Listed by the Lander Gallery, Truro, as a regular exhibitor in 2011.
Born in Bude and apart from student days in London, Thorn has lived all his life on the north coast of Cornwall. He was fortunate to study Fine Art at Redruth and Falmouth Schools of Art at a period of great international significance, with lectures from artists from the St Ives School including Terry FROST and Denis MITCHELL. Although he went on to become a successful graphic designer, their influence and inspiration fuelled a life-long love of painting.
'My landscapes are an interpretation of the elements I observe. Sketches and paintings are executed in the studio from memory and brief on-the-spot notations. In this sense they are 'abstract'-not direct renditions of the subject. I absorb impressions and note down the colours, shapes and overall effects. In the paintings that evolve in the studio I am concerned to capture the essential character, rhythm and formal relationship of landscape and not accurate detail.'
http://www.stisa.co.uk/artist-gallery/stuart-thorn/
The artist is also thought to have signed himself under the names of William A Thornbery, Thornberry, W A Thornbury, Hubert William Thornley and Thornery also using Georges William (Benezit). The family name was Thornbery (Brook-Hart), and he most commonly used Charles Thornely and William Thornley (unless perchance these are different artists) for exhibition signing.
Lest this artist entry simply becomes a study of names, it should be noted that dictionaries vary in their treatment of the artist's paintings. The purpose of listing William Thornley (1857-1935) is to notice his painting, Mounts Bay, Cornwall (c1880) and also Shipping Off the Coast (nd). He exhibited works at the Paris Salon and the Salon of French Artists, receiving an honorable mention in 1881 and a third place medal in 1888. He painted a number of landscapes of Holland, Norway, Belgium and Italy, but is best remembered for his seascapes.
Shelley Thornton is a St Ives-based painter who moved to Cornwall from Yorkshire after the birth of her first child. Her work blends images of the steel furnaces and coalmines of her northern roots with modern cityscapes and the contrasting beauty of Cornwall. Often her painting draws inspiration from her passion for music.
Her work is found in private and corporate collections worldwide and she has participated in many solo and group exhibitions in London and the south west. She is a member of the high-end art consultancy Artiq's global network of artists.
In 2023, Shelley was artist in residence at The Headland Hotel & Spa, Fistral Beach, Newquay.
She is a regular exhibitor at STISA open shows.
Though there is little information about this artist, she exhibited photographs in the Winter Craft Exhibition of 1924 at NAG and again the following year, in December 1925.
Painter of marine subjects, landscape, still-life and birds; most of his work is in private collections. The Polytechnic Arts Committee, Falmouth exhibited 'Paintings by The Helford Artist P C Thurburn', listing 65 paintings lent by 12 lenders and the painter himself. (c1961).
The 1871 Census notices a 24 year old Harry J Thurhall [sic] born in Royston, Cambridgeshire. He was found to be lodging with Edward Lavin at the Mounts Bay House Hotel, Penzance. Johnson & Greutzner list his exhibition dates as 1880-1919 in a broad range of galleries and museums. It is not known how long Thurnhall was resident here as yet, as this is well before the main influx of Newlyners had arrived.
Bednar points out that since he was in Cornwall in 1871 he may have exhibited with West Cornwall Art Union (first formed in 1852 at Falmouth), but we have no extant catalogues for this period. Only the 1877 and 1884 exist in our present collections. Otherwise, nationally he began to exhibit in 1873.
The artist died in Royston, Cambridgeshire, where he was born.
John Hannington Thurston was born in Ipswich, son of John Thurston and his wife Elizabeth Mary nee Hannington, who married at St George's, Hanover Square, London on 19 November 1861. His father died in Islington, London in 1866, and in 1869 his mother remarried, to Charles Smith in Brighton. In 1871 John was a 6-year old, living at Rose Villa, Keymer, Sussex with his stepfather (a wine merchant), his 30-year old mother, his 4-year old sister Beatrice (1866-1872), and a 10-month old stepsister, Bessie May.
By 1881, young John was a 16-year old learning the wine business, and the enlarged family were now living at High Street, Henfield, Steyning, Sussex. In 1891, a 26-year old draper's clerk, living at Whaphams Freehold, Henfield, Sussex with his stepfather Charles, now a retired wine merchant, his 50-year old mother and four step-siblings.
In 1901 John was a 35-year old painter, lodging at Tregenna Place, St Ives. His sending-in address was Green Court. In 1904 he married Annie Morrisset (1878-1938). He died in Plymouth in 1928, aged 63.
See entry for Percy CRAFT. Alice E Tidy was Mrs Craft, and led the needlework section in the Newlyn Industrial Classes.
Jack Tierney is a painter based in Newquay. His highly stylised work reflects his interest in popular culture, iconography and folklore.
His work appears in many private collections and he has exhibited both within the UK and internationally.
