Great Pottery Throwdown praise for Penzance-based potter

Wild Cornwall Pots by Catherine Lucktaylor 

BBC Two’s Great Pottery Throwndown came back to our screens in February after a hugely successful first series, attracting over 2 million viewers each week. The show, which many are describing as The Great British Bake Off meets clay, sees ten amateur potters compete to become Top Potter with a number of challenges that range from garden sculpture to a 12-piece porcelain tea set. The third episode of the new series focused on the art of Japenese style ceramics and featured the work of Penzance-based potter Catherine Lucktaylor as a perfect example of how to master the dramatic process of raku-firing.

Raku-firing involves taking pots while they are still glowing red from the kiln and placing them immediately into containers filled with combustible materials. The materials ignite and the containers are closed, producing an intense reduction atmosphere which effects the colours in glazes and clay as well as creating a distinctive cracking due to the drastic thermal shock. The pots are then plunged into cold water to halt the firing process.

Catherine Lucktaylor‘s ‘Wild Cornwall’ series of pots uses the Raku process to create an expressive and colourful finish, reminiscent of flower filled clifftops and swirling seas. Catherine was sought out for the program that showed judge and master potter Keith Brymer Jones holding her pot up from the group of examples to completely focus on her stand-out decoration.

Catherine has been making and experimenting with Raku for over 25 years and was lucky enough to be taught by two well known and respected authorities on Raku during her two-year foundation at Huddersfield Polytechnic and at Wolverhampton Polytechnic as part of her BA Hons in Ceramics. After this she moved to Cardiff and then Brighton, continuing to explore kiln building and Raku, sawdust and pit firings. In 1999, Catherine received a travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and travelled to West Africa and Brazil, creating mixed media sculptural installations as she explored her mixed British-Ghanaian heritage. It was the birth of her son, Leon, in 2007 and another move, to West Cornwall, that led her back to her first love of ceramics. Catherine now specialises in hand built Raku-fired ceramics inspired by the Cornish landscape, which she creates in her large studio near Penzance.

Her work has been exhibited in galleries across the UK, including the Beside The Wave galleries who are celebrating Catherine’s Great Pottery Throwdown feature with a show focusing on her ceramics in their gallery in Falmouth (10th – 30th March). The collection will include brand new work from Catherine’s ‘Wild Cornwall’ series, allowing fans of the show to see Catherine’s textured and bright finishes first hand.We also have another collection of Cornish Mist Pots by Catherine on our website.

For those wishing to find out even more about the process, Catherine runs Raku course and master classes from her studio, details of which can be found on her website.

 

‘Celebration’ a solo exhibition of paintings by Andrew Tozer. Showing in both our galleries in London & Cornwall.

‘Racing off Flushing’ acrylic on board | 43 x 61 cms | £1,465 |

 

We are excited to announce the opening of Andrew Tozer‘s new exhibition ‘Celebration’ now open in both our Falmouth and London galleries until the 8th March.

The paintings shown in Cornwall celebrate the wonderful Cornish landscape with seascapes of St.Mawes and classic harbour scenes from Mousehole and Falmouth. Whilst the paintings shown in London are a smaller collection of intimate portrayals of the artist’s home farm and family.

Andrew Tozer’s paintings alongside Peter Hayes sculptures

This show continues to focus on Andrew’s fascination with the cornish landscape and its quality of light and colour with many of his works being created ‘en plein air’:

‘The common link between both collections is one of celebration.  By this I mean that in all the works produced I have attempted to capture a special moment and share it with the viewer. In both collections, many of the works are painted ‘en plein air’ or as some say ‘live’. This process is both immensely challenging and hugely rewarding for me as an artist, as one has to exist simultaneously in the moment one is trying to capture and in the actual painting itself thus creating a unique connection.’ – Andrew Tozer 

Andrew Tozer’s paintings alongside Louisa Taylor’s ceramics.

