Category: Penwith

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Art and Photographic History Art Exhibition Reviews Penwith St Ives

Ida Car (Ида Карамян 8 April 1908 – 24 December 1974) in Truro;

“In 1960 Ida Kar (1908-74) became the first photographer to have a retrospective exhibition at a major London art gallery. Her portraits offer a fascinating insight into post-war cultural life and her subjects included some of the most celebrated figures from the art world of 1950s and 1960s Europe and Russia. A number of the artists Kar photographed also included artists from the St Ives School.” as it says at http://www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/.mpu.ex.Ida

I saw this exhibition on Saturday and was truly moved at this small but fascinating exhibition and the sculptures that came with it which included Hepworth and Epstein. Lovely picture of Ida with Victor Musgrave with whom she lived in the 1940s in Cairo. Delightfully bohemian, her work is taken from the studios and ateliers of Paris and London. Even more exciting I found her photographs of St Ives in the 1950s. Her Braque portrait captures the essence of the artist-his eye sockets look as though they were a Picasso portrait brought to life. The portraits of Leach, Denis Mitchell whose reputation is still growing and Hepworth forming an armature from wire for a sculpture are all lively and moving. The original exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery is reviewed at http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/mar/13/ida-kar-bohemian-photographer-review. There is a great review of her photographs at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11998337. Should you get to Truro Museum at the moment there is an intriguing collection, A Century of St Ives Art 1840-1940.

The Wharf, St Ives
The Wharf, St Ives
Ida with Victor Musgrave
Ida with Victor Musgrave
Categories
Penwith

Seaside Animals in Cornish; Tiere auf Cornish(Kernewek) und Deutsch

Seaside

Am Meer

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Goolan

Gull

Die Möwe

Palores

Chough

Die Steindohle

Sether

Gannet

Der Tolpel

Nath

Puffin                                                    puffin

Der Lundi

Kanker

Crab

Der Krebs

Legest

Lobster

Der Hummer

Mesklen

Mussel

Die Muschel

Pysk

Fish

Der Fisch

Reun

Seal

Der Seehund

Morhogh Dolphin Der Delfin
Morhogh
Dolphin
Der Delfin
Categories
Art Exhibition Reviews Penwith

The 2013 International Art Fair followed by Nancy Pickard and Simon Turner at the Cornwall Contemporary

Having just returned from the International Art Fair http://www.20-21intartfair.com/ in Kensington Gore, where I was particularly taken, indeed entranced by the Artists of Russia  stand, it was great to see the quality exhibition of Nancy Pickard’s work together with that of Simon Turner at the Cornwall Contemporary here in Penzance. The Art Fair in London was great fun where I not only saw for the first time work of the German Expressionist, Käthe Kollwitz (July 8, 1867 – April 22, 1945) but also discovered the lovely paintings of  Olga Oreshnikov. (http://www.artistsofrussia.com/olga-oreshnikov)

Whispered Aside by Olga Oreshnikov
Whispered Aside by Olga Oreshnikov
Kathy KollwitzB rother_Love/ Verbrüderung
Kathy KollwitzB rother_Love/ Verbrüderung
Country Girl Olga Oreshnikov
Country Girl
Olga Oreshnikov

olga-oreshnikov-14263As Julian Ravest has written, “In 1990, Olga immigrated to Israel. She works in oil, tempera, watercolour, and gouache in a unique style. Her paintings are humorous, symbolic, and yet serious in content, meticulously executed and with a fresh and dreamlike quality. Her assured drawing, elaborate composition and rich use of colour are in the tradition of European painting. Her images and landscapes seem to be from a different timeless world, telling stories that are tender, dreamy, overpowering and seductive.” I was particularly taken by a work, an acrylic, called “Whispered Aside” which has a theatrical and magical quality about it. The expression on the face of the aging sailor and the slightly astonished young actress transported me to some imaginary dramatic venue in St Petersburg. The quality of execution in this painting too was quite extraordinary and delightful.

In “Garden Light”, Orishnikov has depicted an ingenue, endearingly innocent amongst a cavern of leaves, peering into the distance under her straw bonnet and surrounded by blossoming  mauve flowerheads. She clasps her hands in a gesture that reinforces her distance as an observer and suggests her naivety. Tragicomedy, flora and contemplation combine in her work to embody an elegant exuberance. This is repeated in “Country Girl” where the girl cherishes a crimson sweet pea  and beholds the blossom on the spindling stem.

