Beside The Wave

Precious Things

2012-03-16T15:57:00.000Z

Polzeath Bathers

Did you know that there is a physical reaction when you look at art that you like. It feels a bit like butterflies, or that feeling when you almost trip downstairs, not totally pleasant, its a rush of adrenalin, Apparently, according to the science programme on Radio 4 yesterday, it is measurable! Your pulse quickens and your palms sweat!
Expect a lot of sweaty palms tonight, these paintings are exciting and masterful. There is a breathless ease with which Andrew Tozer manages to choose such sublime colours, those blues in a sparkling sea, one can imagine that they come out of the tube complete with the cry of gulls and the shouts of children playing.

Summer, Polzeth

The same thing happens with "Summer Polzeth" Effortless brushstrokes become dozens of figures, a sweep of colour is easily a windbreak. It looks so easy and is actually so difficult. What hours of work allow someone to catch a shadow, to convey a fleeting moment with such unerring confidence?

Durgan Light, July.

The colours in this body of work are surprisingly bright, like the acid green in Durgan Light, or the joyful grass in Birthday Party,

Birthday Party

but they sit beautifully within the context of each painting. It is like a glorious summer day, playing on the beach then home for bedtime. Because after all the excitement of the sea, boats in the bay, clouds scudding across a blue evening sky, a shiny birthday party, we are taken home, where the breeze softly blows the curtains and a little girl plays with precious things

Precious Things

and later, just before bedtime, there is a little time for drawing.

Drawings for Freddie.

This is a wonderful exhibition by an artist who paints with his heart on his pallet.
Opening tonight 16th March and continuing until 28th March.

Distant Perspectives

2012-02-23T20:00:00.002Z

Benjamin Warner's new exhibition is the second in the Effortless Brustrokes collection of shows.
He has produced a wonderful collection of epic paintings. Cornwall appears as if shrouded in a timeless mist, one that blurs the present day with vistas from another age. Truro cathedral rises out of the landscape and seems to be in a time before it was even built.

Familiar places are seen with fresh eyes and a different soul has evolved from beneath the artists brush. Turf, heather and winter grass are conjured up out of pigment and oil. The smallest of brushstrokes becomes a house or a path across the moor. There is a great mastery of medium apparent in this body of work.

Benjamin Warner allows us a view of Cornwall that is both new and yet as old as the Cheesewring its self.
The exhibition is well worth a visit and will be on show at the gallery from Friday 24th until Wednesday March 7th.

Effortless Brushstrokes

2012-02-10T15:38:00.000Z

Alachai Mor V
1025 x 1220 mm
by Chris Rigby

Opening tonight, a very exciting mixed exhibition of truly awe inspiring paintings. This is the launch of our second year of collaboration with Falmouth Art Gallery. Fourteen of our artists are represented in this show with one major piece each being exhibited at Falmouth Art Gallery in an exhibition inspired by John Singer Sargent, whose maxim was "to convey the maximum with the minimum of effort." In other words a display of breathtaking skill, apparently effortless, unquestionably stunning.
The show runs until April 14th and is surely not to be missed.
Here is a little taster...

Tresco Trees
365 x 605mm
by Neil Pinkett

Woodland II (May)
1000 x 1000mm
by Miles Heseltine

Lead The Way and Dance
605 x 505mm
by Paul Wadsworth

Garden Pots
215 x 215
by Sarah Wimperis

Still Lifes

2012-01-26T09:46:00.000Z

Simon Stooks
1930s Boat with Cornish Cup

Still Lifes, quiet places and silent moments. It is January, misty and grey outside. Take the time to pause for a while and look around an imaginary room.

Emma Jeffreys
Still Life with Pink Bag

A vase of flowers sit beside a cup, a bowl and a glass, before them are scattered four shells and a fallen bloom and beneath a glorious splash of pink in the form of a plastic bag. Look again and a blue and white jug is echoed by a blue paint pot.

Simon Stooks
Paint Pot and Cornish Cream Jug

Three elegant and superbly simple pots sit on a white shelf,

Paul Lewin
Three Alice Gaskell Pots

Light is reflected in rosy hews from apples placed in unconscious arrangement upon a china plate.

Robert Jones
Three Apples

In the corner of this imaginary room is the stillest life of all, a television set, closed to the bustle and shriek of the world outside, reflecting back, as if through a glass darkly, your still life.

Ashley Hold
Off

Petals fall and rest on patterned cloth, shadows move imperceptibly and a small harvest ripens on a windowsill.

Philip Hogben
Farmyard and Flowers

Beside the Wave is celebrating the still life genre of painting with a beautifully fresh exhibition of work from some of our artists. Paul Lewin has come inside, away from the cliff edge to paint calm and elegant works with a limited and very beautiful pallet.

Paul Lewin
Interior, After Gwen John.

Anne -Marie Butlin is celebrating exotic pattern and rich colours with her paintings of flowers and everyday objects that burst with a powerful femininity.

Anne-Marie Butlin
Blue Shoes

Simon Stooks and Emma Jeffryes present us with beautifully composed paintings that have a deceptively simple altered perspective. Robert Jones and Philip Hogben give us domestic still life and steep their subjects in the rich painterly tradition of this genre. Ashley Hold has painted interiors, desperately empty, still and peaceful yet brimming with unspoken comment.

Ashley Hold
Ocean

Still Lifes opens on Friday 27th January, with the Private View, 6-8pm and continues until Wednesday 8th February.

A Brand New Year

2012-01-14T12:12:00.000Z

Richard Thorn
Headland Waves
600mm x 800mm, watercolour on paper

We closed the gallery on Wednesday 11th of January and had a very dynamic and productive Strategy Day with everybody involved in the running of the gallery. We have plans and aims and wishes and desires. One of the first results of the day is that we have secured a stand at the prestigious Watercolours and Works on Paper Fair which is held at The Science Museum, London on February 2nd-5th. It is an exciting fair with all sorts of wonderful work exhibited. We shall be taking several of our artists, an list will follow soon, and with just over two weeks to get our Art Fair team into shape it is a good job they are so keen! Almost concurrently is our first exhibition of the year "Still Lifes" That is a very beautiful collection of work by some of our artists which will surprise and delight...but that's another blog post.
Visit us at the fair if you are in London, we will be on stand B30.

What A Year

2011-12-24T13:21:00.000Z

It's Christmas Eve in the Gallery, outside the sun is shining, a little sea mist is lifting and the boats shift gently on a calm sea. The Docks Choir has just begun the traditional singing of Cornish carols in front of the church. So it is time to look back on the year and to look forward to the next year.

What a year it has been. This year we joined forces with Falmouth Art Gallery to complement their exhibition, British Impressionists, with a series of exhibitions of Contemporary Impressionism. From June to September the gallery was bustling with new shows every two weeks.

We held a very successful exhibition of Watercolours, showcasing this often overlooked and very challenging medium.

We also ventured forth to horizons beyond the Tamar, showing our artists at Bristol and London Affordable Art Fairs and Edinburgh Art Fair. We throughly enjoyed the very hard work, meeting new collectors, making new friends, selling lots of beautiful paintings and collecting a new artist or two on the way.

To look forward to the New Year, we are continuing the connection with Falmouth Art Gallery with what will be a wonderful exhibition called "Effortless Brushstrokes", which on first glance is a contradiction in terms but as Picasso said "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun" and that, in a Picasso style nutshell, is what it is all about.

We have a very exciting mixed exhibition at the end of January, "Still Lifes" is a stunning collection of quietly beautiful paintings, a contemporary take on the very rich tradition of still life painting, perfect for the start of the year.
We have taken on some new artists, which I am very excited about and, should you decide to follow this very informative blog, (see the top right corner) I shall be introducing some more studio visit blog posts throughout the year.
Do sign up to get the blog delivered straight to your email and keep in touch with everything that is going on in the gallery and behind the scenes at Beside the Wave.
So all that remains is to wish you the most happy Christmas and a jolly fine New Year from us all at Beside the Wave.

In The Gallery Today

2011-12-17T08:20:00.000Z

From 10am today, Saturday 17th, Sarah Wimperis will be in the upper gallery painting miniatures in both oils and watercolours on a variety of surfaces. Come along, take a seat, and watch for a while.

