Going to a Political Rally, Jeremy Corbyn, Falmouth, 27.11.2019

Going to a political rally - Jeremy Corbyn Labour rally, Falmouth, Cornwall 27.11.2019

I thought of writing about this as a cultural event but as a convinced leftwing socialist, the happiest I've ever been with our Labour party now Jeremy Corbyn is our leader, and desperately hoping for a Labour government and to Remain in the European Union, I am hardly a dispassionate observer.

It's a bit like a rock concert - tickets are free and sell out online in an hour. We have to queue to get in and our bags are searched. Red paper bands are put around our wrists. Some turn up without tickets and some manage to blag their way in whilst others remain in the building unable to enter or hear what's happening. There's rock music before and at some other points. There are only a few seats - people are standing, some with drinks from the bar- some with tiny children on their shoulders, many holding up mobile phones to take photos and video and probably post to social media.

I run into friends and one takes a selfie of us on which I notice I look really happy.

There's a build up, the local candidates speak first - Jenni Forbes very bright and heart warming, Paul Farmer fervent and amusing by turns and looking attractive in a three piece suit and Cornish tartan tie. He speaks some Cornish as he begins. He recalls our famous inventor Trevithick who designed the first steam engine. He looks forward to future inventors who will save us from climate change disasters.

Then it's Angela Rayner, 

Glamourous with golden red long hair and a bright green jacket, waving her arms about - shadow education minister - full of beans, smiling. At times there's a pantomime atmosphere with the crowd responding, singing the well known refrain 'Oh Jeremy Corbyn' with love and hope in their hearts or shouting that our National Health Service is 'Not for sale' ie not to the US President Trump.

You can speak to anyone. There are hundreds of Labour people, the atmosphere is electric and warm. One dissenting male grumbler is heard briefly, swamped by the general wild enthusiasm. Many of us are activists, people who tramp round leafleting and canvassing, workers - and it's so nice to be in celebratory mood as if we really will win the election, transform our country for the better, save the world from climate change. We deserve this break from toil to be recharged.

Then it's the star of the show, 

Jeremy Corbyn - surprisingly as fresh as a daisy, humorous, honest and true, hopeful and engaging, 70 years old but fuelled with his ardour for the cause, for making life better for the many not the few. He speaks very well, at ease, fluent, energetic and inspiring.

Labour flags are waving, people are signed up for helping. Surprisingly no fund raising buckets are rattled.

Then it's over, we're out into the rain, finding our comradely lifts home, pleased we came, glowing with hope. It feels like midnight but it's only just after eight. A memorable evening, something that we'll always remember, making sense and meaning of our lives whether we win or lose - trying , co-operating together for the future. Not alienated, passive and despondent but united in a glorious vision of what could be. 

'Protected by Alarms' St.Ives exhibition in an old house by Anima Mundi Gallery.

'Protected by Alarms'. Anima Mundi at the buildings opposite their gallery in Street an Pol
Oct - mid November, Tues to Sat , 11-4 daily, free admission.

Lesley Hale, who is involved with the project to invest in community housing in the building that is being used for this show had the very bright idea of suggesting it to Joseph Clatke of Anima Mundi and he has taken the opportunity to show 19 of his stable of artists in this very alternative place, a delapidated building.
Lesley has largely been left with the unpaid invigilation in the hopes of raising interest and funds for the housing project.


I went up to the top of the house first. There was a black and white film showing by Mark Jenkin called 'Bronco's House'. Unfortunately the duration was not printed on the catalogue list, which was hard to read in dim lighting in its pale grey tiny font. Other visitors told me the film had the same style as Jenkin's recently acclaimed 'Bait'. It was rather slow moving and brooding with no smiles but had a compelling atmosphere of probable tragedy as a pregnant woman and her partner sought to reclaim a stone built house somewhere near Newlyn. However, not knowing how long I was in for I left before the end, later finding out its 44 minutes.