About The Artist

Andrew Tozer was born in Cornwall in 1974. Inspired by art materials found around his parents house he started drawing at a very early age. By fifteen he was sure that becoming a painter was his true calling and at 19 he moved to the capital to study at Westminster University and then on to Central Saint Martins. It was here that he first began to paint outdoors. Taking small sketchbooks and minimal painting materials he would visit Trafalgar Square,Richmond and Kew Gardens.

On graduating Andrew returned to Cornwall and he started to paint the area that he grew up in. Now, Andrew’s paintings record the everchanging nuances of light in his surroundings and his paintings are in the Impressionist tradition. The simplicity and beauty of his work, however, is underpinned by rigorous draftsmanship and the intensity and complexity of his paint handling. His fast, accurate, painterly language becomes clear as thin coats of colour and glazes are applied repeatedly. This is a process that can take months: sites are revisited, paintings adjusted and repainted until a final conclusion is reached.

Andrew Tozer is one of the leading contemporary painters in whose work the legacy of Impressionism resonates: landscapes are expressed with breathtaking immediacy,
fleeting impressions rendered in such a way as to capture the essence of what’s there. His highly collected work has been shown exhibited widely throughout Cornwall and the
UK.

‘Snowy Walk Through The Woods’  acrylic on board | 30.5 x 46 cms | £945

This show runs until the 8th March 2017 and all of Andrew’s work can be viewed on our website.

With nearly half of this collection selling on the first day of opening this show has already been a huge success and is not to be missed!

Our Valentines Day Gift Guide

Jewellery by Sarah Perry 

Valentine’s at Beside The Wave

With the most romantic day of the year just around the corner, we’ve made it easy to say ‘I love you’ this Valentine’s day in a truly unique way. We have put together a guide using some of our most precious items in the gallery that would be perfect for a loved one this Valentines day.

Click, call or email with your most loved piece, will we gift wrap and send it to you before Tuesday 14th February.

We hope you enjoy our Valentine’s Gift Guide.

From left to right: Necklace, labradorite, herkimer diamonds and silver, £380 | Rockpool stud earrings, silver, £70  by Emily Nixon

. From left to right: Curl bangle, silver, £295 | Curl giant knot pendant, silver, £180, by Stephanie Johnson

Large cuff, silver, £295 by Sarah Hyams

Long / short rectangles necklace, silver, £345 by Lucy Spink

 

For him…

 

Two Sided Small Jug £180 by Paul Jackson

Raku Mounted Disc £765 by Peter Hayes

Mug £77 by Sue Binns

Creek Vean
Limited Edition Print of 25, 35 x 35 cm £125 unframed
by Alasdair Lindsay

Tower Bridge Afternoon Sun,
Limited Edition Print of 25, 35 x 35 cm
£125 unframed
by Alasdair Lindsay

‘Sea Interludes’ a solo exhibition of paintings by Robert Jones featuring new sculptures by Peter Hayes and Reece Ingram 3rd February-15th February 2017.

Mackerel Fishing, Oil on board, 67 x 61 cm,  £1,950

Our current exhibition ‘Sea Interludes’ features a new collection of paintings by Robert Jones inspired by the musical sequences in Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes; Jones presents a response to these melodys with the paint itself, using the light to represent changing moods.

Robert Jones was born in Newquay, Cornwall in 1943. He studied at Falmouth School of Art where he was taught by Francis Hewlett and Robert Organ. The impressions he gained of the area, the changing weather and light, wild seas and skies are a recurring theme in his work; an important formative influence providing the practical and theoretical foundations for his art.

See images of the exhibition below

Alongside Jones’ paintings in the gallery are exclusive new sculptures by Peter Hayes and Reece Ingram. 

Here is an interesting excerpt from Jenny Pery’s book : “Robert Jones” which gives and insight into Jones’ concepts and thoughts behind his work.