Christmas Updates

2011-12-11T14:35:00.000Z

White Roses and Pears
by Anne-Marie Butlin
400mm x 400mm
oil on canvas £650

Sarah Wimperis will be painting miniatures. Using tiny brushes and specially prepared surfaces she will be creating some new but very tiny works of art. She will also have samples of vellum, ivorine and a very small piece of 10,000 year old mammoth tusk (Mammoth is no longer on the endangered species list) So if you would like to watch for a while, ask questions or even have a little go with the magnifying glasses and minute brushes she will be in the upper gallery from 10am until 5pm on Saturday 17^th December and Thursday 22^nd December.

Dotty Stripy Cup
by Sarah Wimperis
100mm x 100mm
oil on board £150

If you have plans for a special Christmas present, a reminder that the last delivery dates for Christmas posting are Monday 19^th of December

Violas in Grannies Teacups
by Emma Dunbar
300mm x 300mm
acrylic and gold leaf on board £575

Guess What...

2011-12-01T00:19:00.000Z

The colour, it's red.

There are cold bright frosty nights.

Lights sparkle against the dark skies.

But inside all is warm, and red, with special cups, and chocolates.

Outside the boats are all moored up.

Delicious things to eat

Distant hills are dusted with snow.

Best table cloths are all spread.

An apple right in the toe of your stocking....

Guess What...

Its Christmas at the gallery!

Come and feast your eyes and feed your soul on many beautiful works of art.

A million tiny brush strokes fill the upstairs gallery with a show of exquisite small paintings. Downstairs is full of new and exciting work especially gathered in to celebrate the festive season. Mince pies and mulled wine kick off this lovely burst of joy from 6pm till 8 pm on Thursday 1st December, tonight!

Come and be merry!

Star of The Show

2011-11-27T10:10:00.000Z

Night View
1500mm x 1200mm
oil on board
by Ashley Hold

We had a very successful show at the Edinburgh Art Fair with our artists and their outstanding work being hugely appreciated. We were extremely proud of the caliber of the work that Beside The Wave represents and it was a genuine pleasure to be able to meet so many people and to talk about the work that we had on show. The work of Sarah Wimperis flew off the walls, Andrew Tozer's new paintings were very popular, Emma Dunbar's work was much admired as was Robert Jones and Anne Marie Butlin. Miles Heseltine, as per the Art Fair in London, attracted genuine acclaim from fellow painters and Danny Markey's work was also appreciated.
One painting, it has to be said, was the star of the show. Night View by Ashley Hold. This attracted so much attention. People were coming back two or three times to have another look, bringing their friends and having lively discussions about what they could see in the painting, gasps of delight as they spotted yet another nuance and huge admiration for the skill involved in such a complex work of art.
We were delighted to be able to live with this painting for three days and found that it stayed with us long after the show closed each night, informing the way that we looked at, through and beyond the reflections in night windows, creating a still and quiet contemplation of the human condition. It is a rare thing to be the conduit of such a work of art, and it feels like an honour.

Danny Markey Wins Prize

2011-11-12T17:40:00.002Z

Stop Press... Danny Markey has won the regional prize for Wales in the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2011 with his painting "Blue and White Footballers"

The ING Discerning Eye has built an enviable reputation in the art world. The quality of the selectors has been extremely high, the chosen work of excellent quality. Curators and gallery owners know this and visit the exhibition to spot new talent that can be promoted in their own shows.Discerning Eye Chairman's Statement 2011

The exhibition is on at The Mall Galleries, London until November 20th.
Well done Danny and a great thing to take with us to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Art Fair

2011-11-10T10:34:00.000Z

By Robert Jones

We are on the road again, this time all the way to Scotland for the Edinburgh Art Fair,. The sturdy art fair team has only just had time to pack away the packing bags when it is all go again for another exciting few days. We have lovely new paintings from Emma Dunbar, Andrew Tozer and Sarah Wimperis.

By Emma Dunbar

By Ashley Hold

Some little beauties from Ashley Hold, big and small from Robert Jones, lovely misty creeks from Myles Oxenford, night scapes from Danny Marky, expressive brushstrokes from Miles Heseltine and some intense moods from Ben Warner. There are some beautiful new paintings from Anne-Marie Butlin and some bold and colourful paintings from Alisdair Lindsay.

As usual it is a privilege to be able to represent our artists and hopefully we will meet a lot of lovely people there.

If you would like complimentary tickets for the private view on Thursday 17th November 2011: 18.30 - 21.30 at The Corn Exchange in Edinburgh then follow this link. We will be stand number C8.

By Sarah Wimperis

Introducing Richard Stanley

2011-11-07T10:00:00.002Z

Richard Stanley has very kindly answered all of my irritating questions so well that I am just going to let you read them for your self:
Do you have a working routine?
I’m a workaholic I have to be painting, if I’m not I get fidgety. I love being in the open air, discovering new places.
How you work?
I enjoy working in the "plein air" tradition; all of my work starts in the landscape. It is this hand’s on approach to painting that I enjoy most, pitting myself against the elements. The spontaneity of working outside, forces me to work quicker to capture the moment, I then like to consider them back in my studio in Devon, and live with them for a while.

This technique provides immediacy and an intimacy with the landscape to which I am responding. The place, the wind and the weather are directly participating in the painting process, as the elements move the paint around the paper. This serendipity of colour and texture result in the most exciting images.
Why do you work?
I produce these landscape paintings as a form of escapism, just for me, there’s something very elemental about connecting with the landscape in this manner. Just me in a field recording what I see. The landscape is always changing, every day something new to paint, changing weather, light, seasons. You could paint the same scene hundreds of times and no two would be the same.

I draw inspiration from the colours around me; I enjoy experimenting with mark making and surface texture, Appling paint in a manner that captures the landscape. I always feel excited about those unexpected, what I call ‘happy mistakes’ when something doesn’t go to plan, but you discover a new way of working because of it.
Artistic influences
I take influence from a diverse set of artist movements from the Impressionists, Sisley, Monet and Pissarro to the Abstract Expressionists, De Kooning, Pollock, Auerbach, Kossoff. I also like the application of paint of Tai-Shan Schierenberg and Lucian Freud. On a more local level, Cornwall has a wonderful artistic heritage, the Newlyn School for example Stanhope Forbes, Henry Scott Tuke and co.
Having lived in and around the Falmouth area during my student days at Falmouth College of Arts, It’s been wonderful to get back to some of my old haunts, I have spent a lot of time living in this landscape and have some great memories and I think this is evident in the body of work I have produced. It’s been interesting to take a fresh look at these landscapes my passion for them still as strong as ever.

What do you listen to while working?
I have an eclectic taste in music. The Music I listen to when I’m painting can set the pace of the painting so It largely depends what type of painting I’m doing; if it’s something semi-abstract then I will listen to something up-tempo, likewise if I’m painting something more descriptive I would probably be listening to something slower.
What make of paints do you use.
Various, I often use Old Holland Classic Oil Colour and Michael Harding Artists Oils both of these have excellent colour strength and are very light- fast.

Your desert island piece of art equipment, i.e. what are you never without?
Most artists carry sketch books with them, I never go out in the car without realms of paper, canvas and paints, ready to climb over a gate if something catches my eye, so it’s difficult to choose just one, but if pushed I would say the trusty old pencil, often under rated but extremely versatile as a medium and lightweight too!
What ticks your boxes and what doesn't?
I’m attracted to non- aesthetic painters, I like paintings which just tips over the edge from something with is “pretty” to something with a bit more gravitas.
My own work is becoming increasing concerned with surface texture and mark making; oil is applied wet on wet, thicker and more directly, producing an intermingling and interaction of colour. The paint is pushed and pulled with great movement and energy using pallet knifes and rapidly applied brushstrokes, working with great immediacy to capture the fleeting transient qualities light and the essence of the landscape. The work is more than just a record of the environment; it also represents my connection with the landscape
What do you take in your sandwiches when you go painting?
Never Sandwiches always pasty’s, I love them, probably my favourite food. The best pasty I ever had was home-made and about a foot long, I won’t tell you who made it for me but you know who you are (Gaby), It did take me two sittings to finish it though!