There was a hole in the shutters through which I saw the surprising view of Smeaton's Pier, surprising because, disorientated by my walk up the staircases, I had not expected to see this. I thought it was a pity this experience was not consciously incorporated into the show but maybe most people saw it. It made me think of how lovely it might be to live in the building once it is renovated and available as affordable housing.


The nineteen artists had not in fact responded to the space or to the housing issue but the curator had chosen to exhibit works that fitted some possibly political or social agenda to some extent.


The most starkly current was a large painting by Paul Benney 'Grenfel Tower (the sleep of reason)' which was said to encorporate ash from the tragic fire that destroyed the block of flats due to it being clad with highly flammable material. This painting was lit from the floor and looked dramatic and moving.


Equally dramatic was Tim Shaw's 'Parliament' which was a room full of ragged threatening looking rooks, plumage fluttering in the breeze from an open window, with a chattering soundtrack. An obvious satirical swipe.


Carlos Zapata had a sad tall wooden figure holding a tiny piece of inhabited land in his hand. It was made more effective by being shown in a small dimly lit room, all the more poignant.


Then there was a surprising embroidered banner, gorgeously colourful and crisscrossed with political remarks such as, 'It's been ingrained into my very being that the Tories are the embodiment of pure human evil.' The artist was Henry Hussey, whose solo show at Anima Mundi was about to open.


There was a lot more and prices available at Anima Mundi.


St.Ives is used to good taste and seascapes so this show was a delight.
Anima Mundi is the sort of expensive gallery that can intimidate people who don't feel part of the art world but by crossing the road and being alternative I think Joseph Clarke is to be congratulated on opening up a way in for those who dare to enter for an art adventure that will make them think.

Aaron Broadhurst at Redwing Gallery, Penzance, UK

Aaron Broadhurst - art at Redwing Gallery, Penzance- November 2019


The paintings are boldly outlined pop art style images, easily recognised with flat contrasting colours. They are unusual at the moment especially in Penzance - not evoking the atmospheric landscape, not gestural or abstract, not lusciously painterly.


There's a portrait of his wife Nicole, very like her despite its simplifications - arresting in its impact.

There's a tin of mackerel on a plate, a lifeboat, an upended car and some guns.

On referring to the list of works, priced £900 to £1,400, I find out the mackerel refers humorously to the popular William Scott image in the Tate of mackerel not in a tin. The car refers to the child abuser Jimmy Saville's car, a man said in the provided note to be a spiritual adviser of the Prince of Wales.
The gun refers to one used by a white racist who killed 9 African Americans in Carolina and the gun  is said to have been his birthday present.

So I learn that the artist is politically engaged, that his pictures have meaningful references - but without the notes I wouldn't have got these references. Without the notes these are paintings that might be glamourising the gun, just picturing a car crash, illustrating a tin of fish and portraying a woman's face.


It's a problem - how to make comments on issues through art. It's difficult. This artist paints confidently and makes an impact but the actual images do not convey the ideas that motivate him and which he documents to make the viewer aware of them. Is this ok?


Banksy manages to get the whole message over in the image.
Maybe Aaron doesn't want to do this, wants the first impact and then sometimes a second meaning from reading about it.

Two shows about the Penwith Society, St.Ives, Cornwall

'Creative Tensions: The Penwith Society of Artists 1949-1960'

September 14 to November 16, at Penlee House, Penzance, UK

& 'The Penwith - a Society like no other- 1961 onwards' October 5th to November 2nd , Penwith Gallery, St.Ives, UK

At Penlee a very interesting show explains the founding of The Penwith Society and includes documents such as one where Ben Nicholson defends modern art as a new language.

The controversial minutes of a Penwith Society are there, when 3 categories of art were instituted, traditional, abstract and craft.

Centre stage as visitors enter is Marian Hocken's 'The Hollow Men' of 1955, which referred to her personal relationships within the artists' community and cruel remarks about it probably lead to the artist becoming a recluse. There are three 'joannie' wooden figures above a view of St.Ives and the grave of Alfred Wallis and some tarot cards. It's a picture telling a tale that is now obscure but moving towards a simplified use of form.