“The recent series of seas and skies, painted in a format just off the square and reduced to a simple structure of clouds and water meeting over a low
horizon, contain truths about the weather, which can be universally recognised. These are not merely paintings of the sea, but are about the experience
of being at sea. They explore the subtle shifts of wind and water from a close viewpoint; they identify with the sea, seeming to contain symbolic truths
about internal weather, about human moods and feelings. These nuances of mood can hardly be names, but they are nevertheless recognisable as
states of being.
These are paintings made in the studio over a long period of time, which are deliberations on past experience. While the content has been sorted and
sifted, the freshness of touch remains. Each has a specific yet timeless presence. “
Amongst my favourite pieces of music are the Sea Interludes from the Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes. These extraordinary compositions
communicate such emotion. The four movements are called: Dawn; Sunday Morning; Moonlight; and Storm; they evoke different sea moods. Water
and light etc, and echo moods within ourselves. I hope the viewer will sense something of this from the different seastates
and moods in the paintings.’

Robert Jones

‘Adrian Hemming: Rough Seas for Mermaids’

‘Dreaming of Mermaids’, oil on canvas, 67 x 153 cm, by Adrian Hemming

Currently on display at Beside The Wave London, we are very excited to be hosting our first solo exhibition for acclaimed artist Adrian Hemming.

The collection, the second in the artist’s series of blue works, stems from an almost twenty-year fascination with a particular ultramarine:

‘Ultramarine Blue is the blue of the Medieval Church, it’s the blue of the Virgin Mary, it’s the blue of the Princes and Popes of the Renaissance. It is the perfect blue made by grinding up the semi-precious stone Lapis Lazuli, and purifying it by a complex and difficult process. Sometimes referred to as True Blue, it was and still is one of the more expensive pigments (although now it is made from a chemical process). But I love it. I found my blue, called A19, in the form of big fat crayons manufactured by the Unison Company. I now buy kilo bags of the pure pigment A19 and make my own oil and watercolours. Originally I used it to represent the total blue sky of the Australian series. The Deluge painting demanded it and so this single colour has acquired more and more significance, culminating in the present show. It’s paean to an ancient colour.’ Extract from ‘In conversation with Dr. Paul Williamson, Director V & A Museum’.

With the first series of blue works influenced by travels around the Mediterranean Sea, the starting point for this series is a more abstract one:

‘First and foremost, the paintings are about blue before they are about Sea and Sky. The iconography of the works is based on chance and accident. The format of the works is as simple as I can make it, sometimes a halfway division leaving two blocks of richly worked blue on top and bottom of the canvas. The wonder is that, despite this non-figurative approach, it still recalls to the onlooker Visceral memories of places and events that they may have experienced.’ Adrian Hemming, 2017

Artist Adrian Hemming and gallery manager Claire Pearce at the private view

Adrian Hemming was born in Leicester in 1945. Following an apprenticeship as an engineer he travelled widely in Europe and developed an appreciation of landscape and a love of art.

On returning to England, Adrian was accepted onto the Foundation Course at Lincoln College of Art. His B.A. was completed at Brighton Polytechnic (1973) and his M.A. at Goldsmiths College, London University (1982).

He co-founded Tichbourne Studios in Brighton and later founded the Angel Studios in London. He went on to establish Southgate Studios in the East End where he has been painting full time since 1990.

Adrian has twice been short-listed for the Artist in Residence at the National Gallery, London. He has lectured and exhibited widely in England, Scotland, America and South Africa. His work can be found in many private and public collections as well as being on public view in Terminal One, Heathrow Airport, as a result of a major commission by BAA.

The show runs until Wednesday 15th February 2017 and all of the work is also available to view on our website.

We highly recommend seeing theses incredible, expressive works in person, transforming our space into a mesmerising vault of blue.

A Highlight from 2016

One of our real highlights of 2016 was seeing all of the entries for our Art at Home competition, it was great way for us to see the wonderful ways in which our artwork has been displayed in your space.

Here are our top picks for the competition and why we thought they were deserving winners!