What is your studio like?
Organised chaos (my girlfriend would probably dispute the first part of that statement). The studio is somewhere for finishing touches for me really I like to look at the work fresh and tweak back in the studio.
Where do you get your materials?
Various suppliers, I get a lot from my local art supply store.
When did you start painting and why?
I have always drawn and painted since a child, I started painting with oils when I was about thirteen having been painting with watercolours and acrylics for some time prior to that. Whilst studying for my degree I was living in Constantine, and was tempted out into the landscape with my paints of paper and haven’t looked back since.
Did your mum or dad paint or did they think you were wasting your time?
No, they never thought I was wasting my time, I’m very lucky in that my parents have always been supportive of my painting career. To be honest it’s not really something that ever came into question, I’ve always painted so there were no surprises that it has become my means of making a living. The Artistic gene shows up on both sides of my family, my mother is artistic and my paternal grandfather was very artistic too. My partner Amy Hearn also has always been very supportive; we trained together at Falmouth and she now also practices as an artist and degree level lecturer, although we have too very different styles.
Mentors?
Respected Cornwall based artist Gary Long was my Life drawing tutor whilst at Falmouth College of Arts his work has always inspired me and I still keep in touch with him to this day. But I have always pushed myself and most of the techniques I now incorporate have resulted from my own independent experimentation.

Introducing Ashley Hold

2011-11-04T17:00:00.001Z

Opening tonight we have an exhibition of the work of five artists, showing for the first time at Beside the Wave. These artists are all well established on the contemporary art scene and we are very pleased to be able to include their work in the gallery.

I shall attempt a blog introduction to each of them over the next few posts. The first to cooperate with my nosy questioning is Ashley Hold. He is an academician of the Royal West of England academy, has had work accepted for the BP portrait award, exhibited in the Hunting Arts Prize, the discerning eye among others. He is also a lecturer at university college Falmouth.

His paintings are simply beautiful, quietly melancholic with an enormous sense of place. Often painting in the evening or at night he describes the search for some mental space as being very important.

The paintings have the nature of a daydream, a moment when one gets lost between two worlds, awake in the middle of the night, caught staring both at and through your reflection in a window. They have a meditative quality and seem to be perfectly resolved.

Paintings, like the parked cars at night can take up to a year, slowly evolving into the final conclusion.

Imbibed with a filmic atmosphere, I can almost hear music as I look at them. A musician, Ashley says that he often switches between painting and playing the piano, so perhaps the music is trapped within the paint.

His teaching seems to aid his painting and he says that this informs his work, influences come from constant study talking about and focusing on new and different disciplines. Although his style is very consistent there is an openness present in the paintings. Sometimes, he says, he can search for days for a subject, walking and climbing until it is found then producing many paintings of the same subject as an example the trapped boulder series.

His studio is a bedroom, easel next to a piano, his bike and computer, it is unassuming and unpretentious.

His paintings are unassuming and unpretentious and absolutely out of this world and very much a part of it, all at once, I am sure that you will enjoy them as much as I have... now to pin down the other artists!

London Affordable Art Fair

2011-10-27T16:42:00.000+01:00

We are getting good at this! Having done the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol in May we felt much more confident as we drove the trusty van along the scenic route, via Dorset and the New Forest, to London. Obviously an artist's route! It was our first time at the Affordable Art Fair in London.
Arriving, unloading and hanging is very hard work but we hit the deadline of 3pm on the Wednesday ready for the press, it was a bit like changing rooms, and our stand looked fantastic. We all felt very proud of our artists and the work that we were showing.

Miles Heseltine had done some wonderful new paintings, his work attracted a lot of attention and many red dots. Sarah Wimperis and Andrew Tozer also sold extreamly well. Indeed, the influence of a Summer of Contempoary Impressionisim at the Gallery was apparent in their work and hugely appreciated by collectors.

Roy Goodman's evolving style and fresh colours were much commented on. Sarah Wimperis developed a fantastic selling plan which involved buying ceramics from other stands and then believing that this would help sell her own work. It worked! She also managed to very succesfully represented the other artists as well!!

Our stand was resplendant with a catalogue on an iPad and QR codes and a book full of red dots. We met up with a lot of our London based collectors and many new ones.
Now armed with even more Art Fair confidence we are heading for Edinburgh Art Fair in November, only three weeks away, paint, artists...paint!

A Celebration of Watercolour.

2011-09-30T16:49:00.001+01:00

All too often watercolour painting is overlooked and under-represented in many galleries today which is why we at Beside The Wave have taken the bold step in hosting a glorious celebration of watercolour. A number of our artists are experts in this exacting discipline, and now their work in watercolour can be seen and enjoyed in this special exhibition.

Watercolour is often seen as the poor relation to oils, not considered as "proper painting" by some.

It is also the first choice of many who are new to painting and yet it remains one of the most difficult mediums to master.

The clean colours and expert draftsmanship of John Raynes work succeed in making this art form look effortless.

The exuberant splashes and mark making of Richard Thorn are an emotional response to a multiple textured landscape.

The intimate delicate paintings of Amanda Hoskin are beautifully simple and yet wonderfully complex.

The layered colours that Sarah Wimperis employs give a jewel like luminosity to her work.

The chalky twin of watercolour is gouache and this is exhibited with the expert brushstrokes of Richard Tuff.

We have a preview of this fascinating exhibition in our upstairs gallery from tomorrow, Saturday 1st of October with the full exhibition opening on Saturday 8th October and running until the 19th.

Paul Lewin

2011-09-02T12:47:00.001+01:00

This is a stunning exhibition. These paintings are so evocative that they can give you vertigo. Become a gull and soar over turquoise seas above granite cliffs. Taste the salt in the air and fill your heart with the essence of Cornwall.
Paul Lewin has earned a reputation as one of Cornwall's leading landscape artists. He seems to have captured Cornwall, bottled it and spread it out onto paper and canvas. He works in the landscape producing works in mixed media perched on the edge of cliffs or on top of wind blasted hills.

Laden down with materials his search for the perfect composition, the best light, the sense of place seems to be relentless and he finds it over and over again.

This is no easy way to make work and although Paul cites the usual suspects, Monet and other Impressionists as influences to the way he works he is also interested in the Abstract Expressionists, their wild use of paint. Spend some time looking at Paul's work and you can see the skill with which he has applied pigment of all sorts to weave these stories of Cornwall that are his paintings.

What appears to be almost photographic from a distance is in fact the most skillful application of media that seems effortless which of course is part of the skill. It takes years of dedication to be able to do what he has acheived. Part of what he is doing by making these paintings is asking us to stop and look. To see the glow of sand beneath the sea, to watch the softly undulating deep blue shadows of the cliffs on the water. That is what we owe the artist and the landscape. To this end he has made a series of soundscapes on his web site where you can look at the work while listening to the sounds that surrounded him as he made the painting. It slows us down, a few moments of stillness to really study and enjoy this wonderful work.

It is a joy to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with this work. His exhibition is on from the 3rd until the 14th of September. It is an exhibition not to miss and not something to dash past with a cursory glance, these paintings took time to make and deserve to be enjoyed for a lifetime.

Four Artists

2011-08-19T13:09:00.000+01:00

Miles Heseltine Woodland II (sold)

Opening this Saturday at 10am a collection of new paintings by four of our artists. Miles Hesletine, Myles Oxenford, Benjamin Warner and Andrew Giddens. All four artists are exhibiting their own response to the world around them, embodying the sentiments of the impressionist movement.

Miles Heseltine. Woodland IV

Miles Heseltine has four stunning paintings of woodland. Bristling with energy and almost exploding with emotion, beautifully simple yet full of depth these little paintings take you by the hand, right into the woods and almost shove you headlong into the bluebells. They are quite beautiful and as you may be able to tell, have taken my breath away. They really need to be seen, in person as the strong scribing marks that break the surface of the paint cry out to be studied closely.

Benjamin Warner. Winter View from my Studio towards Stithians Reservoir

Benjamin Warner has been to London and produced beautiful atmospheric paintings of the Thames at night. As well as the end of day river pieces, there are two exquisite landscapes, the view from his studio, one with the sky like battered lead bent over fields barely scraped with snow.
His paintings, as usual, seemingly simple but upon closer inspection revealing intricate layers of oil paint thrown and scraped and painted with such skill that the resulting paintings hang on the walls with the confidence and presence of an old master.

