Winter Exhibition 2010

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!" (but not tomorrow please, if that's OK)

As you might imagine, getting into the Gallery has been something of a challenge these past couple of days, with the hills and back streets resembling a downhill skating rink as children (including ours) bodyboard down the steepest of them. If it doesn't thaw, tomorrow's mulled wine and mince pies, will be rescheduled to Saturday...so do watch this space.What a winter show we have for you though...!

 

As we speak, Cornwall's fields and hedges are blanketed, white and clean, purple shadows paint the land, bright blue skies hover above sparkling seas. What a contrast for the Cornish Riviera more accustomed to the sway of palm trees than landscapes of the frozen north, so wonderfully captured in this painting by Sarah Wimperis...

Blue by Sarah Wimperis
160mm x 300mm, oil on board

And as everyone who knows Cornwall intimately knows, Cornwall shows us her soul in the winter. Gone are the bright emerald necklaces of woodland along the river banks, the shimmering silks of turquoise seas, the bustling flocks of tourists; and those of us remaining are left to stand in a quiet landscape, to breathe in cold still air infused with muted greens and subtle browns, to look across a glassy sea towards a lighthouse bleached pale by a winter sun.



St. Anthony's Lighthouse, Roseland by Myles Oxenford

300mm x 350mm, oil on board

...whereas last week we were bracing ourselves before the mighty power of the sea, salt spray on our lips, dazzled by surf beating on the solid grey cliffs and a wind so strong that you can lean into it....

Storm at Porthleven by John Raynes

510mm x 610mm, oil on canvas

...As we walk, on once busy beaches, solitary specks beneath leaden skies, before a pale jade sea, heading home before the last light of the sun disappears, before the rain, to tea by the fire.



Rain Clouds, St. Ives Bay by Mike Hindle
520mm x 620mm, gouache on paper



...Or perhaps we're looking out, across the bay as a little boat nods goodbye to the day while a cupful of winter red polyanthus brightens the room.



Evening Sky by Debbie George

400mm x 400mm, acrylic on board

If all this outdoor stuff is making you feel cold then come inside, there is a beautiful painting that has a summer theme but manages to hold us enthralled at Christmas as well with its stunning colours of rich reds, splashes of gold, snowy whites and touches of silver leaf.

Summer Bunches and Strawberries by Emma Dunbar
450mm x 680mm, acrylic and silver leaf on board

So as you can see, Cornwall is looking beautiful and Christmas is coming! This really is an exhibition that displays Cornwall in all her glory, there is much more to see and talk about, you will be able to visit the exhibition from 6-8pm on Wednesday 1st December (weather permitting) and it will continue until Saturday 8th January.  You can view (and purchase) all of the catalogue paintings on our web site www.beside-the-wave.co.uk and the whole exhibition will be on our web site from 6pm on December 1st.

Limited Edition Print Show

We hope that it is not too early to be thinking about Christmas with just over four weeks to go! If that thought, combined with grey November days and the evenings drawing in, is beginning to fill you with dread then perhaps  we can help.  Take the Beside The Wave prescription towards a sunnier outlook with our Limited Edition Print Show.  Bring back the bright colours of a Cornish summer, flowers over sparkling seas, bright cottages wedged between deep green trees against an azure sky, ripples in the sand, all of them can be yours to brighten even the darkest winter.

Not only will you be able to buy limited edition prints from our existing collection but we have published twelve new images.  The new images have been chosen of paintings that we feel have been the ‘star of the show’ during their exhibition at the gallery over the course of the last year.

We have chosen two classic Amanda Hoskin paintings, 'Summer Grasses towards Menabilly' and 'Foxgloves and Bright Water, Alldays Field'. 

Both of these images feature the sparkling seas, dramatic skies and beautifully painted wild flowers that Amanda is rightly known and admired for.

Two new prints from Emma Jeffryes, 'Harbour of Sea Greens' and 'Blossom over Town, St.Ives',

depict iconic views of St Ives harbour with warm turquoise seas, golden sands and delicate spring blossoms.

For John Raynes we have chosen three very different images, 'Porthtowan Cliffs'

and 'Porthleven Harbour, Low Tide' are classic examples of John's studies of pattern, form and light.  'North Coast near Bassets Cove' is a stunning exploration of colour and light.

Two of Andrew Tozer's paintings were chosen for their warm palette and popular views of Falmouth and Mousehole. 'Summer Heat, Mousehole’ evokes the warmth and colours of beautiful summer days by the shore while 'April Colours Falmouth'

captures the well loved view over the rooftops of Falmouth and King Charles church across to the Roseland peninsula.

Finally, three images from Richard Tuff complete the collection with an unusual composition, 'Durgan from Glendurgan'

a classic view, 'St Ives Pier' and an image from his much loved series of domestic scenes, 'Daffodils by the Porch'.

All the prints are produced using the highest quality photographic and reprographic print processes. Prints are available unframed, mounted or fully framed in editions limited to 50. Each image is printed on high quality art paper and mounts are acid-free to ensure long life and perfect presentation. Frames are of natural tulip and the print is preserved behind glass.

You will be able see these new prints at the exhibition to be held in the gallery from 10am on Saturday 20^th November until Saturday 27th November, they can also be viewed on line at the gallery web site.

