SUMMER SHOW: EDIT 2 | JOANNE LAST, ANNE BARRELL, CRAIG UNDERHILL & TREVOR PRICE
New collections of Cornwall coastal-inspired abstract paintings by Joane Last feature alongside the Cornish coastal- and still life-themed original prints and paintings by the multi award-winning St Ives-based artist, Trevor Price. The works are complemented by new ceramics collections by Anne Barrell and Craig Underhill.
JOANNE LAST | 2023 SUMMER COLLECTION
This new collection of abstract paintings by Joanne Last has taken brave and exciting new pathways and directions to explore Cornwall’s coastal landscape. Her rich layerings of textures, colours, and mark-making ground the works with a palpable sense of history and place.
“I am one of those people that have absolutely no sense of direction and if I were walking on my own anywhere, I would most definitely have to follow the path! However, it is the precise opposite when it comes to my painting. In this new collection, I have continued to ask myself, ‘What if I go there?’, ‘What if I try this?’, ‘What do I really want to do?’ Sometimes the answer surprises me, sometimes I end up back where I started, and sometimes it’s as if I knew the destination was waiting all along, I just needed to go on the journey.
“The idea of ‘Transitions’ (see above) and some of the other titles, reference how that journey has influenced me and moved my work to new pastures. I have gravitated to more saturated colour – lime greens and yellow, as well as to different darks of rich olive green and almost black. There is a looser application of paint and a fresh return to the influence of landscape. There are still the common threads that never cease to delight and interest me - rich texture, layers, and a sense of history.”
Click to view new Joanne Last works available
TREVOR PRICE | 2023 SUMMER COLLECTION
A must-see selection of Cornish coastal- and still life-themed original prints and paintings by the multi award-winning St Ives Ives-based artist, Trevor Price.
Whilst perhaps best-known for his colourful prints themed around the intimacy between a couple – sometimes romantic, sometimes erotic, and often humorous – it is Trevor Price’s recent monochromatic still life- and sea-themed prints and paintings that feature in this collection.
Location, and his Cornish roots, are strong themes for Price, who spends a lot of time in St Ives drawing his surroundings. His chief influences are the works of preceding artists also with Cornwall connections – Ben Nicholson, William Scott, and Cecil Collins – though Price also cites the influences of Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso.
The prints on show are linocuts, and drypoints – made by drawing on the surface of a zinc or Perspex sheet with a soldering iron, and then printing from the marks made. Experimenting with diverse techniques, is what draws Price to printmaking.
Click to view new Trevor Price works available
ANNE BARRELL | 2023 SUMMER COLLECTION
Sailing boats, masted-ships, sunny coves safe harbours, and all things to do with the sea and coast, are themes in Anne Barrell’s new summer collection of unique hand-painted ceramics.
Inspired by British maritime history and 20th-century art – chiefly the ‘primitive’ paintings of self-taught St Ives artist and fisherman, Alfred Wallis – Anne Barrell’s ‘naive’ sgraffito ceramics are eagerly sought by British and overseas collectors alike.
Barrell makes her characterful platters, dishes, bowls, and jugs from red earthenware clay which is either thrown on the wheel, or slab built, which she then paints with a layer of white liquid clay known as slip. Images are scratched through the white layer revealing the red clay beneath.
Click to view new Anne Barrell works available
CRAIG UNDERHILL | 2023 SUMMER COLLECTION
For this summer's collection, award-winning ceramicist Craig Underhill continues his exploration and ‘discovery’ of the dramas, and the beauty of the west Cornwall coastline on his doorstep. The inspiration gained, informs the distinctive painterly, playful, and elemental slab built ceramic forms that he creates.
Applying layers of engobes, slips, and underglaze colours when the clay is leather-hard, Underhill creates depth to the surface by combining layering, mark making, and glazing techniques, to evoke each work with a ‘sense of place’.
Click to view new Craig Underhill works available
This exhibition is complemented by newly acquired sculptures and ceramics by permanent and invited artists, along with works for sale by a selection of Tate St Ives artists who were also inspired by the changing forms of the Cornish landscape, notably: Terry Frost; Barbara Hepworth; Patrick Heron; and Bryan Pearce.
