Carolle Blackwell's imaginative sculptures, created from local stoneware clay, are influenced by ancient cultures.
Carolle died in 2022.
Peter Blagg: A Critical Appreciation: by the late Michael Canney, Director of Phil Whiting, Penzance, Cornwall
'As a native of Camborne-Redruth, I know that visually these towns are far from inspiring. Mining has shaped both of them, together with the surrounding countryside, so that finding an artist at work here is something of a surprise. However, Peter LANYON drew and painted around Dolcoath Mine at the Western foot of Carn Brea. The multi-talented Phil Whiting produced many of his early works here, under the encouragement of Arthur HAMBLY, influential head of the Redruth School of Art.
Thirty-three years ago, Peter Blagg too captured much of the character of the area in a series of evocative paintings and drawings, but he unaccountably seems to have been overlooked by critics and historians of art in Cornwall. A typical title of one of Blagg`s drawings, `Redruth: View Towards Carn Brea`not only gives the flavour of his work at the time, but also indicates that countryside and seascape are knocking at the suburban door here, so that these works are townscapes and landscapes combined, Blagg`s subject matter is
found in the heartless granite terraces of Redruth, the surrounding fields and mine dumps, in mine engine houses, furzey hedgegrows with brass bedsteads in lieu of farm gates. It takes an exceptional artist to find inspiration here: to rise above the
overwhelming melancholy of industry dead and gone – of subsistence farming, but Blagg does allow himself the luxury of painting the neighbouring sea-coast, indulging in positively `Lanyonesque` gestural works with their freely brushed imagery. These are unique.
In 1963 or thereabouts, I arranged an exhibition of Blagg`s work in the lower gallery at Newlyn, where, I recall, it looked well. It was impossible at time to discern what he might do in the future or where his talent might take him? Over thirty years on, I now look forward to seeing the answer.'
Michael Canney ( Curator; Newlyn Art Gallery/Broadcaster B.B.C. Bristol) September 1996
Peter Blagg exhibited at the Newlyn Art Gallery in 1963.
An artist identified as F Blair exhibited a painting in the Summer Exhibition at NAG in 1926. This artist may or may not be the same person as Frances M BLAIR in the next entry.
Frances Blair produced watercolours and woodcuts. Before her move to Cornwall she was based in Edinburgh and was a member of the Scottish Society of Artists.
Born in Padstow, Cornwall, she became the wife of Samuel Blake. In the 1891 Census, she is identified as living at 55 High Street, Falmouth, and as a teacher of Art Needlework.
A major exponent of Pop Art, Blake became internationally recognised in the 1960s. Falmouth Art Gallery holds some of his work.
2016 NEW INFORMATION JUST ARRIVED: A cousin of Justin Blake has written with the following information: 'His birth name was Paul Richardson, the son of Stella and Bernard Richardson of Barnet, Herts and he had a brother Andrew, who I believe went to live in the Adelaide area of Australia.' I remember Paul fondly as he was a really nice person, though I heard that he was a little flash for Mousehole, driving an E-type Jag.' The cousin lives in Western Australia, and has tried to locate Andrew without success. Any help would be appreciated.
2013:'My husband bought a Justin Blake from the artist in the 1960's. I found another which I bought 20 years ago. Justin Blake was missing and his body was found down a tin mine. An artist in Lamorna told us this and that this is why his output was curtailed.'
Previous enquirers: Three welcome correspondents have contributed the following memories:
A. 'I noted the entry of the painting The Talisman fishing boat Mousehole, for this artist. My daughter did see this painting for sale a few years ago in an art gallery in Mousehole and was interested, because I have a small original, oil on board bought from the artist in Mousehole during the 1960's. It depicted the harbour showing the Lobster Pot Hotel which sadly, has now been redeveloped. I spent several holidays there. My late husband used to go out shark fishing on The Talisman with Frank and Phillip the owners of the boat. I bought the painting at the time when the artist was short of money and had a small child. I have wondered what happened to him. I believe he used the name 'Justin Blake' as there was an artist of a similar name to his real name - which I do not know - painting at the same time in St Ives.' (2011)
B. Another correspondent (2012) writes that he would also like to know more about Justin Blake and what has happened to him. He has a painting that he bought from the artist in the 1960s, which hangs again in his study after a few years in the attic until a recent move. He met the artist painting at the harbour in Mousehole, and came back the following day to collect the finished subject.