Born in Egypt, Tilley was educated in Kent and has lived in Cornwall since 1978. She is a watercolourist whose subject matter includes landscape and the human figure. A member of STISA since 1999 (and chair from 2003 to 2009) she has exhibited widely throughout Cornwall, participating also in shows further afield in Plymouth, Exeter and London. Her work is held in the National Trust collection (Godolphin Estate), the Chris Beetles Gallery in St James, London, as well as private collections within the UK, in Europe, the USA and Japan. In 2002 the critic Frank Ruhrmund described her as a 'recognised exponent and authority on watercolour painting'.
The artist is well known as a tutor and demonstrator for art societies in the south west of England. Based in Hayle, she works closely with the National Trust at Godolphin House within the educational and arts activities programme.
Timberlake was born in Islington. Initially an engineer, he then took Holy Orders and married Helen Jolliffe in 1917. He was appointed Vicar of Talland, near Polperro, where he was regarded as something of an eccentric. He exhibited with Plymouth Arts Club and subsequently the East Cornwall Society of Artists, with mixed results. He was also a member of the shortlived Polperro Art Society (1938-1939).
In the mid-1950s he left Talland and moved to Hove, where he died.
The daughter of John Morison, shipowner. Tovey, in his researches for the 2002 Exhibition, 'Women Artists in Cornwall 1880-1940' at Penlee House, Penzance, records that Jessie was already an established artist, specialising in child studies, when she married the acclaimed painter William Holt Yates TITCOMB at St Ives on 4 Feb 1892. The one title exhibited in that exhibition was A Hymn to Pan (Private Collection), exhibited first at St Ives Show Day (1899) before going to the New Gallery and Derby. She repainted it in 1903 with a different background set in St Ives.
Jack Titcomb was born in Lambeth, the second son of an evangelical Anglican minister, the Reverend Jonathan Holt Titcomb, who became first Bishop of Rangoon. Trained in art at the Slade School. His brother, William Holt Yates TITCOMB with whom Jack was very close, was one of the leading artists in St Ives in the period 1887-1905.
Jack was also based in the town for much of this time, joining William and his wife Jessie Ada TITCOMB on their regular painting trips abroad. Though not nearly as accomplished an artist as his brother, he was extremely affable and efficient, so he found organisational roles wherever he went.
As President of the St Ives Arts Club in 1910, (and also later in 1929 and 1938) he was the subject of a caricature by the American artist Herbert G FITZHERBERT (Fitz). At the St Ives Show Day of 1911, he exhibited Clifton Bridge and studies of a river (all in oils) During the First World War he briefly moved to Bristol, joining his brother, and organised the annual art exhibition of the Bristol Savages Club with such efficiency that he became their President the following year.
Until 1920 he worked entirely in oils, but when his brother started to concentrate on watercolours during his continental painting tours of the 1920s, Jack also started working in this medium. At the 1924 Show Day he exhibited at Lanhams 'some result of his recent sojourn in Venice in fine watercolours, all painted in his well-known delicate style.'
A founder member of STISA, he retained his membership for 25 years up to his death, though his contributions to exhibitions were spasmodic and even his participation in Show Days tailed off, due perhaps to marrying late in life. In 1939 he was the artists' representative at the Tercentenary celebrations of the granting of the charter by Charles I, incorporating St Ives as a borough, during which the Mayor highlighted the contributions of the artists in the past fifty years to the promotion of tourism.
Born in Cambridge (22 February, 1858), the artist attended Westminster School, then studied art at South Kensington and at Anwerp with Charles Verlat (1879). In 1880 he travelled to Burma where his father was Bishop of Rangoon, and produced highly finished, intricate works with (for him) a new set of colour values. Next he studied at Julian's in Paris, under Boulanger and Lefebvre, and went on to the new Herkomer's at Bushey, staying for the full two years. The social-realism of his later work indicates Herkomer's great influence. In 1887, he settled in St Ives, his reputation building from Primitive Methodists at Prayer, St Ives exhibited at the RA (1889), on a theme of the importance of religion to the lives of fisherfolk, to which he returned again and again.
In 1891, the Census records show that he was lodging with the Hosking family at Trenwith House, Halsetown (and also erroneously that he was born in London). He married a fellow artist, Jessie Morison in 1892 (St Ives Marriage Register, 4 Feb 1892 by Banns), and their children, Frank and Loveday, were born in 1898 and 1900 respectively. In 1898 he was one of the signatories for the Glanville letter, expressing concern about proposed building developments for St Ives.
