Cornwall Art Galleries Porthminster Gallery St Ives Cornish and British Artists Contemporary Modern Art for Sale

NOW SHOWING:

'FIRST BLUSH | SPRING COLLECTION'

ORIGINAL AND AFFORDABLE ARTIST PRINTS

30 FEBRUARY - 8 JUNE 2024

Happy Easter!
We celebrate the long-awaited arrival of Springtime, with a show of new contemporary artworks by gallery artists: Amy Albright, Andrew Bird, and Sam Boughton, and a return to the gallery of sculptural jewellery by guest jeweller Hannah Souter. 

Also showing for the first time is guest ceramicist Rhiannon Petrucci. 

Andrew Bird is well-known for his abstract paintings of Cornish coastal landscapes. Here, though, his recent practice of monotype-making is in the spotlight with a fabulous new series of unique handmade mixed-media works. In these, Bird charts his distorted geometry of west Cornwall's mines and harbours into abstract vocabularies - as did notable artists of the St Ives Movement, examples of which also feature in the show.

Award-winning Cornish artist Amy Albright takes inspiration from south Cornwall's coastline in her atmospheric, layered oil paintings where the ethereal half-imagined, half-real boundaries of land and water merge, to give the viewer a sense of calm serenity - albeit one tinged with a lurking air of mystery and the unknown.

Sam Boughton's new series of expressive semi-abstract landscapes were painted en plein air, at coastal locations between Cape Cornwall and St Ives. Fascinated by the light, weather, and the seasons playing out upon West Penwith's wild and open spaces, Boughton works with mixed media on large-scale paper, to quickly capture the immediacy, energy, and dramatic sense of place in these emotionally charged works. The works were then developed further in her studio in Devon, where she lives.

Showing for the very first time in Cornwall, Hannah Souter's sculptural fine silver jewellery combines subtle oxidised, and etched surface textures with contrasting 18ct gold detail, freshwater pearls, or semi-precious beads. Her unique, distinctive jewellery collections are mainly inspired by delicate organic structures - especially of seed pods and buds - found in nature. For this show, we have also selected pieces with a Barbara Hepworth vibe.

Cornish ceramicist Rhiannon Petrucci's hand-built and pit-fired Cornish stoneware Goddess vessels and Earth Mother statuettes - celebrate the divine feminine at this season of birth and rebirth, fertility, and fecundity.