Benjamin Warner. February Morning towards Truro.

Myles Oxenford's paintings are fresh, delicate and gentle. Capturing the ephemeral quality of the dawn or the ending of the day in such a way that, when looking at them, I seem to hear the distant call of a lapwing. Really lovely paintings with the tidal waters of the creeks running the eye up to a beautifully rendered horizon of ancient oaks and that sharp line of light caught on the very edge of the water.

Myles Oxenford. Dawn Perranaworthal.

After standing back and resting your mind in this dawn and twilight world step closer and admire the masterful application of thin layers of carefully chosen colours that go to show such tranquil scenes. Certainly a balm for the soul in such a mad world.

Andrew Giddens. Rinsey Sunshine.

Finally there is a collection of new paintings by Andrew Giddens. Rolling surf and blinding sunlight, woven colours let the huge splendour of the Cornish sea pour off the canvas, if you are a fan of this very popular artist then you will love this set of paintings. Andrew's colours gush forth and his love for the spirituality found at the edge of the land are very apparent in his work.

Wimperis, Hoskin and Helford

2011-08-04T15:00:00.000+01:00

Sarah Wimperis and Amanda Hoskin continue the Contemporary Impressionism series of exhibitions, at Beside The Wave, with their own individual visions of the Helford River.
In this, Sarah's first major collection for Beside The Wave, works include the Helford (where she lives) come rain or shine, exquisite portraits of gardens and a rich collection of paintings from Sarah's recent visit to Provence - a welcome reminder of what a sun-drenched summer really looks like.

Wimperis. Low Tide, Polwheveral Creek

Hoskin. Misty Day, Helford.

Meanwhile, with her epic painting journey around Cornwall done, Amanda has found inspiration further inland around the Helford River. In painting the Helford for the very first time Amanda has sought to capture the essence of the river throughout the year.

Paintings are made by coaxing misty shapes out of the paint, using her fingers and splattering subtle colours onto the canvas. Amanda often paints from memory or from sketch books and studies made outdoors working to create and communicate the spirit of place.

Sarah paints as much as she can en plein air, or out there, in the rain, mist and sun, completing entire works of art outdoors. Her work seeks out strong colours, deep shadows and brilliant light, and she will often painting into the light ("contre jour") from the creek side or from her floating studio out in the river.

Sarah Wimperis and her floating studio

For both Amanda Hoskin and Sarah Wimperis, the challenges of painting Cornwall in the winter, misty and moody with lush greens and subtle greys, and Cornwall in the summer, hazy sunshine, hot colours against deep cool shadows have produced breathtaking collections of work. And unsurprisingly, from the same stimulus of the Helford River each has such different and refreshing responses - which of course is part of what the joy of art is all about. Unique ways of seeing and utterly individual ways of voicing them.

Hoskin. Rain Clouds over the Field. Helford.

Wimperis. Hazy Helford

Sarah, meanwhile, has also spent some time this summer in Provence, painting en plein air and has filled the gallery with paintings of blue Provencal skies, terracotta walls and purple shadows and of course Lavender.

Sarah and painting kit in Provence

Here you can see the process of painting, but you can't sadly hear the cicadas or feel the hot sun but clearly much of that has seeped into the paintings!!!

Wimperis. Shadow Shed

Wimperis. Lavender Stripes.

Anyway, it's now time to go and hang these paintings on the wall so they can be there for all to enjoy!
This exhibition opens on Saturday 6th August and continues until Thursday 18th August.

Emma Dunbar

2011-07-22T07:27:00.000+01:00

The gallery is filled with a joyous burst of colour. Lovely paintings grace the walls each one like a secret scrap book full of experience, memory and musing. Collections of things arranged and rearranged, sorted and saved. At once both thoughtfully intricate and simply bold.

Beautifully painted flowers nestle against exuberant swathes of colour. Colours that should clash dont seem to, everything has its place in the wonderful world of Emma Dunbar.

Patterned ceramics are lovingly rendered with a Fedden like simplicity, marks made by painting on and scratching out. Images are collaged in and painted over, gold is added only to be hidden later. Its a treasure hunt, a romp through a collectors cupboards.

Birds peck at a richly textured purple earth, sheep are scattered on patterned fields, moss green on emerald beside viridian. Trees and twigs appear as flat designs or as scraffito marks into patches of carefully applied paint.

These are woven, multi layered and finely worked paintings that express a joie de vivre. They are a celebration of the little things in life that are so important. They are quite simply, joyful.

Come along to the gallery and get your joy prescription. The Emma Dunbar exhibition opens on Friday 22nd July with a private view at 6pm and continues until August 3rd. And we will see you there, smiling!

Tozer secrets revealed!

2011-07-20T11:42:00.000+01:00

Following Andrew Tozer’s fantastic solo show which opened our Contemporary Impressionism exhibition in collaboration with Falmouth Art Gallery, Andrew is holding a painting demo and talk at Falmouth Art Gallery on 18th August 2pm-3pm. Andrew says “come and find out some of my tips and secrets!” All are welcome and Andrew looks forward to seeing you there.

Contemporary Impressionism Continues

2011-07-09T10:47:00.000+01:00

A SARAH WIMPERIS PREVIEW...
With a lively exhibition featuring John Raynes, Simon Stooks and Alasdair Lindsay. Three contemporary impressionists, very different styles but all three locked into the tradition of Impressionism, they take the world around them and make it their own, offering up a personal vision of what is there.
Simon Stooks paintings, with their energetic and painterly personality being calmed down by a soft and gentle palette. They sit on the walls like very excited children bursting to tell you something very, very important.

There are fields, baking dry underneath a Provencal sun, of twisted vines, or overblown sunflowers, with earth colours that have grabbed the sky and kissed it into the ground. Wonderfully calm beach scenes, the hubbub of summer holiday makers lost amongst the bleached out colours of midday. John Raynes brings us back to Cornwall with his masterful handling of line and colour, he is the best artist I know for capturing the shadows of boats in water.

His boats float, the water in the harbours is barely contained by the pictures frame. Light floods in and out of his paintings, waves crash and spume and with each painting you can smell the iodine fresh scent of the sea.

Alasdair Lindsay bursts into the back of the gallery with his paintings shouting "I was there and this is what I saw" The colours are vibrant and funny and glorious. He seems to be able to look and look and pull out of a landscape all of the elements that were important. A post here a rooftop there, a colour reflected in a stone and the hint of a well known landmark.

As well as the colourful smaller paintings there is a truly magnificent painting of Falmouth at night, it is beautiful, the colours are calm and stunning and the little flicks of light on the boats chink like the song of rigging lines against masts that is part of Falmouth's soundtrack.

The exhibition is a good one, go and have a look for yourself, it officially opens on Saturday 9th July and continues until Wednesday 20th. There are catalogue paintings available to purchase now and further exhibition paintings should be on line by today.

Shop on line with Beside The Wave!

2011-07-08T10:09:00.001+01:00

We are very pleased to announce the launch of our on line shop which features a selection of our artists' work (soon to be all of it, and with 500 art works in stock, we have quite a task on our hands)!
Excitingly, you can also purchase these works, interest free on line through "Own Art."
The Own Art scheme is designed to make it easy and affordable for everyone to buy and collect contemporary art and craft.
You can apply for as little as £100 or as much as £2,000 for the purchase of original works of art by living artists in any media including paintings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, glassware, and artist made jewellery and furniture.
Loans are repayable in 10 monthly instalments, completely interest free – so you’ll never be paying more than the advertised price.
Our web shop is here Beside The Wave go and have a look and see just how easy it is to click and buy.
Here is an example:

This beautiful drawing by Richard Tuff could be yours for just £13.50 a month! That's about 45p a day, which isn't even the price of a cup of coffee.

Or this lovely painting by Sarah Wimperis would be £46.50 per month, which is about £1.50 a day and even that is less than a cup of coffee. So you see, now you can have your cake and eat it, or rather you can have your art and love it for the rest of your life!
Go and visit the site, click here and see for yourself.

Impressionism at Beside The Wave.

