Robert Laidlaw MORLEY

Robert Laidlaw MORLEY
Mr Bob, Fairfax Hake
1944

Robert Morley was born in Bristol. From 1961 to 1963 he was a student at the West of England College of Art in Bristol. A musician as well as an artist, he has worked in west Penwith since 1973. In 1974 he participated in an ITV 'Aquarius' arts programme entitled 'St Ives Alive'.

His work has been exhibited over a long career, not only in Cornwall but also in London and Europe. Further afield, in 2005 Morley participated in a collaborative project (part of Expo 2005) for a ceramic sculpture at Chukyo University in Japan. He has also had work shown in India and Australia.

From 1981 to 1991 Morley was the bass player and a founder member of the Afro-Cornish dub rock band 'Zambula' formed by Titus Mwange Sembatiya who came to Cornwall from Uganda. He played bass for the Clive Palmer Band from 2010 to 2014 (Clive was a founder member in 1966 of the Incredible String Band).

He became part of a group of artists, actors, writers and musicians who took over the ailing West Cornwall Arts Centre in Penzance, re-naming it The Acorn Theatre.

In 1974, Ivan Benbrook (of the British Film Institute) wrote: 'We live in only a small part of reality; there is always so much more than we can perceive with our limited senses. The artist's fantasies can often help us to see a part of that greater reality. Bob's paintings are not just intellectual statements, but pictures of how things might be. They are windows to look through, holes in everyday reality through which we can wander and discover new things about ourselves, our concept of our relationship with the world with which we surround ourselves.'

media

Oils, watercolour, acrylics, ceramics

exhibitions

2003: Ceramica Penzance Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens

2008: PZ Gallery

2017: Public Hanging, Penwith Gallery, St Ives (May-June)

2018: Public Hanging, Heritage Courtyard Gallery, Wells

2023: Public Hanging, LSG Withiel (25 Feb-18 Mar)

references

Hardie (1995) 100 Years in Newlyn/Diary