Born in Nottingham, the son of architect and sometime painter, William Knight, Harold won a travelling scholarship while at the Nottingham School of Art, allowing him to study at the Academie Julian under Laurens and Constant. After marrying Laura JOHNSON, a fellow student at Nottingham in 1903, the couple lived mainly in Staithes, but also made several trips to Holland, where Harold became interested in the farming subjects and interiors of simple peasant living, handling these in the manner of the HAGUE SCHOOL of artists.
Harold and Laura KNIGHT moved to Lamorna, Cornwall and lived at Oakhill from 1907-18. There he continued to paint genre subjects, but with a lighter palette, and also painted a number of sitters in Cornwall, including Mornie KERR, Blote Munnings (Florence CARTER-WOOD), and Ella Louise NAPER, the latter for whom he cared deeply.
In 1910 he sold his first painting at NAG, Prayer, and in 1914 he exhibited for the first time at the Paris Salon (Un bohemien).
World War I proved to be a divisive time for the Lamorna community. Harold was a conscientious objector and made his views clear. His health was not good and initially his age precluded him from active service. But in spring of 1918 the conscription age was lowered. When he was called up, he appeared before the West Penwith Tribunal and was exempted from duty on condition that he should carry out agricultural work, which he did, until he was released in the spring of 1919. The experience took his toll on his health and the couple decided that they could no longer endure the hostility from some of their friends and neighbours, and so moved to London to further their careers.
In the capital he continued as a portrait painter of the well-known figures in society and politics of the period, and in 1925 received a Silver Medal for his portrait of Ethel Bartlett at the Paris Salons. The couple were to become the first husband and wife members of the RA in the history of the Academy. Harold pre-deceased Laura by some nine years.
Born at Long Eaton, Derbyshire, and raised in Nottingham, Laura attended art school near Paris, then Nottingham School of Art in 1890, where she met Harold KNIGHT, marrying him in 1903. After living in the arts colony at Staithes, the couple moved to Cornwall in 1907 and soon made friends with Dod PROCTER, Ernest PROCTER, and the Birch family, amongst many others. She involved herself indefatigably in the life of the Lamorna arts community, and was infamous for painting nude models on the cliffs nearby. She sold Mischief and The Kitten from NAG in 1910. Her friendship with the Birch family was maintained in correspondence with Mornie KERR until her death, and much valued, the child having featured as a model in Laura's and Harold's Cornish paintings.
The Knights were especially close friends of the Napers, the Leaders, the Hughes, and the Birches, and Laura was always careful to keep in touch with them over her long and celebrated life.
However, World War I proved to be a divisive time for the Lamorna community. Harold was a conscientious objector and made his views clear. His health was not good and initially his age precluded him from active service. But in spring of 1918 the conscription age was lowered. When he was called up, he appeared before the West Penwith Tribunal and was exempted from duty on condition that he should carry out agricultural work, which he did, until he was released in the spring of 1919. The experience took his toll on his health and the couple decided that they could no longer endure the hostility from some of their friends and neighbours, and so moved to London later that year to further their careers.
During the 1920s and 1930s Laura became the well known painter of ballet, circus and gypsy life. She worked as a war artist during WWII, and in 1945 was appointed to record the Nuremberg trials in drawings.
In their concluding review of her life and work, Grimes et al comment: 'Women interested in British art, and British women artists, have all too few role models - Laura Knight is one of the most inspiring.' Her two volume autobiography Oil Paint and Grease Paint (1936) and The Magic of a Line (1965), though not great literature, provides one of the few first-hand accounts published of the community life of the artists in West Cornwall; the anecdotes from it are regularly rehearsed in the biographies of those who knew her.
Born in Northfield, Birmingham, Knight studied at the Birmingham Municipal School of Art from the age of fifteen through till he was twenty-seven, when he departed as a tutor. He attended the Royal College of Art, Kensington, first as a student then as an assistant master in training for five years. He obtained twenty medals in various national competitions, and the College's Gold medal travelling scholarship. He went on to study in France and Italy before being appointed second master at Leeds School of Art.