C. A third correspondent (2012) writes from Adelaide, Australia: About 15 years ago, I walked into a second-hand shop near my home, and saw a painting hanging on the wall. I had to buy it as it brought back many memories. The painting looks towards The Lobster Pot and a row of buildings behind. From memory I think Andrews Street runs behind it. In the forefront is a circular area of sea, with a couple of small boats tied up. It is signed by Justin Blake on the the front. On the back is a label saying,`Original oil by JUSTIN BLAKE,SEASCAPES,FISHING VILLAGES, STORM AND WRECK. Studio at Wavecrest, Mousehole, Cornwall, England.
A correspondent (2020) has told us of a 1960s Justin Blake painting entitled 'Sir Francis Chichester in the Roaring 40s' depicting a sailing boat in the midst of a squall, which he inherited from his father.
A correspondent (2018) has been in touch to share his memories of Paul, whom he knew in 1962, when they travelled together from London to Devon, finding work and accommodation in Cockington. The correspondent remembers Paul writing poetry and doing portraits on the quay at Brixham.
This correspondent contacted us again in 2024 to advise us of further research he has carried out on Paul Bernard Richardson. He is sure this is the same artist known as Justin Blake. 'Bernard' was apparently his father's name. The correspondent has forwarded to us an article from the West Briton & Royal Cornwall Gazette, dated 15 December 1983, which confirms the tragic news that the body of Paul Bernard Richardson had been found down a mineshaft, four years after the artist's disappearance in November 1979 at the age of 36. Foul play was not suspected.
Referred to as an artist about whom information is held at the St Ives Archive Trust. Nothing else known at present.
Sarah Blakey works from a studio which is part of The Old Workshop, a unique historic building in Charlestown.
Marjorie Blamey's art career began in earnest when she was invited by the Cornwall Garden Society to show some of her floral works at their Spring Flower Show. Since that time she has taken to botanical and floral illustration with enthusiasm and success. Her first commission was from Cornish horticulturist, Neil Treseder, to illustrate a book on magnolias.
She has built up an impressive archive of more than 10,000 paintings of flowers and plants, and her husband, Philip, has taken on the work of building up these files. Her illustrations are employed in many books about wild flowers, alpine flowers, and food. She is also author of Learn to Paint Flowers, published by Collins. She has won three gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society and two from the Alpine Garden Society. (WMN, 13 Feb 2007)
In 1984 an exhibition of her paintings was held at the RIC/RCM, in Truro. In 2007 she was presented with her OBE medal by the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall, Lady Mary Holborow. She and her husband lived in St Germans.
Sydney Josephine Bland was born in York to Irish parents. In 1891 the family were living at Northam in Devon, at which time she was known as 'Kate'. In 1901 she was at school in Willesden, London, and in 1911 was working as a hospital nurse in the City of London. Between 1920 and 1922 she studied art at Heatherley's under Henry Massey, and also at Goldsmiths with Harold Speed (1922-3). She undertook further study with Bernard Adams. During the 1930s she had a studio in the Fulham Road, London, and first exhibited with SWA in 1938.
Her scenes of Newlyn and Polperro indicated a love of Cornwall. She exhibited a watercolour of Polperro at the RI in 1940. In 1945 a Polperro subject was included in her exhibits at the Newlyn Society of Artists. By 1948 she was living at 35 Fore Street, Newlyn, later moving to Swan's Flight, Boase Street. In 1964 (by then in her 80s) she moved to Ingwenia at Carbis Bay. She remained in Cornwall for the rest of her life.