2011-06-22T16:14:00.000+01:00

Think impressionist painting and you think of Van Gogh struggling through a hot cicada rustling landscape with his easel strapped to his back, or Monet in his garden surrounded by outrageous flowers, or perhaps Bonnard documenting the intimacy of his home life. Pull forward about 100 years and you will find the same activities happening still. Andrew Tozer presents us with a selection of paintings that are both contemporary and rooted in the glorious tradition of impressionism. He paints Truro cathedral bathed in Cornish sunlight just as Monet painted Rouen cathedral, a corner of a daffodil field, the everyday scenes of a family life documented with the sensitive eye of the artist who opens his heart and paints. The start of the series of contemporary impressionism exhibitions at beside the wave gallery is fittingly kicked off by one of Cornwall's best living impressionists. This vibrant collection of wonderful paintings can be enjoyed at the gallery from June 24 until and is the first show in Beside The Wave's Contemporary Impressionism Season which is being run in partnership with Falmouth Art Gallery's British Impressionism until September.

Richard Tuff

2011-06-08T22:26:00.000+01:00

Durgan View to Sea

The paintings of Richard Tuff are a rich tapestry of chalky shades, blues and greens punctuated here and there with a dash of burnt orange, or a splash of deep winy red.

Flushing Boats

A patchwork quilt of seaside cottages, little boats, steps and railings, mooring lines and trees appliquéd onto a delft blue sea.

King Charles Quay, to the Bosun's Locker

They are childlike in their view of endless summers in Cornwall but defiantly not childish in their execution. Ice cream colours nestle beside the deep greens of Cornwall's garden heritage, red sails in the sunset are echoed in roofs of higgledy piggeldy cottages.

Looking Over St Mawes

Gouache is a very difficult medium to work in and if you study one of Richards paintings the energy and skill with which it is employed is wonderful. The range of closely related colours and shapes mixing beautifully together to present a vision of Cornwall at its very best.

The Bridge and Ford at Helford

Favorite places are given a veil of recent history, like a souvenir box of treasured memories, the edges blurred, the senses heightened until what is left is a distillation of pure pleasure.

Pandora

Places that we have loved and sometimes lost but never for ever because they can be found and held close within these beautiful paintings.
Richard Tuff is at Beside The Wave until Wednesday 22nd June, the private view is on Friday 10th of June from 6 until 8pm.

Affordable Art Fair.

2011-05-23T09:37:00.013+01:00

Been there, done that and most definitely got the tee shirt!
Cat Whitworth ( gallery staff and expert picture hanger ) and I, Sarah Wimperis ( artist, van driver and trying very hard to do as I am told) drove a van load of precious art works, carefully up to Bristol on the morning of Wednesday 11th.
The rest of the gallery staff had been working hard organising, cataloguing, wrapping and planning for months and were there to help us load the van but once we set off we were on our own. We had a truck stop, like all good van drivers should, and managed to time our arrival in Bristol perfectly.
Then the hard work began.
We unloaded 90 paintings, tool boxes and one very heavy desk in just under one hour...

and began to hang.

Cat had a very well thought out hanging plan and by 4pm on the Thursday we were ready for the private view. The pictures looked beautiful, colours flowed from one to the other, shapes were echoed and even horizon lines appeared to follow from one artists work right into the next. I was impressed but then I shouldn't have been surprised as each exhibition at Beside the Wave is beautifully thought out.

The following three days were a blur of talking about the artists and the paintings. Miles Heseltines' work sold very well and had at least two very emotional responses, which is a rare and fine thing.

Our fellow exhibitors were a very friendly and helpful crowd and we all had a thoroughly exuberant party on Saturday night.
Sunday was a rehang and then selling paintings.
We met some old friends of the gallery and hopefully a lot of new ones and although it was an exhausting way to spend the weekend we both really enjoyed it.

Andrew Giddens - Colours of the Morning

2011-05-11T22:33:00.004+01:00

I met up with Andrew Giddens on the beach that is the inspiration for his third solo show at Beside The Wave. His little boys climbed and played as he got out his sketch book to look into the light and make notes and sketches for another painting.

He explained that it is the early morning that the new exhibition is about. The birth of a new day, before there are footsteps in the sand, when the world is as it has been since it all began. The sun, a blaze of glorious light. Waves like luminous ribbons twisted from many colours. This is what he paints and here is where he paints it. It is a beach that he knows intimately and the arrangement of distant cliff and crag are as lovingly depicted as a family portrait.

He has become fascinated by the reflections in wet sand and thinks that as he works his paintings are becoming more abstract. Indeed close up they appear as a woven tapestry of many layers of colour and yet when viewed from a few paces back they become perfect representations of light and water. The clean promise of a new day shines from these canvases.
As we finished talking his little boys leap from their rocky climbing and run off across the beach, which reminds me of how fresh and lovely it is to see the pure childlike joy that is in all of Andrew's work and what a rare and precious thing that is.
Go and see for yourself, breathe in the fresh, ozone rich, air of a new day and enjoy the work of Andrew Giddens.
The exhibition opens on Friday 13th with a private view at 6pm and continues until Wednesday 25th of May.

Two Artists

2011-05-09T09:07:00.000+01:00

Two of our artists appear in the 300th edition, June 2011, of the Artists and Illustrators magazine. Andrew Tozer work in progress for his exhibition in June and Richard Tuff talks about why he enjoys working in gouache.

Bristol Here We Come!

2011-05-06T16:12:00.000+01:00

We are loading up the van with beautiful paintings on Wednesday and hitting the road to travel up to Bristol for the Affordable Art Fair where we will be showing ten of our artists:
Andrew Giddens, Miles Heseltine, Mike Hindle, Alasdair Lindsay, John Raynes, Simon Stooks, Richard Stanley, Andrew Tozer Richard Tuff and Sarah Wimperis.
The private view is 6pm - 9pm on Thursday 12th May, invitation only, and the art fair is open Friday 11 am - 8 pm, Saturday 11am - 6 pm and Sunday 11 am - 5 pm.

If you are in the Bristol area we would love to see you, gallery staff will be Cat Whitworth and Sarah Wimperis, we are on stand E11.

You may have noticed a new name amongst our artists, Richard Stanley. His colourful expressive paintings of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are an exciting addition to the gallery.

John Raynes

2011-04-30T15:19:00.000+01:00

John Raynes stretches his own canvas as he thinks the basic materials with which he makes his work should be of the best quality. The stretcher frames are made of hard wood and the canvas is fine primed linen. This short film is John in his studio stretching a canvas.

Mike Hindle at Work

2011-04-16T09:54:00.000+01:00

Short Films Of Some of Our Artists

2011-04-14T17:49:00.001+01:00

We have been putting together a few short (very short) films of some of our artists, working or talking about their work. This first one is of Sarah Wimperis, painting en plein air down beside the Helford River.

Spring!

2011-04-05T10:41:00.000+01:00

Come for a Spring walk with us this month. From April 9th Spring is celebrated at the gallery with a mixed exhibition of some of our most popular artists.

Flowers burst forth from Roy Goodman's canvasses.

Paul Lewin lets us leap visually from cliff tops into sparkling seas.

Mike Hindle wanders across almost empty beaches

while John Raynes gives us the many faces of Cornwall with pretty harbours, wild rocky outcrops and secret woodland places.

Sarah Wimperis has wandered through woods and found flower pickers harvesting the daffodils

while Andrew Tozer has soaked up the early spring sunshine and poured it into beautiful light filled paintings.

Debbie George has gathered simple treasures and painted a nature table of riches.

The catalogue is online now and catalogue peices are available to purchase now.

The full collection will be online from Saturday 9th April and available to purchase from 10am.

Something for everyone.

Visit the gallery to see these and many other paintings along with beautiful ceramics and stunning jewellery. The show runs from 10am on Saturday 9th of April until Wednesday 27th of April.

Benjamin Warner Private View.

2011-03-28T13:52:00.000+01:00

The Studio of Benjamin Warner

2011-03-17T19:21:00.000Z

I just found the artist J.M. Whistler! He is alive and well and living in Cornwall. He is 177 years old, given up being a dandy and working hard but there must be some kind of alchemy going on. Perhaps a painting in the attic because he doesn't look much over 40, and his mother was painting the front door!