I gleaned this long lost scandal by infiltrating a talk on the show by Robin Lenman, who was inviting his audience to contribute their responses and brought in remarks from Will Gompertz' 'How to think like an artist'. Having this knowledgeable person to inform and provoke really added to the experience. Attending the talk slowed down the visitors giving time to notice more.

There are other works before abstraction took over, such as a gentle, sweet and thoughtful drawing by Barbara Hepworth of two girls with teacups from 1949, the very year the Penwith Society formed, breaking from The St.Ives Society, which still survives and now shows a wider variety of art than the formerly more adventurous new Penwith, the Penwith being now dominated by its past allegiance to non - figurative art.

The three Bryan Wynter paintings were outstanding, the 1957 'Mineral World' being a complex layered composition of structures and colours, exciting to look at.

There was a Braque influenced Patrick Heron, a jigsaw puzzle of pink, green, blue, yellow, green with white outlines observed - a table in front of a window.

Without Heron's writing and American connections doubtless the fame of these St.Ives artists would not have spread so far.

There was an abstract Terry Frost, but with a title to show us his way of thinking, 'A Walk in the Snow' made during his time teaching in Leeds. In contrast was a powerful Wilhemina Barns-Graham 'Lilac and Amber' gouache from 1960 where she feels no need to hint at narrative.

Tony Shiel's 1963 'Four frightened bathers' shows a more surreal and wild move using human forms as he was said to oppose 'the 'tasteful' stuff that I feel was a helpful calm sanctuary from the horrors of WW2 and a way of recovering balance and sanity.

There was a Hepworth curved form in bronze with strings connecting parts that was hard to resist touching or attempting to play like a remade ancient musical instrument which embodied the new spirit of absorption in form.

Most unfortunately it seems no book about the show and it's important documentation of one of the major transformations in art history in the twentieth century is to be made but I hope enough documentation is kept for future use.

Penwith Gallery  October 5th -November 2nd, 2019

The back gallery at the Penwith has an informative exhibition about the formation of the Penwith Society and is showing a variety of works.

I was struck by an all male photo of members who were painted by one of them.

Now there would be a more equal mix of male and female artists than there were when the society formed.

My favourite items were the Wilhemina Barns Graham compositions playing with red squares on a red ground and the gentle sensitive portrait by Alethea Garstin.

Unusual in a members show are the embroidery by Alice Moore, 'Winter morning activity in St.Ives harbour' 1942-4, usually on show in the town library.

There are two figurative drawings by Elena Gaputyte who had held early exhibitions of modern art at the Sail Loft, and a large Ken Symonds naturalistic nude woman.

There are heavy looking sculptures, one entitled 'perpetual motion' by Paul Mount.

There's a work on metal sheet by Roy Walker, who had been a car worker in London.

There are lovely small pots by David Leach.

Thus the three categories of craft, figurative and abstract are shown together.

It's enjoyable.

However, when I go towards the entrance I encounter the present members' show. What strikes me is that although there is maybe more vibrant colour in this there is in fact even more emphasis on abstraction, often related to landscape very loosely, and even fewer figurative pictures. The present members work in what is now a well worn tradition stemming from their more famous forbears. No surprises.

The Penwith Society gives its members a lovely gallery in which to exhibit their works but no incentive to develop anything new. Since these members choose any new members to continue the traditions of what was once ground breaking they take no risks and only select people who rock no boats. The associate members, of whom I am one, submit works for some shows, and are aware that nothing out of the comfortable groove will be chosen. There are some attractive and interesting works selected but rarely anything unusual. It's a time warp.

The associates' membership fees help keep the place going but they have absolutely no say in how things are run. A few years ago some of us formed a committee after a stormy meeting, a rare agm at the time, and tried to make contact with the members to make a few waves and open things up but it came to nothing. The status quo of two tier membership lumbers on.

