- Venue
- Cornwall Contemporary Gallery
- Location
- South West England
Penzance and Newlyn are both currently undergoing redevelopment which could cause considerable changes to the appearance of the sea front of Mounts Bay. To quote from the Penwith Council, “Work is steaming ahead for the new Fish Market”. Neil Pinkett, having grown up locally, shows himself as sensitive to such changes as they are instigated. His oil on canvas paintings, using early morning sunlight, or from the vantage point of his studio, capture working boats and the temporary, even fragile nature, of some of these battered harbour buildings. His engaging pictures display skilfully, realistically yet poetically, the marine and industrial atmosphere of the fishing port and the sea about. (www.neilpinkett.co.uk) There is one large canvas, and two tiny ones, by Jeremy Le Grice, who has also written the internet notes to the exhibition. These works show him as experimental as ever and the magnificent lyrical blues of “Newlyn Harbour Entrance”(116cmx90cm) somehow remind me of the poem Thalassa. Louis Mac Neice captures that same daring adventure by which men set forth out of port that this painting registers:- The narwhal dares us to be free;
By a high star our course is set,
Our end is Life. Put out to sea. This is an exhibition of contrasting moods and scenes. Emma Dunbar’s acrylics have a contemporary feel in the bright cmplementaries of “Nets and Flags of Newlyn” and “”Newlyn Houses”. On the other hand the layers of wintry colours in Reuben Colley’s oils build with sombre effect. His splendid views across the harbour have a meditative pathos in their subtle grey tones. The mixed media of Maggie Matthews add life, colour and contrast to this exhibition whilst a jovial element can also be discerned in the vivid and pleasing “Blue Booats and Pink Buoys”. The unusual work at the start of the exhibition, by Nancy Pickard’s mixed media with text, seems situated between scrimshaw and ceramic in it’s ancient organic surface.”Time Ashore” and “Driven South” seem as though they were inspired by romantic poets and yet have a nautical touch of Herman Melville about them. This variety is apparent in the Matisse like portrait of a “Sleeping Fisherman” by Jamie Boyd that adds a pleasing tranquil feel to the little corner in which it has been hung. There is much to enjoy on the middle floor –I particularly enjoyed Nancy Pickard’s “Truth about Grandma” –and the works by Janet Lynch. Then ascending to the attic gallery, the littoral edge of Ben Cook’s “Surf Stories” emerge. Here we have some rather Edward Hopper like pieces moulded into surfboards in UV-L Resin and plywood-the effect feels upbeat and amusing. Equally engaging are the great series of detailed sketches of the trackways to the major magnificent surf spots that convey a secret, Bevis-like boyish charm hidden beneath the thick undergrowth of vegetation.