It actually took me ages to find Benjamin Warners studio. I followed tracks, talked to farmers and was directed across fields, went along lanes and ran away with some gypsies. However, when I finally got there, my journey had not been in vain. An old farm building houses his studio, we go in through what could be a tractor shed, he has plans for that bit, a bigger space for bigger paintings. Then through another door which opens into a long room which is very clean and neat. It is a new studio for Benjamin and I suspect will soon have the scars of vigorous painting written large all over it for , as I look around, I am intrigued to see that everything has a patina.

The old Apple computer in the corner is covered in paint, the same spotty paint design covers all the books on the book shelves.

A huge collection of music arranged into big black folders has similar markings. Two pots look as if they are hewn from granite hold some brushes soaking in turps, upon closer inspection they once were old earthenware jars.

A vast collection of brushes lie in waiting and two sheets of heavy glass are clean and waiting to be used as pallets.

Paintings rest against the walls, like frames from a dream film, half remembered upon waking. The misty evocative scenes, seascape, landscape, townscape, seem to come from another age until you realise that there is a crane, or boat with an outboard, or a skyline that you recognise. Somehow, the images created appear to have been excavated, wrought out of a long memory, a find of sorts from an archaeological dig.

I like this feeling of time travel and ask some silly questions, a bit like a teen magazine reporter:

What's your favourite colour? "Dark"

When is your favourite time of day "Evening or first light"

Who are your favourite painters, "Whistler, for his pallet and his technique, not his portraits. Turner, his later work, his experimental work"

How do you do these paintings? The technique can't be explained easily. He spends a long time learning his subject, being there, absorbing the effects of light, feeling the changes in temperature, the nuances of mist and fog. Making notes, and sketches, finding out when the light is right for what he wants, when the falling night has taken away just enough detail to render a familiar scene almost on the edge of being abstract. Then with this knowledge he wrestles the painting out. Painting on, scraping back, glazing in and rubbing out, massaging the paint onto the canvas staining the picture into another existence.

Benjamin paints for a while as I take some pictures, I feel privileged to have had a slight insight into how these timeless paintings are made. They are beautiful, woven, deep and dark, full of mystery and suspense. They feel like "real" paintings, made by a "real" artist. Paintings out of time. Now to find that portrait in the attic!

Interview by Sarah Wimperis.

Private View. Amanda Hoskin.

2011-02-25T14:06:00.001Z

A Meeting With Amanda Hoskin.

2011-02-16T13:29:00.000Z

Amanda Hoskin works in a large, light wooden building at the bottom of a garden in Par. Inside it is warm and bright, white walls and cupboards and paintings in various stages of completion.

The first thing to catch my eye was a collection of tiny canvasses with, what appeared to be, butterflies stuck to them. These exquisite little works of art are made using Amanda's characteristic painterly style, collage and wonderful colour sense, a little gold leaf, and butterflies that she has painted onto fine ivorine, cut out and then collaged into the work.

They are so beautifully painted that I had to look very closely to make sure that they were actually made and not pinned.

I am to include this disclaimer: "No butterflies have been harmed in the creating of this exhibition"

I wanted to know why she has chosen gardens as the subject for this next exhibition: Not wanting to be type cast as "that artist who paints the Cornish coast", she decided to explore gardens. There is a wealth of wonderful gardens in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. She admits to being initially worried that this would result in a lot of green paintings but as soon as she began to explore the subject she became hooked.

Naturally butterflies have flown into the picture. They are beautiful but rather more importantly, she reminds me, is the vital role that these jewel like creatures play, along with bees, in our survival on this planet. Which is why the entire proceeds from the sale of one exhibition painting are to be donated to the British Butterfly Conservation Society.

With the same energy and passion that was evident in her coastal walk and the resulting paintings, Amanda has quite literally gone down the garden path. She has spent hours in gardens, public gardens, tiny back gardens, allotments and orchards absorbing the scents, sounds and textures, making small paintings, working her sketchbooks and gathering information.

She returns to the studio and paints in oils, on paper, wood or canvas. Whatever suits the painting, she is, I think, an instinctive painter. Using pallet knives, her fingers and brushes, but brushes as tools to "stab the canvas" rather than to paint with, she weaves the colours. A huge collection of very well used, sturdy paint filled brushes sit on the window sill next to a big pallet and a lot of paint.

As we talk she begins to work the sky on the easel painting. Mixing paint with a pallet knife and applying it to the painting she then begins to use her fingers, coaxing the soft greys into the right kind of light, she almost looks as if she is conducting the weather, there does seem to be a tiny bit of magic going on.

Amanda's paintings are many layered, skies are first filled with delicate layers of subtle tones, worked and smoothed with quick fine fingers. Then paint is applied with the brush-tools, flicked, smeared and splattered, layer upon layer until a dense undergrowth of colour and texture is created. Paper, words and precious gold leaf are often employed, all working together to recreate the gardens and landscapes that now seem to contain dreams and memories as well as trees and flowers.

Her sketchbooks are works of art in their own right, valuable note books, filled with drawings and beautiful little paintings, colour studies and experiments, seed packets, textures from a magazine, sweet wrappers and labels, words and thoughts, finger painting, watercolours and oils mixed and mingled into a delightful inspirational cake.
These are what inform her paintings. It is these paintings which must be seen to be appreciated, I can honestly say that if you like Amanda's paintings in the catalogue or on the web site you are going to love them when you see them in real life. They are richly textured, deeply layered, beautifully considered and an honest, heartfelt response to a place and a time.

Amanda's paintings are feminine, soft and beautiful. They are a testament to the natural world, Cornwall and the isles of Scilly. They look lovely but there is also an undercurrent, like a hidden message, someone telling you in a half remembered dream: "Don't mess with this beautiful world, treasure it, layer it with gold and precious colours and lay it out, without a word, for everyone to see." That is just what she has done.

Private View. Andrew Tozer

2011-02-01T16:30:00.001Z

Meeting Andrew Tozer

2011-01-23T12:23:00.000Z

Imagine an artist; he is sitting beneath a growling grey sky, absorbed by the cloud shapes, the changes in the light, the nuances of colour on a wet road, unperturbed by the imminent rain. In your mind's eye he returns to a garret and feverishly commutes the day from sketches and plein air studies into a larger painting.

He could be Monet or any one of the Impressionist artists of the nineteenth century. He isn't because he is sitting next to you on the beach, or parked up in his car, watching your world and painting it.

Andrew Tozer lives and breathes art. He is the embodiment of a tradition that demands skills like drawing and an understanding of form and tone. He is an artist born out of time. Gone is the aggressive attitude of the past decade of young British artists, nowhere to be heard is the response "it is art because I say it is" and the only blank canvasses you will find in his studio are ones waiting to be painted upon.

Andrew constantly challenges himself, questioning whether he will be able to capture that fleeting moment, the wind on the water, the movement of masts in the rain. He works hard for his art and his studio is testament to that. It is a garret, an attic room in his home, reached by a perilous ladder from his children's bedroom, it is as unassuming as a studio as Andrew is as an artist. He paints because he has to. He has a need to absorb and record, more excited by a grey rainy day than by brilliant sunshine and blue skies. Distracted by rain caught in headlamps while driving at night. His pallet is of a few carefully chosen colours, a lot of greys at the moment although I suspect that is because it is winter.

His paintings are so deeply rooted in the moment his working pallet reflects that. Also because he is so practised at plein air painting not only is he able to absorb and reproduce a fleeting moment of light but also he seems to be able to do the same with the emotional response. His boats clink in the breeze, the water moves, the rain is wet and children play on the beach, it seems hugely possible to hear their distant voices.

He grew up in Cornwall wandering across beaches, through woodlands and along creeks as a child of farming family with a mother who is also an artist. The passion for painting Cornwall is an easy marriage, this is where he is at home and where his natural responses began and continue.

After moving to London to study illustration he quickly realised that he was a painter rather than an illustrator although the training in the craft of drawing and composition is evident in every single painting he does. He is a keeper of sketchbooks and it is possible to evidence his paintings right back to the first quick sketches.

His book shelves are bulging with sketchbooks full of his own drawings and books of all shapes and sizes full of the work of artists that he admires. His influences are many, Fred Cuming, Joaquin Sorolla, William Nicholson, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, all of them recorders of the everyday, masters of light and lion tamers of paint.