Maybe the only way is, as the Penwith Society did, to break away and form another art society with more scope and more present liveliness. However it hasn't happened yet. There's no energy or gallery space for it in St.Ives.

SPIRAL - french cop series.

SPIRAL • Series created by Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin

• Written by Guy-Patrick Sainderichin (series 1), Virginie Brac (series 2), Anne Landois (series 3 and 4), Eric de Barahir (series 2 to 4)

• Directed by Philippe Triboit (1x01 to 1x04, 2x07 and 2x08), Pascal Chaumeil (1x05 to 1x08), Gilles Bannier (2x01 to 2x04), Philippe Venault (2x05 and 2x06), Manuel Boursinhac (3x01 to 3x06) and Jean-Marc Brondolo (3x07 to 3x12)

• Produced by Alain Clert and Charline de Lépine.

Why do I love this French serial cop show?

The title music is a gentle series of metallic sounds that make a tune as letters detach and move on a grey metallic background. It fits the title very well as a spiralling theme like the twofold unfolding plot. It immediately sets the scene of depressing menace and hopelessness.

The scenes are almost entirely grey, brown, grey, ochre and black apart from the female lawyer who ran down her rapist. She has vibrant long red hair.

Everyone dresses rather drably and hardly smiles. The judge is very grey, old and troubled. The two main cops are sometimes sexually entangled in a rather desperate sad way. The woman is unable to bond with the baby she had and left to the care of others. She looks fairly miserable but dedicated to finding the criminals. The male cop who fancies her is also repelled by her heartlessness to her child. He is prone to illegal methods, to violent interrogations, very unshaven and rough looking, overweight and yet compels sympathy. Surprisingly a very attractive young woman with those very French looking full lips is attracted to him but he gallantly does not succumb to her seductiveness.

The plot is fashionably hard to follow but fairly understandable. Different branches of the police are at odds with one another. There is money laundering via a network of Chinese businesses.

There's little overt violence, a lot of scenes of surveillance from a van or tailing cars through traffic at night.

It's a grim, grimy urban scene in which the cops attempt to track down bad people and aim at justice.

As in most cop shows the cops are the focus of interest, their flawed actions and personalities.

It occurs to me it would be interesting to show equally the criminals, how they are also a mixture of traits and foibles, prone to mistakes and different relationships.

Two one hour episodes back to back each Saturday night to which I look forward, doing my best not to fall asleep.

Being in French with subtitles means it's essential to watch all the time.

Maybe it's this concentration that makes it flash by so enjoyably.

Trees - an exhibition at Redwing Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall,UK October 11 - 23, 2019

This show is in aid of Penwith Environmental Network in Cornwall

which began in 1982 and is a nonpolitical charitable trust which promotes conservation and improvement of the natural environment.There are various working groups and activities to join.

Lee Stevenson has hung the pictures in this mixed show to make a balanced composition in the upstairs gallery. His own print-making is a very beautiful balance of pattern and colour but with basis in reality and observation.

There are strange pictures such as Suzi Stephens' drawing on a pinkish ground, maybe expressing a state of mind, 

Bruce Murray's puzzling small composition including words, 

 and Frankie Webb's strong dark tree trunk.  

Maureen Kennedy's tree is within a flowing landscape, 

Russell Hedges' picture is a symphony of greens 

and Jane Sand has a way of piling on the paint which injects a lively energy as if animated by a restless wind. 

A varied show with prices from £40 to £300.

Otobong Nkanga and Mikhail Karikis at Tate St.Ives,

Otobong Nkanga and Mikhail Karikis at Tate St.Ives,

21st September 2019 to 5th January 2020



My heart sinks as I walk into the preview.

It's a big room and the work doesn't really visually dominate it. It reminds me of a town planning exhibit. Lots of photos, information, diagrams.

 The themes are very worthy, mining, colonialism, exploitation. There are some impressive tapestries in glowing colours with some glitter woven in and bold patterns.