Blasbery studied art at Croydon College of Art, focusing on painting and printmaking. Her exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery in 2000 included her icon painting, A Song of Praise (oil & gold leaf). This was representative of her stated intention of 'expressing a spiritual life-force in each painting which in themselves are only a minute part of the spiritual whole surrounding us'. [20 Years of contemporary art]
(LEACH POTTERY 1942 - 1943)
Born Lincoln (1920), he attended Lincoln School of Art from the age of 14. He was awarded the Gibney Scholarship, which enabled him to 'devote his time to the cultivation of art'. He undertook apprenticeship training at Wedgwood, Stoke-on-Trent, attending Burslem School of Art for additional studies. He worked at Winchcombe Pottery in 1941 until it closed in June 1942, taking charge for a period in the absence of Ray Finch and Michael CARDEW.
In 1942 he moved to the Leach Pottery where he was part of the team along with Dick Kendal and Margaret Leach, and Leach's main thrower until 1943. There he met many visitors coming to see Leach, and he found a special friend in Dicon NANCE, who ran a craft workshop on the wharf at St Ives.
From 1943 he was Lecturer in Pottery at Lincoln School of Art, teaching sculpture and pottery, remaining there until 1967 when he resigned from his teaching post. He had three children under the age of ten. He set up his own pottery with a gallery showroom in Reepham, Lincolnshire, and his wife Marjorie managed the business and the sales. In 1990 he officially retired, but carried on working, sculpting and drawing, until his death.
As an artist and tutor, Robert was uncompromising, totally consistent in his judgment, and much respected by his students. His aim was to produce pottery that was functional with aesthetic appeal, using colours that are natural to clay and reflect nature. His sense of form and design were unerring, and his influence on those he instructed profound (Digital Museum).
Whybrow comments that 'many of Robert's pots were unsigned as he believed, as Hamada did, that a good pot spoke for itself regardless of the maker.'
Sue trained at the Falmouth College of Art in sculpture and then earned an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London. She was one of the original group of artists who worked together and exhibited together under the name of PALP (Penwith Artist-Led Projects) designed to be site-specific exhibitions of a range of arts and crafts. Usually these were in the form of conceptual constructions and installations, and began as an annual exhibition in 2000.
The artist is listed as a member of NSA (2011).
Otis Blease works from a studio in Penryn. He undertook a Foundation course at Falmouth University and in 2018 obtained a BA (Hons) in Drawing and Printmaking from UWE Bristol. His work has been exhibited widely in Bristol.
Named in the 'Professional Class' of photographers at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society exhibition of 1876, one of the first two ladies to exhibit in the Professional Class at RCPS, with a speciality in portraits. No further information currently available.
Born in Redruth, this antiquarian of wide interests is recorded as living in Penwith in 1864, at 8 Alverton Terrace. Alongside many sketches and paintings, mainly in watercolour, he wrote articles for learned journals, and books on topics such as Ancient Crosses and Other Antiquities in the West of Cornwall (1857), and his well-known A Week at the Land's End (1861).
Having suffered a mental breakdown in the mid-1860s, Blight spent the rest of his life in Bodmin Mental Asylum.
Joseph Blight was born at Redruth in 1837, the son of Robert and Thomasine Blight and younger brother of John Thomas Blight. His father was a schoolteacher and around 1839 the family moved to Penzance. By 1861 Joseph is recorded as an engraver on wood while his brother John is described as an artist.
Around 1861 Joseph was offered a job in London as an engraver for Cassells, the book publishers, and as he was finding in difficult to earn a living in Cornwall, he moved to London and by 1871 he was living as a boarder in Islington. He continued to carry out commissions for acquaintances in Cornwall.
He completed engravings for his brother, John and also for W C Borlase. He illustrated a lecture on Penzance by George Bown Millett in 1876 and also the 2nd and 3rd series of William Bottrell's Stories and Folk Lore of West Cornwall in 1873 and 1880. In the 1881 census he is back living in Penzance with his mother and sister.
He later returned to London, where he was described in the 1891 census as an artist and illustrator. He died in Greenwich in 1894.
John Blight was born in Beckenham. He graduated from St Martins School of Art in 1964. His work has been exhibited extensively in Cornwall, Devon, Sussex and London.
He is a founder member and chair of the Cornwall Watercolour Society. He is also the owner of the Camelford Gallery.
