SEPTEMBER 2014 GALLERIES
11
and Eternity in an hour”.
Perception and Illusion by
Michael Porter is showing at the
Wills Lane Gallery
.
A visit to Marazion is always
worth the effort, made doubly so
by a retrospective of paintings by
John Piper at the
Summerhouse
Gallery
. In 1998 he was singled
out by John Miller as one of
Cornwall's up and coming artists;
this exhibition covers the last fifty
years and includes studies of
rock formations from the early
70s with their typically subdued
colours, through to his later
vibrant paintings focusing on the
vernacular architecture of
Penwith redolent with the vibrant
play of light on granite.
Squeezing within the remit of
this piece by virtue of being a
September show (though just
outside of festival dates) an
exhibition at
Salthouse Gallery
sounds promising. 'Elemental
Language' comprises work by
artist and poet Jenny Ryrie –
colourful, dynamic and
compelling, it is about the
energies and poetry of the
coastal landscape. It is, as she
says, “the underlying mystery of
nature and the resonance
between its powerful moods and
our own human emotions” that
moves her.
Pip Palmer
an erudite man, well travelled
and well read and there are many
clues to myth and topography
buried within these seemingly
abstract canvases. Colour is here
too and with it chromatic
contrasts that can shake the
viewer out of any lingering lyrical
complacency.
In tandem with a mixed show
of Modern British and St Ives
Moderns (a roll call of artists to
make even the most jaded
salivate)
Belgrave Gallery
have
an exhibition of work by Felicity
Mara. Mara moved from London
to Cornwall in 1994 and in 2013
she took over one of the newly
renovated and historic Porthmeor
studios. With its almost palpable
closeness to the sea, it is, as she
describes it, “almost like being
on a ship”. Her work from this
last year is about the transition
and transformation to her
working practices brought about
by this change of place. She
further elucidates the workings of
the genius loci in a talk at the
gallery on the 18th.
Derbyshire born Michael Porter
moved to west Cornwall in 1997,
since when he has become
intensely familiar with the cliffs
and coastline of the area making
these the core subject matter for
his extraordinary landscape
studies. Innovatory techniques
and his absorption within the
subject create work that is at
once highly detailed and vastly
macrocosmic. Liken it to Blake;
his “World in a grain of sand . . .
Infinity in the palm of your hand
With an almost perceptible sigh
of relief the tempo changes in St
Ives this month as buckets and
spades are packed away and the
September Festival gets into
gear. Arguably it's what St Ives
does best – a raffish mix of
music, poetry, dancing and street
theatre in which artists open their
studios, ceramicists their
workshops and galleries are able
to mount more selective
exhibitions. At the Crypt Gallery
(
St Ives Society of Artists
) there
is a rare selling exhibition of work
by Robert Borlase Smart. “St Ives
personified” was how his friend
and fellow artist Leonard Fuller
described him at his death in
1947 by which time, as Secretary
of the St Ives Society, he had
done much to anticipate and
encourage the Modernist
secession of two years later.
Paintings by Matthew Lanyon,
whose work is very much part of
this modernist tradition, are
showing at
New Craftsman
Gallery
. When he first started
painting the nod to his father,
Peter Lanyon, was writ large but
since then the trajectory has
been very much his own. He is
from left: T
erry Frost ‘Untitled (Black & White)’
c.1998, (Kemp 185), woodcut, 120 x 50 at
Belgrave St Ives. Matthew Lanyon ‘Cat's Cradle’
at New Craftsman Gallery Michael Porter ‘Cornish
Stones Series’ 29-05-14 at Wills Lane Gallery
S
HIP
TO
SHORE
cornwall art festival
. . . palpable
closeness to the sea,
it is, as she
describes it, “almost
like being on a ship”.
