe that Alethea's work was 'as good as Vuillard' (p114, Hardie 1995).
Heron's work was not only as a painter and teacher of art, but also as a social and environmental campaigner, and influential art critic, both locally and nationally. His support for the Tate St Ives was influential in its establishment, and a memorial to his life and work takes the form of a wall-sized stain glass window in the vibrant colours of his pallette and to his own design. His bibliography is large, and a record of his writings is kept in WCAA files.
He died on March 20th 1999 in Zennor, and is buried in the Zennor Churchyard.
Herring lived at Pelican Hill, St Ives, buPhil Whiting well have spent part of each year in Spain, as between 1934 and 1940 her exhibits were of Spanish town and harbour scenes.
Ceramicist, originally from Germany, who ran her own studio gallery in Lamorna for some years. She learned pottery in Australia, and lived and studied in Taiwan, India, Nepal and Indonesia - but it was while on holiday in Cornwall that she found that the Cornish landscape and Raku pottery share similar characteristics of the rugged, unexpected and elemental. She never uses a wheel, hand-building every pot which is thus unique, a feature heightened by the Raku glazes she uses, with their unpredictable and individual finishes.
In later years she has turned to academic authorship in theology, primarily in the study of Hindu and Buddhist religions, and tours internationally from her dual bases in Cornwall and India, under the name of Swami Nitya.
Coming originally from Lightcliffe, Yorkshire, Hervey lived and worked mainly in Berkshire and Cornwall. From 1893 her companion was the artist Annie FALKNER, and they shared studios in both places, their St Ives base in the Piazza being used sporadically over some twenty to twenty-five years. Wood, noticing her work in only one circumstance at Smith Street (SS) in 1893-94, writes of her watercolour of Chrysanthemums and also mis-spells her name as Hervy. The best summary is found in Johnson & Greutzner.
She is listed as an exhibitor in the 1911 Show Day in St Ives. In 1918, reviewing a show of the Pastel Society, Ezra Pound remarked that Hervey "has at least tried to have a style" - which is much kinder than his comments about many of the other exhibitors. One of her main exhibiting venues was the Beaux Arts Gallery in London, but she also exhibited at the RA, the RBA and other galleries.
Born in Leeds, the artist trained as an architectural draughtsman, specializing in terracotta. During WWI he worked as a draughtsman in a shipyard, as his eyesight was too poor for him to be enlisted. In the early 1920s he traveled to America and became a naturalised US Citizen.
When he returned to England on a painting holiday, Heseldin met Lily Paul, his future wife, in Newlyn. They were married in the village of Rocky Hill, near Princeton, New Jersey, where their daughter, Lamorna, was born in 1922.
After several years of little success in the USA, he brought the family back to Newlyn where he rented a studio and began to paint full-time. His metier was depticting Cornish street and harbour scenes in watercolour, and his compositions were often detailed studies, probably due to his architectural training. He exhibited at NAG.
In the 1950s he and Lily moved to St Austell to live with their daughter and son-in-law, and he became a member of the St Austell Art Society.
Miles Heseltine was born in Cornwall and completed an Art Foundation course at Falmouth School of Art before going on to study painting at Norwich School of Art. On graduating in 1989, he worked as a singer, songwriter and musician with an international touring band.
He returned to Cornwall in 2006, and the following year his artwork was exhibited in the show 'Revolver' at Penzance Art Gallery. In 2009 he was awarded the RWA drawing prize, and in 2010 his work was included in the RWA's annual open exhibition.
Heseltine's work has been shown widely in Cornwall, London and France, and is held in significant private collections. He is represented exclusively by Beside the Wave.
A craftworker who exhibited baskets at NAG in the Summer of 1928. Possibly Pauline HEWITT (listed separately).
'Although a Cornish based artist I spent almost all of my childhood in the Middle East which has inspired in me a lifelong love of colour, particularly the glorious sunshine yellows and azure iridescent blues of the Mediterranean landscape. This exciting contrast of hot and cool colours is reflected in my work. Sensuous, sweeping shapes are punctuated with energetic vibrant colours which dominate the moods and emotions in my paintings. I try to match those early childhood adventures with colour with the local landscape in particular the rugged brutal beauty of the clay tips and the sweeping South East Cornish skies and seas.'