I have read of occasions years ago when audiences derided Impressionism or rioted at the first performance of Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring' Now the audience at a preview at Tate St.Ives are so quiet, respectful and loth to react spontaneously that they stand motionless, politely uncomplaining whilst the director and the artist Otobong Nkanga speak in a room so accoustically unsuited to enable people to hear that no one can have understood anything of what has been uttered.

Then they circulate examining everything quite carefully, not willing to commit themselves to an opinion other than that it's very interesting.

The artist has created something to do with the place and the mining of tin. It's not the first time we in St.Ives find the latest visiting artist has seized on this theme.

Otobong Nkanga has exhibited in prestigious places and does a lot of research. I feel she wants to say something heartfelt but her mode of expression is so dry, so unpoetic, so dull, that I can't stomach it. She is there, looking beautiful, wearing a sort of work person's jumpsuit and in bare feet, talking earnestly.

Her tapestries are remarkable, substantial and much the most enjoyable part of her show. Maybe as she goes on, now having got onto the global success circuit, she will find her way and make work that is not simply worthy but that sings.


On the way out I encounter the much less publicised work, a film 'Children of Unquiet' by Mikhail Karikis. It's 15 minutes long and shown in a room with only one short bench so I sit on the floor to get the back support of the wall. Despite these very unfavourable cinematic conditions people are watching rapt with attention. It's about a disused geothermal energy plant in an Italian village. This doesn't sound that promising a theme for poetic treatment but it turns out that every frame is beautiful and eloquent, every word of subtitle counts. There are lovely shots of steaming ground, dripping machinery, cooling towers and orchids. Children are choreographed to shout and stamp or they read out statements about bees or wasps and about love.

I am so very pleased to find something so visually stunning, so all of a piece, so full of meaning and contrasts, so worth rewatching.

Douglas Lyell at Redwing Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall, UK

Douglas Lyall at Redwing Gallery, September 2019, Cornwall, UK

St.Michael's Mount is a tourist landmark island off the Cornish coast, subject of many souvenirs and a book of photographs of it from many angles by Trevor Burston ' Floating World' 1995.

It is owned by a Lord and topped by a castle, legendary as having been thrown into place by a giant, and a place of pilgrimage situated on a ley line.

I never expected to be surprised by a painting of this subject but Douglas Lyall has produced a number of exciting images of it. These are wildly lacking in detail, fauvist in their unnaturalistic colour and energetically sloshed on the canvas with panache, leaving the drips.

The artist told me his vision is not A1 and he paints accordingly.

His self portrait at first seems indecipherable but there is a face, a crushed camera montaged onto the rough surface to form one of the eyes.

Douglas himself is an impressive figure and is widely read about art and ideas. His statement on the wall demands freedom and speaks of opposing fascism. He disconcertingly refers to himself in this statement as 'we' and refers to a fifth reich. I approached him with caution but he was ok to talk to.

I was uncertain why he chose a font for his titles that reminded me of German right wing posters in the 30's and of heavy metal musicians' tee shirts, a sort of heavy Gothic font. However the artist said it was chosen because people call him old fashioned in style. It's an old English font and also he is interested and perturbed by the current prevalence of tattoos, which often use this script.

The paintings are rough in surface texture, dramatic in their simplified energetic impact. They are memorable.

Prices all paintings £200 each.

Naked Attraction-poem inspired by this tv program.

Naked Attraction - a tv Programme

Crazy tv

6 men, 3 views,

Toes to hips

Then chest

Then face

The cheerful tv lady makes it sound ok

Young woman choosing

Doesn't like one's toes

What sort of scrotum?

Not those balls

Oddly not shown his bottom

Until, dismissed, he goes.

Whittled down, she meets one man for dinner

The one with the smile I like is not her winner

And then they part

He says no spark

With all revealed

Their sad lost souls are not concealed

They look more human clothed

Maybe there is a reason

We traditionally remove clothes

In less public places

And start with faces.

