St. Ives
In the last week of September, Emma Bennett, Frances Staniforth and I held an exhibition at the Salthouse Gallery in St. Ives. It was something I’d booked a long time ago (a pop-up exhibition space) but due to Covid-19 nothing happened last year, and as we’d actually graduated in the meantime we thought we’d put up our work as a kind of celebration and to get ourselves ‘out there’.
Because we don’t live close to each other we had to do a lot of the admin and decision making by WhatsApp and amazingly it did all come together well. The Cornish Framing Company at Crowlas did the framing for me and are a lovely company to deal with. Coming in and on on the train daily was a nice way to start and end the day although the weather was changeable to say the least. We survived on a diet of chips, paninis, pasties and ice-cream and learned not to walk back with any food through The Sloop car park as the seagulls who patrol it are very fierce and not at all scared of attacking you to get the ice-cream.
St. Ives was really busy, post-Festival, but the Salthouse is tucked away down some alleyways and we weren’t sure that many people would come. In the event, it was reasonably well attended and as well as our friends, we met some lovely people, many of whom were interested enough in what we were showing to spend time discussing ideas, further plans and so on with us. Fellow artists such as Paul Wadsworth and Spencer Shakespeare popped in for a chat and it was great hearing their advice and tips. Some of our old lecturers and fellow students from PCA came to support us as they were in St Ives and we also sold some work each, which was the icing on the cake, really. We also had time in between stewarding to visit the many exhibitions and galleries ourselves, and the work by Sax Impey at Anima Mundi - seascapes - is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and I highly recommend a visit.