The Anatomist by Simon Turner
The Anatomist by Simon Turner

Arriving this sunny morning at Sarah Brittain’s delightful gallery in Parade Street Penzance, my attention was drawn to Simon Turner’s bearded “Landlady” painted on found panel. Many of these pictures seem to have a Victorian or Edwardian quality, perhaps a little reminiscent of Monty Python. These reminded me a little of Adam Birtwistle’s portraits which I had recently seen displayed at King’s Place, http://whosjack.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/adam.png especially in relation to the horizontal structuring of the composition. Simon’s surreal playfulness shown in several zany mosaics are a nostalgic  investigation into time, dream and reminiscence. I particularly liked  “Man sending an e-mail”.stmansending

Nancy Pickard, Black Tulips oil on canvas 50 x 50cm
Nancy Pickard, Black Tulips
oil on canvas 50 x 50cm

The exuberant compositions of Nancy Pickard, however, made the visit. Nancy, who has been in Cornwall for over ten years now is clearly influenced by the landscape and the sea. It is the blue luminescence of  her inspiring canvases that drew my attention. It is the domestic peace of these compositions which attract the eye, which is echoed in her ceramics. Her delightful work may be viewed at http://www.nancypickard.co.uk/gallery.html

npblue

Cantaloupe Nancy Pickard, oil on canvas 50 x 50cm
Cantaloupe
Nancy Pickard,
oil on canvas 50 x 50cm
Categories
Penwith Uncategorized West Cornwall (and local history)

Pills, Potions and Proper Medicine

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Ben Batten and Mary Quick have both referred to various home remedies used when calling the doctor might have been expensive. For many purposes a kaolin poultice was a frequent resort, as was various sorts of herbal tea or for sore throats honey and lemon was a simple palliative. Looking through copies of The Cornishman from the late 1920s an impressive number of remedies were advertised as being on offer:-

1) Women who are tired out

 

-How to regain lost vitality for women who feel tired out, nervy and overwrought, and suffers from headaches and backaches.

Try Dr Williams’ pink pills –of all chemists 3/- a box

 

2) Clarke’s Blood Mixture

 

“Just as good for abscesses, ulcers, bad legs, inflamed wounds, swollen glands, haemorrhoids, also rheumatism and gout- all of which are signs of blood impurities.

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3) Swan’s Oxygen Therapy, Alperton, Penzance

 

Inhalation therapy for asthma, tuberculosis and pneumonia

 

Each copy of the newspaper would carry around five of such adverts, some large but few efficacious.

Had medical science a great deal to offer? As the CountyMOH report of 1933 shows the Women’s Hospital in Redruth was busy-some due to unsanitary home conditions- and some areas of the county, like Sennen, had no midwife coverage of any kind. Puerperal fever as it was termed had not been eradicated although the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Boston Physician with literary leanings, as far back as 1843 had shown the risk of physicians carrying infections from one infected patient to others. Whilst this was recognised, effective treatment for the condition depended upon the development of antibiotics. It was only in 1936 that Colebrook’s research was reported in the Lancet about the effectiveness of sulfa drug on a condition that was more lethal than pneumonia. They also worked on meningococcal meningitis so that the death rates for such conditions started to fall after 1940.

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Eric Kemp mentions in ‘We want to speak of Schooldays’, that because his mother lost a sister, who died soon after she was born in St Ives, he comments, “…they decided that when I came along, they’d go up to London, and be born in a proper hospital.”

 

 

 

Categories
Art Exhibition Reviews Penwith Uncategorized

A Visit to Maggie Matthews’s Studio on the North Coast of Penwith

Maggie with a major work for her forthcoming exhibition

At the end of May I had the opportunity to meet Maggie at her lovely granite cottage just off the coast road from Land’s End to St Just where I interviewed her about her development as a painter and printmaker. She has recently bought herself a new etching press which was on the table where we sat and had coffee around the sturdy wooden table. Her next exhibition will commence at the Cornwall Contemporary (http://www.cornwallcontemporary.com/ ) on the 17th August and runs to the 10th September.

