Visit West Cornwall

Surrounded by sparkling turquoise seas and glittering ganite sand, West Cornwall's legendary quality of light has been a draw for artists for many centuries.

In the 1880's, the small fishing village of Newlyn became the centre of Britain's leading art movement of the day, termed the 'Newlyn School'. Artists such as Stanhope Forbes and Walter Langley recorded the picturesque but arduous lives of the local fishing and farming communities.

These paintings, and those of later landscape painters such as Laura Knight and S.J. Lamorna Birch, from the core of most of the exhibitions and displays held at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, a delightful Gallery specialising in the historic art of West Cornwall.

Some seven miles away from Newlyn, the village of St Ives housed another flourishing artists' colony, and in the 1930s and 40s this became the home of another World-famous art movement. In 1928, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood visited St Ives and 'discovered' Alfred Wallis, a retired fisherman whose naive pictures inspired and influenced many of the modernist artists who were to form the world-renowned St Ives Modernist group.

In 1939, Nicholson returned to St Ives with his second wife, Barbara Hepworth, and a number of other artists followed them, staying in St Ives as an 'escape' from the Second World War. The art of this group is frequently exhibited at Tate St Ives, the internationally-known Gallery overlooking Porthmeor beach, which presents exhibitions of modern and contemporary art.

Artists of all kinds still find West Cornwall a conducive environment, and the area is rich with private galleries showing and selling work. For a public Gallery showing the best of 'cutting edge' local national and international work, visit Newlyn Art Gallery and its Penzance venue, The Exchange. You can also experience the work of pottery legend Bernard Leach at the recently re-opened Leach Pottery in St Ives.