The artist was invited by Princess Marie Louise to contribute a drawing for the Queen's Doll's House.
Knight moved on to be Headmaster at Northampton School of Art before coming to Penzance. Here he replaced John William ALLISON as Principal of the Penzance School of Art until 1915, when the School's parlous financial state forced an educational regime change. His wife was Alice Maud Mary Lyne, and the couple had one daughter, Nora Florence Knight. He remained in Penzance, residing at 11 Cornwall Terrace, until his wife's death in 1931, after which he returned to live with his family in Birmingham.
Graham Knight Sherring, an abstract painter, was a student at Falmouth School of Art from 1972 to 1975.
Stuart was born in Redruth, Cornwall, before moving to Amesbury near Stonehenge (which remains in his memory as iconic, much as St Michael's Mount does also). His art studies were undertaken at Farnham School of Art and Winchester School of Art, followed by postgraduate work at the Slade School, London. His fuller story is told well by Tom CROSS in his 2002 survey volume, Catching the Wave, Contemporary Art & Artists in Cornwall. Aside from painting, Stuart has also had part-time teaching positions at Falmouth College of Art, and works from his studio and home in Penwith.
'Considered one of Japan's most innovative ceramic artists, Koie has exhibited internationally and taken part in numerous residencies, workshops and conferences around the world...This third exhibition is the result of a residency at The Leach Pottery in St Ives, where he spent three weeks in June 2010.' (Work from St Ives, Galerie Besson, London 15 September - 7 October 2010)
'Born in Austria of Czech parents in 1886, Kokoschka is probably the most celebrated artist to have actually lived in Polperro, Cornwall. Regarded as one of the great Viennese artists, he came to England in 1938 after fleeing Prague and settled in Polperro the following year. He and his wife, Olda, spent nine months there, renting Cliff End Cottage. He produced a number of watercolours of the local scenery while his wife Olda ran a pastry shop.
Only a year later, however, the couple returned to London, convinced that their neighbours were suspicious of them. After the war, Kokoschka moved to Switzerland where he remained until his death in 1980.'
(Information given on www.polperro.org/artists.html)
Born at Clifton, Bristol, the son of Sir Cornelius Kortright, Guy was educated at Newton College in Newton Abbot, Devon before emigrating to Canada with his family. At age twenty, he decided to continue studies with Louis GRIER who ran a painting school at St Ives with Julius OLSSON.
In 1899 he shared a studio in Paris with two other St Ives art students, Norman WILKINSON and Hugh Percy HEARD. He then remained based in St Ives at St Eia Studio until about 1912 before going to settle in Wales. During WWI he served in the Army and became a Captain in the 21st Monmouthshire Regiment. He wrote on the subject of 'Decorative Landscape Painting' in The Artist.
Barbara Krasnodebska describes herself as an experimental abstract expressionist painter. She has a B Ed (Hons) degree in Art, Design and Education from Middlesex University and lives in Tintagel, north Cornwall. She has been an IB art examiner and has run art workshops.
Kimberly Kriete lives and works in west Penwith. She produces work based on the seen and felt experience of the Cornish landscape.
The artist was born in Sweden, and it is not currently known how long he remained in the Newlyn area - The Cornishman, using the name Boris Kronstadt (also seen as Kronstrand), recorded a visit from him in Newlyn as late as 1940.
Two etchings were sold by this artist in 1902 at NAG, both to John Ross of Glasgow. Shown at Penlee House, Penzance in 2005 was a charcoal drawing of John Branwell (1902), the sitter being the eldest son of John Richards Branwell who built Penlee House, the Branwells being the Penzance family whose ancestors included Maria Branwell, the mother of the Bronté sisters.
A portrait in oils by the artist, of Mayor W J Bazeley of Penzance, is in the collection at Penlee House.