'I see my work as experiments in colour balance. Taking the initial idea from my surroundings and then layering dramatic shapes of colour - interweaving them above and below the original shapes and ideas. Music too plays an integral part of my life and I can’t live without it - something is always playing in the background when I am working and naturally that effects the outcome. Essentially my work is an emotional response to the people and places I love. I guess the music is just a hook to hang it on."
Hewitt's work has been exhibited throughout the south-west and London, and is held in collections in Europe and the USA.
Of Cornish descent, John Hewitt was born in London. His father's position as an engineer in the prison service meant that the family was constantly moving house, and John attended several different schools. As a teenager he developed a passion for aircraft and ships. In 1939, at the age of 16, he began an apprenticeship in the RAF. His work as an airframe fitter during the Second World War took him to South Africa, Rhodesia and India. After he was demobbed in 1953 he and his wife Margaret settled in Cornwall, near Newquay.
As a consequence of contracting tuberculosis during the war, John was hospitalised and had one lung removed. This illness proved to be a turning point. While convalescing, he came across some oil paints and began to depict his beloved aircraft. In the early 1960s this self-taught artist exhibited his works at the Society of Aviation Artists in London. He then turned his attention to Cornish subjects, primarily seascapes, which successfully captured the movement of the waves and the light catching the water. He started to earn his living from his art, opening his own gallery at the Pavilion Buildings in Rock in 1968, supplementing the summer sales with commissioned work out of season. He recovered his health and continued to work well into his late 70s, finally closing his gallery around 1996.
Gill Hewitt spent her formative years in Lancashire and the Yorkshire moors. Moving to Cornwall, she has found herself drawn to the mythology of its ancient sites.
The artist studied at the Slade under Phil Whiting and Sir William ORPEN, and in Paris. She exhibited regularly in London and also taught painting herself.
She came to St Ives in 1912 for a holiday, and stayed until 1954 with frequent visits away. She exhibited in 1913 Monday St Ives (Oil), and in the 1914 exhibition of Painters and Etchers held by Lanhams. She exhibited portraits in the Show Days of 1923 and 1924, for which she was rightly admired. The subject of one in 1924 was her son, a naval cadet. An artist of the same name (P HEWITT) exhibited handwrought pewter work at Newlyn in 1928, hence perhaps she also engaged in one of the many crafts being exhibited after the Christmas Show at Newlyn (1924). This introduced such important artistic specialties as the Leach POTTERY, sculpture, and the work of the handicraft guilds of both Newlyn and St Ives.
Her home address from 1931 was 3 St Andrews Street, St Ives. During the 1930s her paintings of Polperro were included in STISA touring shows, and were also shown at the Royal Academy in 1934 and 1937. Tovey called her a stalwart of the St Ives colony, having lived there and steadily produced admirable work, often highly praised, for over forty years. She was described by Terence Cuneo in his autobiography as 'a first rate painter'.
In her last year of life she moved to be near her son, and died in Surrey.
Hewlett was born in Bristol, and studied at the West of England College of Art and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts before entering the Slade School of Art in London. From 1957 he lived in Cornwall, and from 1958 to 1981 was Head of Painting at the Falmouth School of Art, working closely with Michael FINN, the Principal, and then Tom CROSS during part of his tenure.
In 1977 he was Gregynog Arts Fellow at Newtown's campus, University of Wales, and then after retiring from teaching he returned to full-time painting and ceramic sculpture and returning to Falmouth (See Hardie 1995 100 Years in Newlyn: Diary of a Gallery for a colour plate illustrating one of his large-scale ceramics. Many provincial galleries hold his work, as does the Ulster Museum, Belfast and the National Library of Wales.
His obituary by Marcus Hewlett in the Independent (30 April 2012), relates the genuine and vibrant character of the artist: 'Hewlett had a deep affinity and connection with the intense piercing beauty of the Cornish countryside, which permeates much of his work. A committed environmentalist and nature lover, in the early 1970s Hewlett founded and for several years led the Falmouth Civic Society, which continues to flourish, and was active in both heritage and environmental conservation. A lifelong pacifist, Hewlett was an active peace campaigner and took part in some of the seminal protests of the 1960s and 70s, including the Aldermaston marches.'
He was married to Liz, and had three children.
Since 1981 the artist has returned to earlier themes of interest, including the Bristol Empire and Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Falmouth Art Gallery in Autumn 2000.
Sammy Hexter-Andrews recently moved from Hampshire to Cornwall, settling in Launceston.
Tom Heywood creates his sculptures, furniture and interiors from his workshop in Penzance.
He undertakes commissions on request.