Andrew is an artist who believes in learning, learning how to see, learning how to speak visually and never resting, never relying on the fact that he is already a master of what he does but constantly reaching further. His work is much admired and collected although, when I was talking with him, his most treasured compliments were from a group of young art students and some primary school children. "We really like your work" And indeed, we do!

His new and exciting exhibition will open with a private view on Thursday 27th January 6pm till 8pm and will continue until Saturday 5th February. Don't miss it!

Art Magazines

2011-01-18T10:57:00.000Z

Andrew Giddens appears in two UK Art Magazines this month.
Artist & Illustrators magazine has a feature about Andrew and his work towards his exhibition at Beside the Wave in May.

Leisure Painter magazine has a three page interview with Andrew discussing his working methods and his inspiration.

We are all looking forward to his next exhibition to enjoy Andrew's uniquely personal view of Cornwall.

Here's to a wonderful 2011!

2011-01-05T17:20:00.000Z

Firstly, a big thank you to all of you who chose to celebrate Christmas and New Year with paintings, jewellery and ceramics from Beside The Wave - it has been lovely to see you or speak to you all, and it is always great to be able to have good news for artists in the New Year.

We have lots planned for 2011, starting with the opening of a new gallery space upstairs and a refurbishment of the main gallery downstairs. Undetectable (almost) from the calm and convivial gallery floor, is fevered activity behind the scenes as space is opened up, collections are rationalised, carpets are ordered and decoraters and tradesmen lined up and ready for action. As you can see work upstairs is already in progress.. ...and Josie is now a slip of her former self owing to the number of times she has been up and down from the first floor to the basement, so watch this space, you may see her flash past!!!

Happy Christmas

2010-12-24T11:22:00.000Z

Own Art

2010-12-23T14:06:00.000Z

Do you know about Own Art Loans? Have you thought about Own Art Loans?

These are interest free loans which can really help spread the cost of buying a painting that you have fallen in love with. They are repayable in 10 monthly instalments and as they are completely interest free you never pay more than the advertised price.

Here are a few examples: This gorgeous painting by Paul Lewin could be yours, to enjoy every day, to transport you to a cliff top perch on Gwennap Head. And that could be possible for just £99.50 per month, for 10 monthly payments. ( That is approximately £24 per week or £3.42 per day.)

Or this beautiful little painting by Debbie George could be yours for £20 per month, or £5.00 per week or 71pence per day.

You could own an Amanda Hoskin for £55 per month for 10 months

Or a put a wonderful , joyful Emma Dunbar on your walls for £140 per month for 10 months

You can apply for as little as £100 or as much as £2,000 for the purchase of original works of art by living artists in any media including paintings, sculpture, ceramics, glassware, and artist made jewellery.

The gallery is open until 8pm today, Thursday, for the last late night shopping before Christmas. Tomorrow it is Christmas Eve and we are open until 3pm. After the big day and Boxing Day we open again through to the New Year, all the times are on our web site.

There is Jewellery Too...Sarah Wimperis takes a look at some very lovely things!

2010-12-17T11:12:00.000Z

When I visited the gallery with the mission to take some pictures of the jewellery for the blog I was overwhelmed by a fit of the entirely understandable, extremely natural but childish reaction..."I want that one, I want that one now and that one, oh and look at that..."

There are works that seem to have captured twigs and stoned in lustrous silver, like jack frost on his best and most brilliant morning. One necklace appeared to be made from delicate quails eggs interspersed with silver seed pods, a hatchery of dreams.

Then wonderful chunks of gem and crystal, huge lumps of geological gloriousness. Some cloudy collections of subtle colour others taking light and throwing it out with an ethereal glow. I can imagine never wanting to take them off, if the healing powers of precious stones are true, these creations would make you feel on top of the world.

Other works are stunning and so beautifully crafted that it is hard to believe that they are all recycled. Hours of labour I would imagine to create such light and colourful necklaces, bracelets and broaches. Wearing them would make a heart glow with green pride!

There are pieces that would enhance a neckline with a riot of colour, as if Rackham himself had got out his colouring pencils and began to think of mermaids, or doodled some rambling roses, creations in brilliantly coloured enamelled copper wire.

There are light hearted retro spotted pieces, intricate wire hearts sprinkled with deep red stones, huge yet delicate silver bangles like pleated Japanese silk, beaten silver hearts hanging from red velvet ribbons.

The collection is constantly changing so a visit to the gallery will reveal a multitude of wonderful, unique and beautiful jewellery made by inspired artists.

What a lovely Christmas present, or for a birthday or just to say "I love you" or "thank you" I can think of a million reasons...

Artists whose work you will find in the gallery are:

Holly Belsher. Abigail Brown. Becky Crawford. Philippa Dutton. Penny Gray.

Anne Hill. Stephanie Johnson. Emily Nixon. Mary Otty. Sarah Packington.

David Pascoe. Sally Pawson. Michael Peckitt. Victoria Smith. Annie Wilson.

Ceramics and Glass

2010-12-08T14:05:00.000Z

The gallery is not only a showcase for wonderful paintings but also houses a collection of some stunning work by contemporary crafts people, artists in clay, porcelain and glass.

The beautifully free and expressive work of Linda Styles whose multi layered, organically abstract pieces are always visually and physically exciting. Like an explosion of joie de vivre with her own glaze mixes and lustres layered and singing from each piece.

The work of Charlotte Jones is made from the fabric of Cornwall itself, with local clays from St Agnes and coloured with oxides and clays that she digs and collects herself. The inspiration for the pieces is clearly derived from Cornwall with echoes of slate roofs and surf smoothed stones, granite etched fields and wind bent hawthorn.

The pieces are wonderful to hold. The whole pot being built like a three dimensional collage, the pattern built into the structure, going all the way through rather than coating the surface.

Denise Roberts makes work that is a combination of thrown and hand building techniques. Her work is hand coloured before firing

There is a slightly vintage playful feel to her work, which makes sense as her inspiration comes partly from a childhood of family holidays spent caravanning around Britain.

If you are a visitor to the gallery you may have noticed the bright and beautiful works in fused glass that are always carefully placed to compliment the paintings.

These are the work of David Pascoe, who used to work as a fisherman, going to sea daily off the Cornish coast. The influence is there in the glass, the pieces are reminiscent of the colours found in buoys and nets, they have a slightly retro feel and are defiantly full to bursting with glorious colour.

These are just a few of the artists that we represent, visit the website for more or visit us in the gallery.

Brrrrr !!!!! Mulled Wine Rescheduled!!!

2010-12-01T16:05:00.001Z

It is definitely very cold outside, and we would like to invite all of you to come along to the Gallery on Saturday to see our Winter Collection and warm yourself with mulled wine and minced pies. We think this is a better idea than inviting you to join us this evening when it's minus 4 and lots of our roads resemble skating rinks...meanwhile, have a lovely snuggly evening, wherever you are!

Winter Exhibition 2010

2010-11-30T10:33:00.000Z

"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

2010-11-19T16:02:00.000Z

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

2010-11-08T10:48:00.000Z

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

2010-11-04T06:59:00.002Z

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

2010-11-02T11:47:00.000Z

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.

Visiting Miles Heseltine's Studio

2010-10-30T11:34:00.000+01:00

In the middle of Penzance, tucked in among the old pubs, houses and shops, is the building that once was the telephone exchange. We go in through the front doors, up echoing stairways, through empty hall ways and down a maze of corridors until we reach an unassuming door. Miles finds the keys and opens up a studio that is truly a reflection of the passion and conviction that goes into his paintings.

It is a tall light filled room with paintings in various stages up on the walls. Drawings abound, all over the room, high up near the ceilings, the gestural and passionate mark making is everywhere. Dark charcoal lines, dashes and dots, black shapes describe a landscape, roof tops or a church spire, all of them half seen, as if the artist is aware of them but is looking beyond, or looking further.

There is a pallet on the floor with the blood of many paintings, reminiscent of a crime scene, evidence of a strongly emotional style of making work.

There is also a camping stove and a kettle, matches spent and littering the floor. Shelves of books about other artists are near a paint splattered sink. In the other corner several battered boxes hold very old taxidermy subjects, a moth eaten otter and a strange water bird.