Our top winning image was of a glorious Emma Dunbar hanging above a fireplace.The playful still life composition in this painting seems to spill out of the frame and into the living room, complementing the style and qualities of the interior perfectly.

We love that this Richard Tuff gouache is hanging in a communal eating space and will no doubt be a topic of conversation. The splashes of colour within the interior really enhance this painting and add a playful quality.

Our third winner has a truly beautiful fireplace adorned with statuettes and a atmospheric Benjamin Warner to complete the style, we loved the effortless colour palette in this interior and how significant the painting was to the owner –

‘I saw this on your website at the time and went for it straightaway without even pausing for thought. I grew up in Porthleven and have so many lovely memories of it. I have a print of Peter Lanyon’s abstract work of Porthleven in my kitchen. But I have an original Benjamin Warner of it above my mantlepiece.’

We would like to thank all of you for your wonderful entries for this competition, they gave us so much joy and it was inspiring for us all to see the different ways that had curated your homes.

Here are some more of our fantastic entries!

 

Panoramas, Paintings and Prestigious Plans

Miles Heseltine with charcoal drawing ‘Panoramic Landscape I, Mounts Bay and Greenburrow 2016’

We are extremely proud to represent artist Miles Heseltine exclusively in our galleries and wanted to take the time, with the start of the New Year, to update all of the followers of his work on the impressive events of last year and plans of the year to come.

2016 was a noteworthy year for Miles with his first solo exhibition in London. The show marked the development in his drawings and paintings to become of equal focus, with his drawing informing his painting but also vice versa; and presented his brand new ‘panorama’ drawings, expressing the landscape with a visual sweep of his surroundings rather than a static view.

‘Panoramic Landscape II, Mounts Bay 2016’, charcoal on paper, 82 x 262 cm, by Miles Heseltine

Miles’ thickly layered paintings shown alongside his gestural charcoal drawings in our solo show ‘Miles Heseltine: High Ground’ (1st -19th July), demonstrating the important relationship both disciplines have on each other within his art.

Also in the last year Miles was commissioned to produce several large-scale drawings of Bedruthan Steps for the Bedruthan Hotel & Spa, where his work can currently be seen on permanent display. The awe-inspiring image of one of his drawings in progress on the edge of the cliffs has become our go-to image for introducing Miles’ work.

‘Bedruthan Steps I’ in progress

In London, his work was used within a high-end interior design project in a converted bakery in Clapham by Amelia McNeil Design, which led to the drawing ‘Penwith Woods’ selling to a private collector.

‘Penwith Woods I’, interior design by Amelia McNeil

This year, we have even bigger plans for Miles with a focus on presenting his work for public exhibitions and collections, a record five art fairs and a major exhibition split between Cornwall and London in May/June (26^th May – 14^th June 2017).

Follow this blog or join our mailing list for updates.

Our New Year’s Resolution

With the fresh New Year now upon us, we wanted to kickstart our blog again and what better way to start than a look back at all of our most liked Instagram posts from both Beside the Wave Cornwall and Beside The Wave London from 2016 – catching us up to today and celebrating some of our favourite work from the year.

‘Storm,Trethias Island’ by Nigel Chamberlain is featured in our new show ‘Start a Collection’ where we are offering lower gallery prices on selected artworks and the chance for you to build your own art collection at a more affordable price. See more works in the gallery now!

Painting of the day • Myles Oxenford’s ‘Kynance’ is bringing colour to this grey day in Falmouth.

Painting of the Day• The amazing ‘Cornish Seas Hold Their Own Secrets’ by Amanda Hoskin / £3,900/ Oil on canvas.

•Painting of the Day• to celebrate the official first day of winter here we have Sarah Wimperis’ atmospheric scene of the Helford River ‘Dusk and Mist, January 12th’ | £450 | oil on board

•Painting of the Day• The magnificent ‘Porthcothan Cliffs’ Oil on canvas / 110 cm x 120 cm / £4,750 by Paul Lewin has been attracting a lot of attention in the gallery this week already.

