Galleries October 2025

Press Release Bryan Ingham Jugs and Flowers 6 September – 1 November 2025 Ingham described his art’s purpose as “to beg, borrow, consulate and synthesise; to add even, to the classical tradition of harmony and contained chance,” and this sourcing of inspiration came as much from art as from his environment. His later work hovers on the boundary between representation and abstraction. - Jonathan Wynne Evans ( Guardian Obituary, 25 September 1997) Bryan Ingham (1936 – 1997) lived and worked on the Lizard Peninsula from the 1960s. Jollytown was his muse, home and studio for much of this time, an isolated house glimpsing the sea, with no electricity or running water. In 2015 Kestle Barton mounted an exhibition of etchings that focused on his home and places on The Lizard.  The prints were all from the Bryan Ingham estate and we are pleased to be working with the estate again on this exhibition of prints and drawings. Bryan Ingham: Flowers and Jugs (6 Sep – 1 Nov), includes work, much of which is previously unseen, focusing on images of jugs and flowers, regular motifs throughout Ingham’s career. This collection provides insight into his working process: the relationship between drawing and etching. It also demonstrates his range between representation and abstraction, and the mastery of printmaking that he possessed. Bryan Ingham’s depiction and interpretation of flowers and jugs was an emotional and unbroken journey throughout his life. The ceramics he inherited and collected featured as characters in his depictions, familiar companions that could be playfully represented. He was always concerned with the play of light, edges against a landscape, curves and planes. The flowers he observed were often from his garden at Jollytown, his eye relishing their complex and graceful forms. Flowers can symbolise a wide range of emotions and familiarity, the notion of transience is always there in their depiction. While the still life genre has very historical roots, the pictorial form Ingham took tended toward the language of Cubism. He was influenced by the work of Cézanne, Gris, Morandi and Nicholson. His incredible skill and experimentation with the medium of etching marks him out as one of the foremost printmakers of his generation. To accompany the exhibition, Simon Marsh, a printmaker from the Bryan Ingham estate will be running two-day workshops on printmaking; one for the local secondary school in Mullion, and the other open to the public. There will be very limited spaces, please visit our website for more information. Kestle Barton is delighted to have this unique, second, opportunity to showcase Bryan Ingham’s prints. He is associated with The Lizard through his many years of living and working here; and he has an international Kestle Barton Manaccan Helston Cornwall TR12 6HU 01326 231 811 info@kestlebarton.co.uk www.kestlebarton.co.uk