Both he and his wife Jessie exhibited a painting each in the Whitechapel Exhibition of 1902. Believing German education to be superior at that time, they moved to Dusseldorf in 1905 but with the rise of nationalism there they returned to Bristol in 1909. His final major oil, a commission, was John Wesley preaching to the Mayor and Corporation of Bristol 16 March 1788 that was exhibited at the RA in 1918. During the 1920s the Titcombs travelled extensively throughout Europe, with several extended stays in Venice, he working in watercolours and selling wherever they went. In 1921 it appears that he also spent some time painting in Polperro. In 1925 he staged an exhibition of 89 watercolours at Walker's Gallery in New Bond Street, which was well received and visited by the Queen. With William's health declining they moved first to Menton but returned finally to Bristol where he died, on 7th September 1930. He was a humble man, not interested in self-promotion or art politics, and he not only worked abroad a great deal, but kept out of the public gaze. David Tovey's outstanding historical work on the St Ives painters and their lives has done much to bring about a renewed appreciation for Titcomb's talents.
Andy Titcomb was born in Northampton but has lived and worked in Cornwall since 1990. He has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Ceramics. After working with the potter Paul Cardew for a number of years, Titcomb set up his own studio in 1984 in Devon, from where he exported his ceramics to Japan. He is known mainly for his slipcast teapots but recent work has focussed on hand-built one-off pieces which sometimes incorporate found objects.
Born in Montreal, Canada, with the name of Hiam Galutsky, he first visited St Ives in the early 1930s. Tobias met his wife there and they settled and worked at all manner of menial jobs in cafes and shops for some years, while exhibiting in group shows and venues throughout Cornwall.
Having visited France in the 1920s, and made friends with Raoul Dufy, he showed his work alongside many of the French moderns highly regarded today (Utrillo, Chagall, Braque, Courbet, and others). Always living frugally, patrons in both Cornwall and London enabled his artistic career to continue. Eventually he returned to Canada with his family. He achieved good reviews in London and Europe in the 1960s.
Painter in oils & watercolour of portraits and figures, etcher and engraver Born in Clifton Terrace, Penzance, the son of Ralph C TODD and his wife Vasilesa. Arthur joined the Stanhope FORBES School at the age of 16 and after service in WWI, he returned to his chosen career in art.
He studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, the Slade and in France, Italy and Holland. In 1918 his address was with his family in Helston, and by 1921 he was working from London. Later he became Head of Drawing 1936-9 at the Leicester School of Art and he also taught at the Regent St Polytechnic School of Art, the Royal Academy and the City and Guilds Schools. His painting entitled The Picture Book was purchased for the nation in 1940 by the Chantrey Bequest. He has been described as 'by far the most sensitive and accomplished painter of his generation'.
Born in London and lived in Tooting, the artist studied in Belgium, Holland and France and moved to Newlyn in 1883, having met Stanhope FORBES in Quimperle the previous year. From 1880 he had been exhibiting at the leading London galleries including the RA and RI, and when Forbes arrived in Newlyn in 1884, he wrote to his mother about meeting young Todd whom he had met in France, commenting on Todd's wooing of a French girl, to whom he was engaged. He is one of the artists in the group photograph of the Newlyn group in 1884.
Todd married Vasilesa in 1888 and was the father of a daughter, Charlotte, and later that year (1891) a son, Arthur Ralph Middleton TODD. He exhibited at the Opening Exhibition of NAG in 1895 with titles Toil and Pleasure, From Jack at Sea and Our London Letter. His sending-in address in 1896 was Birmingham, but he was back in Newlyn by 1902.
Though he produced some good work, his output was uneven, and inconsistent (Fox), and he did not meet with overwhelming success. Five of his oil paintings are in the collection of the RCM, Truro. From 1912 his address was in Helston. The artist died at Devoran near Truro on 28 June, 1932 at the age of 76 (GRO).
One of the five Gallery Tresco artists to take up the invitation 'to paint Venice' for the Venice Collection painting project and exhibition in 2004. Three of her oils on canvas, Gently Curving Canal, Arches and Bridges, and Gliding Gondola were included in the catalogue for the Christmas show of that year. Her work has also been shown at the Rainyday Gallery in Penzance.
Born in Suffolk into the illustrious Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, the artist studied at the RA Schools, and in Paris and Brussels. Until about 1896 he painted mainly portraits, but after that his interests moved on to marine subjects.
His RA submissions included Off the Lizard (1903) and Late Afternoon on the Cornish Coast (1904). He was associated with St Ives, and kept a summer studio in Downalong, St Ives.
Natalie Toms is a wildlife artist living in Lanlivery, near Bodmin.
Lou Tonkin describes himself as a Cornish artist-printmaker. His fascination for nature and its hedgerows is reflected in his work.
Richard Harry Tonkin, older brother to Wilfred TONKIN, was born in Newlyn. Alongside Wilfred, Richard fulfilled his coppersmith apprenticeship under John Drew Mackenzie. Like his brother and uncles, he created many copper pieces, later becoming a skilled cabinet maker and carver.