If you would like to receive a catalogue or to make a purchase please contact the gallery on 01326 211132.

So come along, banish the winter blues and possibly solve your Christmas gift worries, we will be very happy to see you.

Private View. Markey. Lindsay. Heseltine

Markey.Lindsay.Heseltine opened on Friday 5th November with a number of art world 'movers and shakers' rating it as one of our most interesting yet. As we hoped, the three artist's works looked strong together - from Lindsay's linear style, to Heseltine's Rothko-esque virtual abstracts, and with Markey's jewel-like watercolours and nocturnes in between. This show has been designed to take Beside The Wave further in terms of the range of landscape work we represent, and to add to the critical debate about what is great in contemporary landscape painting. The exhibition continues until November 18th for anyone able to make it in person.
At what was a very lively opening, our "ace blog reporter" has made a little film to give you an impression of the show...enjoy!

Danny Markey, Phone Interview

Danny Markey paints the subjects that most of us dismiss as unremarkable, sometimes ugly, often every day.  They are the places and things of an ordinary life, suburban housing estates, a car parked at night, the glow from a television through curtains, cars on the motorway. 

If he paints a beauty spot he is more than likely to include the car air freshener hanging from the mirror or the campervan parked in front. 

The days in his paintings are often grey and possibly raining.   The nights are of darkness lit by the orange glow of street lights, or by the tail lights of cars as they snake away up anonymous roads.  He enables us to see the world around us and marvel, to relish the colours and shapes, to enjoy the ordinary.  His skill with colour and the confident brushwork is evident in every one of his paintings, they are small masterpieces

 

Danny lives in Wales with his wife and four young children, three boys and a brand new baby girl.  He admits to being a little worried that his two older boys are better artists than he is already!  His painting routine depends on where he is working as he works mostly outdoors, the routine is very dependent on subject, painting before dawn or during the night.  His studio is a converted garage at the bottom of the house, it is cheaper and easier with a young family and is useful when doing night paintings.  At the time of this interview however he was dealing with a flood due to the Welsh rain! When he is studio based he uses drawings and outdoor paintings as source material.  He prefers to listen to radio 4 which, he says, makes better background as he finds music is too intrusive for working with.

He uses oil and watercolours  by Michael Harding or Old Holland  from Jacksons Art Supplies .  A box made by his father, artist Peter Markey, to work outdoors which opens to create a laptop pallet and a place to slot paintings.  At night he uses a miners LED light around his neck.  Everything is designed to fit into a rucksack.  He works all year round in all weathers!   If he is not working directly outdoors he might well be working in his car. 

Danny doesn't have a grand plan, he says it is simply about muddling along.  Painting for him is as necessary as breathing, he cannot live without it and if he stops painting he begins to feel unwell.

With his paintings he makes a celebration of life, apparently from nothing.  Then gives it to us, the viewers, not on a plate but on a piece of board or paper.  There is no fuss or fanfare, we can take it or leave it, it is simply what he does and, in doing that, we are the richer for it.

Visiting Alasdair Lindsay's Studio

Step inside a small terrace house in Hayle and you have stepped into one of Alasdair Lindsay's paintings.  The colours are the colours of the late fifties and the early sixties. 

Soft teal, muted pink and ochre are shot with an earthy orange.  Angle poise lamps peer over beautiful retro cups on top of fifties style place mats.  Moulded orange chairs sit around the table and an astonishing collection of vintage surf boards are stacked where most people keep their books. 

Alasdair is a self confessed hoarder and collector, he says he gets it from his grandmother.  he finds his treasures at car boot sales and junk shops.

His studio is in a sturdy shed at the bottom of his garden.  Having a very young family he finds a studio at home useful as he can fit work around the schedule imposed by small children.  He usually paints while his eldest daughter is at school. 

He works from sketches done on location and sketchbooks full of his distinctive linear sketches are stacked in his studio.  He prefers to use these and memory as the basis for a painting.

He says he finds actually starting a painting the most difficult part  Beginning with a coloured ground, this is his way of breaking the ice, he then uses masking tape to make lines and patterns on the colour to break it up.  This forms the commencement of a long process of thin glazes of colour, masking out shapes, more painting and finally a kind of "editing" where he thins out the painting, taking away shapes and elements until he is satisfied with the composition that remains.

Alasdair's paintings are very carefully considered, at first glance they appear to be very neat flat planes of colour but look closer and you can see the interesting brush work and thin layers going to make up a pallet that is strongly represented by the objects he surrounds himself with. 

While working he listens to LP records played on a record player beside the easel. 

On the shelf sits a toy batman boat beside a Dynamo label maker and a lovely old lamp.   

Another shed is literally stuffed with a forest of angle poise lamps and surf boards, he tells me that he sorted out his studio before my visit.  These are usually all around him while he paints.  

It is no wonder that his paintings contain the lines and colours of another era.  That, combined with the unusual viewpoints that he depicts, seems to  bestow a serenity onto the paintings, lifting the mundane, and often overlooked, up onto an altogether higher level.  As if the paintings are taking the viewer back to a carefree time, an era when we had time to stop and stare at the patterns made by a crane or a shadow of a boat, or when the shapes of some dried grasses reminded us of our childhood curtains. 

Alasdair Lindsay has made a world of his own through his paintings and one that he is generous enough to share.