Tanya Krzywinska maintains her art practice alongside her position as a Professor at Falmouth University. She has a studio at Krowji Studios in Redruth.
She is a regular exhibitor at STISA open shows.
Christina Kutter was born and raised in Stoke Newington, London. In 2001 she moved to Cornwall, where she has a studio on the edge of Bodmin moor. She works across many disciplines and says: 'My work often leans towards abstraction but is underpinned by an abiding interest in observational and gestural drawing.'
With a BA (Hons) in English & Philosophy from Middlesex University and a PGCE from the University of Exeter, the bulk of her work experience has been within adult education and the FE sector. Currently she is studying at Plymouth College of Art and working as an arts administrator for KARST, Plymouth. She has also worked as an art therapy volunteer for people with dementia, and as a workshop facilitator for a bereavement support group.
Helen Elizabeth Kuumbi is a painter and folk musician living in Millbrook, east Cornwall.
Anne La Bouchardiere was born in India and attended art school in Mumbai before moving to the UK in the 1950s. After a career in the theatre, she and her husband settled in Cornwall in 1991. She studied at Saltash College of Art and Plymouth College of Art and Design, gaining a Certificate in Art and Design as part of the University of Exeter BA (Hons) course.
Her work has been exhibited at London's Royal Academy, Foyle's Art Gallery, and throughout the UK.
La Thangue studied at the South Kensington and Lambeth schools before entering the RA from 1875, where he won the RA Schools Gold Medal 1879, and studied with J L Gerome in Paris for three years. Whilst in Paris he came under influence of the Barbizon and plein-air painters such as Bastien-Lepage and Dagnan-Bouveret.
On his return to London he exhibited widely, though not in Cornwall until the Newlyn Art Gallery opened in 1895. He lived at Bosham, Surrey and was a close friend of Stanhope FORBES, whom he met first as a fellow pupil at Dulwich College. He was greatly in sympathy with the aims and ideals of the Newlyn School, although his subjects tended to be farm workers and country life rather than fisherfolk. To show solidarity with Forbes, he sent his painting Clearing the Orchard to Newlyn in spring 1896; the WCAA holds a letter which asks politely for this to be packed and returned to him at Bosham, Chichester.
He is included here more as an influential force, and a name often mentioned in the history of the Newlyn colony, than because of time spent in West Cornwall.
Katherine Labo has lived in Cornwall for the past 20 years. Her paintings are a fusion of Malaysian and Cornish influences.
The Cornwall Polytechnic Society records: 'The fifty-fifth annual Exhibition was opened on Tuesday, September 6th, at the Polytechnic Hall, Falmouth... After refering to the various departments of the Exhibition, he remarked, with regard to photography, which was in the charge of Mr Brooks, who took a great interest in the Society, that this department was in advance of previous years in portraiture; J Lafayette having an excellent portrait of the Countess of Londonderry, to which has been awarded a Silver medal.'
Venessa Lagrand was born in Kent but studied Art & Design at Cornwall College, Camborne, and lives in Rame, near Penryn. Her subject matter includes the landscapes and harbours of Cornwall. Her work is held in private collections in St Mawes, New Jersey and Portugal.
Born in Penzance, Laity became a member of the Industrial Class before WWI. John Edgar Laity was the father of John Curnow Laity (born at Helston in 1898, and destined to become the eventual historian of Newlyn Copper). John Edgar continued to make copper objects of artistic and useful design, in his spare time, throughout his life.
A potter with Bernard LEACH. Dates as yet unconfirmed. More research required.
A painting by this artist, St Michael's Mount (1995) is in the art collection held by the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance.
Tim Lake is a potter based in Penryn, Cornwall. He was born in Surrey, and studied at Farnham (NDD), Plymouth (HND) and then at Falmouth where he completed a BA (Hons).
He is a full member of the Devon Crafts Guild.