There is nothing neat or pretty about this studio, it is about the work and about the strong ambition that Miles has for himself as an artist, a personal inner drive. He wants to destroy the wall between drawing and painting, they are to be the same.

He doesn't have a fixed routine, arriving to paint sometimes before dawn, working nonstop for several hours before allowing himself space from the work. He has a process that he calls pruning where older canvasses are culled, scraped off and reused or destroyed.

When working in the landscape he uses large sheets of paper with charcoal, making the occasional little film, which he will later use as part of the process for a painting. He can't work from photographs as he says they take over too much.

Paintings start life on the floor, he walks around them, "Pollack style" and later they go up onto the walls for further work. His response to the landscape is personal and meditational, something may have caught his eye, through a clouded window, against a hazy sun, shapes in a velvet night, branches in the snow, all are re written in the hieroglyphics of a secret language.

It is a deeply personal space, somewhere that it was a privilege to be allowed to see because Miles Heseltine is a private kind of man, quiet, almost shy, but one who obviously strips his soul bare to transcribe his response to the landscape around him in deep paint and raw canvas, torn through with the powerful, and all important, marks of drawing.

Maritime Museum

2010-10-28T18:07:00.000+01:00

Thomson "Celebration" in No.2 Docks
660mm x 1020mm, oil on canvas

"Thompson "Celebration" in No 2 Docks" by John Raynes

will be included in the exhibition. 150 Years of Falmouth Docks at the Maritime Museum, Falmouth from 2 Dec – 30 March

The Maritime Museum will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of Falmouth Docks with this special exhibition. Falmouth has been used as a harbour for over 2,000 years and the docks have been an industrial hub since their creation in the mid-19th Century. Through models, film, objects, paintings and stunning photography the exhibition explores this fascinating history, with a special focus on the Dock’s heyday in the 1950s.

Falmouth Docks courtesy of the David Barnicoat collection

For our exhibition last year, "Industrial Cornwall" Raynes has made several stunning works about Falmouth docks. The tangle of metal, buildings and boats providing a wonderful foil for his skills as artist and draftsman.

Dry Dock, Falmouth
350mm x 470mm, pencil on paper

Under Crane
350mm x 300mm, oil on canvas

A Picture of Cornwall

2010-10-22T12:07:00.000+01:00

Five Beside The Wave artists have been showcased in a new book, and our next show has been designed to coincide with its publication. "A Picture of Cornwall: Contemporary Artists and the Inspirational Landscape" by Ray Balkwill features the work of Beside The Wave Artists Paul Lewin, Amanda Hoskin, Neil Pinkett, John Raynes and Richard Tuff. In recognition of this, we are holding an exhibition of their work.
The show opens tomorrow (Saturday 23rd) and here is a taste of what is to come...

Paul Lewin's stunning paintings of Cornwall with their powerful sense of place...

Amanda Hoskin's masterful impressionist work brings a feminine softness to the misty Cornish coastline...

Neil Pinkett throws us in at the deep end with his masterful use of paint and light...

John Raynes gives us a visual treat with every painting of Cornwall that he produces, each line considered and every colour chosen carefully with a result that looks almost effortless...

and last, but not least, Richard Tuff presents chalky pastel cottages wedged between Cornwall's tropical vegetation with skies as blue as a Mediterranean summers day.

All of them images of Cornwall to be celebrated and enjoyed. We look forward to welcoming you to the show over the next two weeks.

Oyster Festivities

2010-10-18T16:00:00.000+01:00

Falmouth has been on a major high for the past few days. Not only have we been enjoying a high pressure the like of which only Mediterranean climes would expect at this time of year (azure skies, sparkling water amidst deep autumnal shadows), but we have also had the annual Falmouth Oyster Festival playing out around us. Thousands of visitors have been enjoying the grace and flavour of oysters, chilled white wine and chilled out sounds - and its been a great to welcome so many festival goers into the Gallery on their way to and from the festivities. And it goes without saying that joining in after hours was great fun also!

Private View Andrew Giddens

2010-10-11T16:02:00.000+01:00

We had a brilliant evening at the private view of "Cornish Coast" by Andrew Giddens. As well as collectors, artists and friends, we were joined by Andrew's family, and were delighted to be introduced to his grandfather who is justifiably proud of his grandson and to whom we raised a glass! The work looked wonderful and over a dozen works have already sold.

After the Private View we went to the Made For Life Charity Ball where two prints donated by Beside The Wave to the Charity Auction attracted intensely competitive bids and rasied over £300 for the Charity. These were "Falmouth Sails" by Andrew Tozer and "Summer Flowers" by Amanda Hoskin.
Made For Life supports people with cancer by providing opportunities for health, healing and laughter and, in short, a holistic approach to life and wellbeing. Amanda Barlow, founder of Made for Life was 'made up' (excuse the pun) as the night raised £8,000 for the charity, and we were delighted to raise a glass to her too!

Falmouth Sails, Andrew Tozer

Summer Flowers, Amanda Hoskin

To see all the paintings in the show, as well as other prints and paintings, please visit Beside The Wave web site don't forget that you can see a bigger image of each painting by clicking on it. Better still, visit the gallery and see them in person. This exhibition continues until October 21st.

Visiting Andrew Giddens Studio

2010-10-08T18:50:00.002+01:00

Arriving at Andrew Giddens studio is like walking through one of his paintings. Across the beach with the headland bleached out by surf spray. Up the winding cliff path, salt in the air and the sound of crashing waves. Through a gap in the hedge and into a modest shed perched high on the cliffs.

There is nothing fanciful about this studio, this is an honest and straightforward working space. It is very peaceful and calm. The windows are open allowing the sound of the surf far below to mingle with the sound of wild birds attracted by the abundant blackberries that graze the walls of the building.

There is a large easel with a painting of Porthleven in progress. Paint, in the soft greys and subtle yellows of his paintings, covers everything,

the old office chair could have been upholstered by Jackson Pollock.

There is a table laden with tubes of oil paint in various stages of use, some are split open to use the last scrapings, a pallet, which appears to be an old bread board has transformed into a grey, three dimensional landscape. He uses Old Holland oil paint because the high pigment content makes them useful for glazing, Daler Rowney because of the buttery texture. There are very few brushes as he says he forgets to clean them and so he prefers to paint with a knife and his fingers.

Sketchbooks lie open on the floor beside a comfortable arm chair with glimpses of vigorous drawings and new blank canvasses are stacked by the walls ready to be transformed into Andrews atmospheric paintings.

Andrew has worked here for four years, his working day starts at 8.30 and he paints until about 1pm. Although he sometimes breaks this habit to give his three boys their maths or science lessons. In the afternoon he has time with the boys, walking on the beach and exploring the stretch of coastline that is home to them.

This family time seems to be one of the fundamental elements of Andrew as an artist as he explains more about his painting methods.

The relationship that he has with a place is intimately bound together with memories and experiences. Time spent with the important people in his life is wound, with paint, into the beauty of the scenes that he depicts. He finds it almost impossible to paint somewhere until his children have run across the sand, or he has walked along the cliff paths and they have spent many happy hours exploring together. He can paint places that he knew well in his childhood and places that he is discovering with his own children now.

I suspect that if you wanted Andrew to paint your favourite beach you would have to take him on holiday with you for quite a few years!

There is nothing fanciful about Andrew as an artist, like his studio, he is honest and straightforward. He paints what he sees and it seems as if he sees with his heart wide open.

Here we are....

2010-09-23T14:13:00.011+01:00

Hello and welcome to our blog. This is a new departure for us and we hope that over time it will provide a great place to find out more about art, artists and what goes on behind the scenes on at Beside The Wave...

Our blog will provide insights into the workings of the gallery and, through it, collectors will be able to meet their favourite artists (and visit their studios), see collections coming together and understand more about how and why artists choose to paint. We are also planning Master-Classes, news froom Previews and will also be showing you some of the places that are depicted in the paintings that we exhibit. In short it will be THE place to find all sorts of things to do with the 'goings on' at the The Gallery.
We are happy to say that Beside The Wave is one of Cornwall's most established and best loved galleries and that we are launching this blog in celebration of its 21st Birthday. Meanwhile, if you want to come and find us in real life, this is where we are...