MA Illustration Falmouth 2019

MA  Illustration authorial practice. 

Falmouth 2019 September

The show looked quiet visually. I needed to slow down to take it in, sit down to read things and enjoy meeting some of the artists - Illustration being a refuge for those who can draw and have things to say.

There were several who spoke of dementia in their work. 

Everything was done with attention to detail and well displayed although rather too small a font chosen for some notices for my eyes.

Alia Sinha, from Delhi, had designed her own tarot cards which were attractive and colourful and she invited visitors to do their own private 3 card  reading and consult her booklet about the images. 

She also offered a choice of masks to don and view in a mirror with significance ascribed to each that was only visible when you removed the mask from the wall. 

I was gratified to have selected 'art'. She explained her objective was to stimulate in a playful way and engage her audience. I was tempted to buy a set of her tarot but also to make my own.

Kristine Sundsdal, from Norway, 

had been flaneuring around Penryn and made dark brooding and complex images.

I was very happy as a fellow flaneur to discuss this phenomena with her. She has ambitious hopes to form an art collective in future to encourage artists and be inclusive and make a contribution to Norwegian culture.

Nigel Baines' images were bold and clear and he had made a book about life, his working class family and the impact of dementia.

 He also provided a comfortable chair and I found the book so interesting and such a fascinating combination of words and images that I decided to buy one for further enjoyment.

All the other students had very personal and expressive projects that were impressively thought provoking and made me glad this MA  has survived the lamentable cull of courses at Falmouth and continues to thrive with Steve Braund in charge.

Noel Betowski -I mmersive Pattern and Decoration in St.Ives.

Noel Betowski 'In The Fold 2' Penwith Gallery, St.Ives, Cornwall, UK

31st August to 28th September 2019 Monday to Saturday 10 - 5

Entering this show of 66 paintings done from 1979 to 2019 is an overwhelming experience. Noel Betowski is 66 and this is a celebration of his remarkable use of pattern and decoration which whirls round the room, on zigzagging concertinered panels, a device used to get them all into a gallery which seems made for their proportions. There are open door shapes, circles, swirls, all colours of the rainbow it seems but particularly vibrant orange and dusky blue. 

The edges of the canvasses are also decorated with his characteristic energetic pattern. 

There are sharp edges of bright hues and also blurred passages of complex murky mixtures.

What does it mean? What does he mean by reference to 'entropic phenomena?'

I note that Noell Betowski's formative period was the 70's when in America Miriam Schapiro and others worked in the ' Pattern and Decoration' movement which was largely seen as feminist and has been mentioned by Anna Swartz in 'Hyperallergic' June 13 2018' as having a resurgence recently, partly as an alternative to the preponderance of work about political issues and 'relentless address of injustices'.

Alongside the paintings are woven panels made by Pamela Betowski, Noel's wife, to compliment the paintings in their proportions and colours and she writes of the influence or parallel rhythms of music. These weavings are brightly coloured but calmly ordered. This couple perform wonderfully adept and lively folk music on violin and guitar regularly in Cornwall.

Prices are from £200 to £1800 with many prices on application.

On the way in a few paintings by Willie Barns Graham are shown which show a similar fascination with pattern with lots of deep red and black. 

I had not seen these before and thought they must have been chosen to parallel the Betowskis. Willie Barns Grahams are from the 60's and 70's and are priced up to £18.000.

Whereas the Barns Graham's are deliberative, concise and each self contained statements, the Betowski works make an immersive environment, abstraction on acid, as if attempting to express all the fizzing life and energy of cells and DNA.

Whilst I often feel St.Ives and the Penwith in particular are stuck in a time warp forever in homage to Ben and Barbara and an illustrious modernist past, here I have to admit that Noel Betowski has here made an original and astounding event, his life's work and an impressive original cavalcade of riotous forms which are both a rushing torrent of pattern and decoration and something that could repay lengthy contemplation.