Detail from the work above

Maggie grew up in Brynmawr in Gwent, South Wales and first came to Cornwalljust after leaving Exeter College of Art and Design.  (Further details may be found at http://www.maggiematthews.co.uk/). Graham Sutherland was an early interest, particularly his use of colour. Having already been inspired by the landscape of South Wales with its magnificent mountain scenery, she was further impressed by the fabulous light of Penwith. Her family had strong naval connections, her grandfather had in fact been bombed out of Devonport, and the sea itself was an additional attraction for which she felt a strong, familiar affinity. Her palette changed completely and she became deeply interested in the St Ives painters. She was now to paint in bright and vivid colours which she soon came to use and to love.

Porthcawl andBarryIsland, nearCardiff, during the Miners fortnight holiday had already started a love of the beach and its natural history.ComprehensiveSchoolhad encouraged her interest in art, ceramics and sculpture but in addition Maggie enjoyed biology and maths, interests which were to prove an inspiration as her work has developed.

Detail from Maggie’s recent sketches

The facilities at Exeter, near the river inspired her interests in printmaking and ceramics. The geological society had an outward-bound bus and so there at weekends came down to Cornwalland whilst other students examined the rocks in CotValleyand other places, Maggie would be enthusiastically sketching. The sea, the mining and the Celtic connections were an additional attraction. After a period working on the manufacture of air and oil filters in industry in South Wales, Maggie arrived at Penzancejob centre whilst on a two-week holiday. She got a post working on the Jetsetter computer graphics project drawing paired-down sketches of simple objects like wine glasses and pencils.

Maggie continued to sketch the landscape intensively at weekends. She also went on Friday nights in St Just with Mary Stork to draw life studies, which she found a useful exercise and with Mary’s support she exhibited her work for the very first time.

Maggie outside her cottage with a work for the forthcoming exhibition at Cornwall Contemporary

Her first solo show was in Brown’s Restaurant which Maggie then proceeded to show at for another two more years and then had a further displays at Avalon in Marazion. Her very abstract colourist compositions at this point were very much influenced by her attraction to Patrick Heron’s work. In particular Maggie likes his later garden works and the space and depth created in these compositions. Paul Nash, Samuel Palmer, William Blake and Sutherland remain her favourite works for their pastoral, lyrical qualities. She remains interested in printing, ceramics and expresses an interest too in sculpture.

Categories
Book Reviews Penwith Poetry Uncategorized

Bardhonyeth Kernow,Poetry Cornwall (Volume 27)

Bardhonyeth Kernow

This issue contains a wide variety of contributions from over sixty poets from Scotland(which also provides the lichen encrusted wheel arch cover image from Callander) to Germany, from Wales to Spain. Naturally the emphasis are on Cornish poems and it is the landscape of Kernow which provides the inspiration for many of these verses in dialect and Kenewek with a translation and interpretation section carefully chosen by Grand Bard, Mick Paynter. It is good to see the enthusiasm for good poetry in the Duchy from such various sources as French, Scots Gaelic and even the Romany language of Gurbet. This is a collection which is not afraid to approach the edge, like Sam Harcombe, who at Warren Cliff approached, ignoring stakes and danger signals:-

Hoping to catch sight of seal,

I wanted to look closer at the inlet far below, but

riddled with rabbit holes and

cracks it was obviously dangerous.

I went a few steps past the stakes

And still saw not enough

Bernard Jackson prefers the sylvan safety of the Sunlit Leaves as the sun sinks and he wanders entranced by the magic of a slow watered stream:-

Eternal is the flame that ne’er consumes,

Yet blazons leaves, nor shall one instant fade.

From woodland reign that readily assumes

This seasoned garb, immortally arrayed.

In traceries where sunlight shines between,

God’s glory is a miracle of green.

Bardhonyeth Kernow’s Editor Les Merton

Besides such nature poems form Perranuthnoe to Predannack, there are some moving poems inspired by the cheerful and encouraging words from the nursing staff on Geevor Ward which as Donald Rawe puts it “Restore humanity to the clinical desolation”. There are sad, human reflections on Casualty and Geriatric Wards. There are too the lifting memories of repairing with his father My Pink Bicycle by Graham Rippon:-

“Paint it any colour you like”

But the only colour we had was Pink

This little collection is a gem and a tribute to the current interest in poetry in our Duchy.