From left to right: ‘Tower Bridge and Barges, Late Afternoon’ and ‘Barges on the Thames, East of Tower Bridge’, both acrylic on board, by Alasdair Lindsay.

•Artist of the day• We love Erin Ward’s energetic landscapes. Working from memory Erin lets the process of painting take over and uses thin washes to thick impasto paint to play with texture and depth.

Detail of ‘Early Evening, Primrose Hill’, oil on canvas, 90 x 103 cm, by Benjamin Warner. A view we are especially fond of, masterfully captured at that time of day that the park’s lights are just starting to glow.

Painting of the Day• We love how Erin Ward captures a stormy winter scene in the glorious ‘Storm Sweeping Over’ / oil on canvas/ £700

Paintings by Amy Albirght (left) and Kerry Harding (middle and right) in our newly opened show ‘Krowji’, with ceramics by Louisa Taylor. Find out more about the show on our website.

‘Lines of Flight’, oil on linen, 100 X 100cm, by Amy Albright, on display with ceramics by Ali Tomlin and jewellery by Nicola Bottono.

It’s the final week of our current show ‘The Art School’ and we have been so pleased by the response to this impressive mix of talent from past students of the Falmouth School of Art/Falmouth University. In our window for the final week are the paintings of Jon Doran, one of our most recent graduates from the University but fast becoming one of our most sought after artists.

‘I love to paint, to push the pigments around the canvas, to smudge them together or to lay clean blocks of colour on top of each other until my impression of land, sea and sky looks and feels how I know it to be’ Imogen Bone Such an exquisite new collection of paintings by Imogen Bone, inspired by recent travels to Iceland.

We love being immersed in this atmospheric corner with the poetic, semi-abstract paintings of Elisa McLeod and the striking stoneware pots of Norman Yap.

•Painting of the Day• Nancy Crewe’s ‘Say Goodbye to Charlie’/£1,200/ Acrylic on canvas. Focusing on the relationship between painter and place , Nancy depicts a memory of what has been seen or experienced. You can See more of Nancys work on our website or in the gallery.

We generally need no encouragement when it comes to coffee – especially with us being situated right beside a fantastic french cafe that knows our orders off by heart and these exquisite original handmade espresso cups, mugs and coffee cups by Sue Binns.

Richard Tuff: Harbours & Houses

Paintings and drawings by Richard Tuff

We are very pleased to announce the opening of a wonderful new collection by Richard Tuff at Beside The Wave Cornwall. This spectacular collection visits some of Cornwall’s most loved harbours and more hidden beaches and valleys. His beautiful use of colour evokes emotional responses to his charming compositional pieces.

Richard Tuff was born in Manchester in 1965. He completed a Foundation Art Course at Mid Cheshire College of Art in 1985 and went on to gain a Degree in Textile Design at Winchester School Of Art, showing his final year work at the Smiths Gallery, Covent Garden. After a highly successful time working as a textile designer, with his designs used for the textile industry in America, Europe and Japan, Richard moved to Cornwall at the end of 1988 and since then has concentrated on his paintings.

Richard Tuff’s paintings have a unique almost child like charm to them. His jewel-like colours are rich and strong with many subtle changes of light and tone capturing so well on paper the Cornish harbours and towns. He carefully studies the subject matter to be painted and then captures the essence and the feeling of a place, often disregarding the natural order of things.

Richard Tuff has been represented by Beside The Wave since 1989 where he has developed a strong following of collectors from across the UK. His work is shown in solo exhibitions in both Beside The Wave Cornwall and Beside The Wave London.

‘Richard Tuff: Harbours & Houses’ runs at Beside The Wave Cornwall from today until 26th May 2016.

‘Bamaluz Beach, St Ives’, gouache on paper by Richard Tuff

‘Mounts Bay Sunshine’, gouache on paper by Richard Tuff