Images Dated 2019 November

Monday, Bryan Pearce (1929-2007)

Oil on board, 1959. Bryan Pearce was born in St Ives in 1929 and suffered from the then unknown condition Phenylketonuria, which affects the normal development of the brain. Encouraged by his mother, the painter Mary Pearce, and then by other St Ives artists, he began drawing and painting in watercolours in 1953. His regular walks around St Ives, where he lived all his life, have been the inspiration for his subject matter, unconsciously recording the town's subtle changes. In this synthesis of imagination and reality, Pearce paints the world as he commands it; a sanctuary with an ever-present sun, bathing the streets and houses in the subtlest of colour harmonies. He worked slowly, but consistently, producing around twelve oil paintings a year. Often compared to Alfred Wallis, the late Peter Lanyon said of him: Because his sources are not seen with a passive eye, but are truly happenings, his painting is original'. His particular experiences of his hometown were captured with unique clarity. Pearce's artistic developments, his simple renditions of space, colour and light, evolve from a sophisticated understanding of composition. He had a career which spanned over fifty years, his paintings seem to evoke a serene sense of place, which seems at once personal yet archetypal. He is now recognised as one of the country's foremost naive painters, through the re-examination of familiar views and landmarks, Pearce offers us his profound, extraordinary experience of St Ives

© RIC

Still Life, Walter Langley (1852-1922)

Oil on board, Newlyn School, late 19th / early 20th century. Walter Langley was born in Birmingham, the eighth of eleven children of William Langley, a tailor, and his wife, Mary Ann. He was enrolled at the age of ten in evening classes at the Birmingham School of Design. He was apprenticed to lithographer, August Heinrich Biermann, and through lithography was introduced to the use of watercolour. Attracted to the medium, he set about learning to paint. He finally abandoned lithography to take up painting as a profession in 1879. In 1880, Langley visited Newlyn briefly and in the following year spent periods in both Brittany and Newlyn. He settled in Newlyn in 1882, one of the first artists to arrive there. His humble beginnings and his struggle for artistic recognition gave him a sympathetic insight into the hardships faced by the Newlyn community in its attempts to gain a livelihood from the sea. A study of a fisherman's widow, Time Moveth Not, Our Being Tis That Moves, submitted to the Dudley Gallery's Spring 1883 exhibition, caused a sensation and led to his membership of the Institute of Painters in Watercolour. Apart from a return to Birmingham in 1866-1867 and brief excursions to the continent, Langley remained for the rest of his life in Cornwall. He was honoured in 1886 by an exhibition of watercolours at the New Art Gallery in Birmingham and received international recognition through the award of a gold medal for watercolours at the Paris Exhibition of 1889. The fact that this still-life study (dedicated to his friend and fellow artist Ralph Todd) is painted in oils makes it an unusual addition to Langley's canon of work

© RIC

Churchtown, St Minver, Cornwall. Early 1900s

A view looking down the street with the Post office on the left (this later became part of the Fourways Inn). John Goodman's shop (a draper and carpenter) is on the right with Stone Cottage next door. Goodman's was later named The Olde Shop. A sign saying telephone and telegrams can be seen on a telegraph pole. Two gentlemen are standing in the street. Photographer: Unknown

© From the collection of the RIC