Huw Marshall, an artist from Scotland who lives in Penzance
Huw had a week’s exhibition at Redwing Gallery in Penzance in May 2026 and he agreed to be interviewed by me soon after this in his studio there.
I have seen some of his large paintings - very striking, expressionist, full of movement and contrasts of colour and tone, showing figures dancing or moving.
The problem is because I know some details of his life I am expecting certain things and I can’t now tell what would be conveyed if I did not know what I do.
Does the artist want us to react without knowing - I think so - I think he hesitates to be explicit and uses his art as a therapeutic help - as he says to keep himself sane - in the face of sorrow and protecting his audience from feelings to which he alludes in poetic oblique ways.
Huw told me he has a subject in mind for a new work, ‘ the distance between two people when one of them is dead’ - a subject I know something about from my own life.
Huw Marshall is from Scotland but has lived in Penzance for years, devoting his time to painting since he retired from being a GP.
His life as a doctor was devoted to helping people and people are his subject.
He knows enough of anatomy to be able to draw figures from his imagination convincingly and he used to go to life classes.
Huw is not concerned with his art career, not expecting or pursuing wide sales or fame or thinking that these would help him, but having a studio at Redwing Gallery provides a safe although austere space for him and he can mix with people there and drink excellent coffee. It’s a community interest company run to help art and music, green issues and veganism flourish and has become the hub where many interesting groups and individuals meet.
Artists Huw admires include Breughel, Bosch, Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, artists of the First World War and the living Glaswegian artist of the war in Bosnia- Peter Howson.
On the wall is a large 12 x 5 foot composition in grey tones based loosely on the Last Supper but with many figures which he refers to with humour as ‘Last orders at the Bowling Club Social’. This has poured out spontaneously in a few days, carried out with 6 inch brushes. It’s not finished yet.
In his recent show there was a similar sized one of three angels, using a limited palette, showing them as strong, interlocking, vivid but calming.
Asked if he believes in angels Huw says he does, as a something that looks after him, whilst he also has a scientific non religious outlook.
He is an artist of paradoxical contrasts who works from the heart and makes a rather wild and strange impression, original and worth seeking out.
His beloved female partner was murdered a few years ago and the tragic intensity of that I think vibrates within Huw’s work.
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