Recorded as a participant in the St Ives Show Day of 1923. Regularly exhibiting with STISA, she does not appear to have done so after 1932, when her address is given as Hampstead Garden City. She mainly produced coloured woodcuts, favouring castles, bridges and old houses.
Born in Calcutta of British parents, the artist spent five months in Paris where he also exhibited at the Salon (1885). His addresses were consecutively London (1880), Mansfield, Notts 1883 and 1896, with St Ives in-between in 1890 (J&G). He served on the first Committee of the St Ives Art Club which was formed in 1890. Previously, in 1889, he was Secretary of the Cricket Club in St Ives that often played against the Newlyn artists.
In the infamous storm of 1891, he rescued a child from the sea after observing the accident from his studio. His name is sometimes written as Blomfield, Bloomefield (1891 Census) and Bloomfield.
Bloor's recent illustration clients include the BBC and Heinemann Books. He has produced illustrations for book jackets, advertisements and magazines.
Born in London, Blow studied at St Martins School of Art and then the RA Schools, finishing up her student days at the Academie della Belle Arte, Rome in 1948. She taught at the Royal College of Art, London. After some further travelling she settled in London before arriving in West Cornwall, to stay a year in a cottage at Tregerthen to be near Patrick HERON and his wife Delia. Other close friends were Roger and Rose HILTON. Latterly she became a member of the Hypatia Trust and made a significant donation to the establishment of the WCAA in Penzance.
Over the remaining years she lived and worked both in London and in West Cornwall, associating herself with several societies in both places. In the 1990s she acquired one of the Porthmeor Studios, and from that studio came her first painting for the Tate Gallery St Ives (Porthmeor Beach exhibition). She joined the Penwith Society in 1958, and was elected an associate of the RA in 1971 (RA 1978).
Erika Bloxam was born and brought up in St Ives, and has painted from early childhood. A self-taught artist she is much aware of her surroundings and represents them in her paintings.
She exhibits her work locally and most recently at the Emanuel Gallery in St Ives.
An aquatint by this artist, after a painting by James TONKIN, is in the collection of Penlee House Gallery & Museum, and was exhibited in 2011 as part of 'The Marvellous Everyday' show of photographs and paintings. It is A View of Mount's Bay, 1809.
Inspired by Ruskin's Modern Painters, Blunden abandoned her career as a governess in order to become an artist. She exhibited from 1853, attracting Ruskin's attention in 1859 when she exhibited God's Gothic and Past and Present at the RA. The work that merits her inclusion in the Cornwall Artists Index was painted in watercolour at Lizard Point in 1862.
Encouraged by Ruskin, she visited and worked in Italy from 1867 to 1872. Blunden (or Mrs Martino) married her late sister's husband in Germany, then settled near Birmingham and exhibited there until her death.
A recent correspondent (May 2011) reports a watercolour painting of 'Mullion Island from Polurrian [sic] Cove' dated 1900, which was inherited from a family who lived in the same street as Mrs Martino (Anna B) in the Birmingham area. This may indicate further visit(s) to Cornwall for painting opportunities.
A correspondent (2019) suggests that Anna Blunden painted a lot in the Lizard area in the 1860s, and was thought to have been acquainted with the Rev. Edmond George Harvey, vicar of Mullion from 1865 to 1881. Her address was given as 'The Lizard' at the Liverpool Exhibition. During this time she had three Cornish paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy: 'Kynance Cove' (1863), 'Mullion Cove' (1864) and 'Tintagel' (1867).
At the Bath & West Country show of 1863 she exhibited 'Lizard Point' and also 'Lizard Light'. The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society noted her fascination with the Lizard area the same year, and in 1864 at the Society for British Artists 41st exhibition she showed 'The Cathedral Rock, Mullion'.
In 1900 at the Autumn exhibition of the RBSA, Anna Blunden Martino (as signed) hung A Cornish Cathedral: Symphony of Evensong, which was to be sold at £25.
C Wood comments that A W Hunt, Holman Hunt and David Roberts all admired her works.