Crugkern Barn - Cot Valley
Art and Photography
Whatever the weather or time of day, the Cornish coast offers endless possibilities for sketching, painting or photography.
The crisp, clean air and crystal clear visibility gives a quality of light which, together with the variety of landscapes has attracted artists to the area for generations.
Even in winter, the boiling seas and moody skies offer opportunities for the bold and creative artist whatever medium you are working in.
We have had several artists stay at Crugkern Barn to take advantage of the easy access to the coast and stunning locations nearby. In fact, taking pride of place on our living room wall is a splendid painting by one of hem, Ria Poole. She paints outdoors in all weathers, sometimes in hard to reach coastal locations to enable her to capture the most interesting perspectives. Ria, a member of the St Ives Society of Artists, is a frequent visitor and often displays her work in the Crypt Gallery, St Ives among many other places.
See Ria Poole website for more on Ria’s work
Art in West Cornwall
It was the probably the extension of the Great Western Railway to West Cornwall in 1877 in the late 1877 which brought many artists to Cornwall. Until then Cornwall was fairly remote and inaccessible to all but the most intrepid. Once transport was established the now well known ‘quality of light’ did much to inspire the artists who settled here. The communities that arose as the result of this influx where primarily located in Newlyn, Lamorna and St Ives and where attributed the title of “schools”.
The Newlyn School was pioneered by Stanhope Forbes and Frank Bramley who settled there in the early 1880s. The Newlyn School combined the Impressionist derived doctrine of working directly from the subject, and where appropriate in the open air (plein-airism). The local fishing community provided a large proportion of the subject matter.
The Lamorna School was an off-shoot of the Newlyn School, located in the nearby village of Lamorna. It’s not hard to see why the cove was popular with artists -a tiny picturesque harbour flanked by dramatic cliffs at the end of a stream which winds its way down the atmospheric wooded valley.Peaking some time after the Newlyn School, the St Ives School was an important innovator of modern and abstract art. Another difference was the diversity of mediums – sculptors such as Barbara Hepworth and potters like Bernard Leach were very much a part of the St Ives movement.
Galleries and Studios
We are spoilt for choice when it comes to Galleries and Studios in this part of Cornwall. St Just boasts one of the finest, the Jackson Foundation gallery. The Jackson Foundation is a unique, ambitious and award-winning art-space celebrating and championing arts and the natural world. This exciting and versatile world class art gallery is free to the public, bridging the gap between public and private art centres and is the ideal venue to view Kurt Jackson’s varied and eclectic range of artistic expression spanning painting, poetry, sculpture, installation and film.
Kurt’s landscapes have to be seen to be believed – he has a unique style, impressive in both scale and ambition. Not to be missed.
Check the website for current opening times and events:
St Just also has a wide range of other studios and galleries clustered around the town square or on roads leading onto it such as The Maker’s Emporium and the Bank Square Gallery.
Further afield, as one would expect, Penzance and Newlyn both have some splendid galleries and studios such as Penlee House Gallery and Newlyn Art Gallery and the Exchange Both of these groups of galleries have changing displays of quality work by local and nationally known artists and its worth checking what is on by visiting their websites. There are several smaller, but high quality galleries in both Penzance and Newlyn which are well worth looking out for.
Mousehole, just along the coast from Newlyn, has a large array of galleries displaying both art and pottery, and it’s well worth a visit. Have a wander around the village. The Mowzer Gallery offers an extensive collection of original paintings and quality prints by “Josh Sim” alongside a selection of Cornish glass art and pottery by well known Linda Styles. This is just one of the many quirky little galleries in one of Cornwall’s most beautiful harbours.
St Ives
We cannot finish this section without covering the jewel in the crown of the art scene here in West Penwith, the multi-award winning Tate St Ives. Home of post-war British Modernism, the artistic legacy of the town provides the foundations for Tate St Ives. The gallery was built to celebrate the artists as well as the surroundings and atmosphere that inspired them; its unique architecture recalls the white relief works of the artist Ben Nicholson, and the unexpected twists and turns of St Ives itself.
Tate St Ives opened in 1993, on a spectacular site overlooking Porthmeor Beach, and has a lively and varied international exhibition programme. Exhibitions include major figures in British and international modern and contemporary art.
A four-year building project completed in 2017 doubled the space for showing art, adding almost 600 square metres of galleries. The extension means the gallery is now able to give a permanent presence to iconic 20th-century artists who lived and worked in the town, including Alfred Wallis, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, .
Barbara Hepworth Sculpture Garden
One of the hidden gems of St Ives must be the Barbara Hepworth sculpture garden. Visiting the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden offers a remarkable insight into the work and outlook of one of Britain’s most important twentieth century artists. Sculptures in bronze, stone and wood are on display in the museum and garden, along with paintings, drawings and archive material.
Following her wish to establish her home and studio as a museum of her work, Trewyn Studio and much of the artist’s work remaining there was given to the nation and placed in the care of the Tate Gallery in 1980.
“Finding Trewyn Studio was a sort of magic”, wrote Barbara Hepworth. ‘Here was a studio, a yard and garden where I could work in open air and space.”
This is one of our favourite places to visit in St Ives – highly recommended.