Penwith’s coastal artworld
6th January 2025
Hushed beaches, misty cliffs, and the gentle sounds of the tide, this is Cornwall’s #SecretSeason – a moment for reflection, meditation, and creativity – a perfect time to visit Penwith’s artworld.
Penwith – Cornwall’s westernmost tip connected to the wild Atlantic, stretching all the way from Hayle around to St. Michael’s Mount – has long been celebrated for its rich artistic heritage. Its raw and rugged beauty is inspiration for both artists and art lovers. And from Marazion to St Ives, local artists and galleries recreate the winter landscape in softly coloured paintings and ceramics.
Cornwall’s #SecretSeason is a perfect time to discover its thriving art scene, so we visited some of this season’s exhibitions and hear from two local artists, Sarah Woods and Jack Doherty, on how winter shapes their creative processes and deepens their connection to the coastal landscape.
SHIFTING SCENES
Begin your journey at Penzance, Cornwall’s major port town. In its quiet historic streets, you’ll find Penlee House Gallery & Museum home to an impressive collection of Newlyn School paintings. Upcoming in February 2025, The Shape of Things: Our place in a changing climate, will feature works of local artists who explore how Cornwall’s shifting land- and seascapes respond to environmental changes, inspiring hope and action for the future.
Image credit: Sarah Woods
Newlyn-based painter, Sarah Woods, paints her personal interpretation of the shifting atmosphere from her cozy studio. “Winter along the west coast has a timelessness – a feeling of the land and sea in harmony.”
“The light “has a clarity that comes with the cold,” she says, slowing down the pace of things while the “landscape breathes.”
With changing seasons, she witnesses the landscape quietly breathing and shifting as well. This way, her collections are unique to each season – her newest series captures this shifting landscape in autumn, drawing inspiration from “a palette rich in deep earthy tones, gathered from elemental movement of the ocean and a coastline warmed with autumnal light.”
As winter takes hold, the colours she mixes evolve again inspired by low-traveling light and dark ocean hues. The light “has a clarity that comes with the cold,” she says, slowing down the pace of things while the “landscape breathes.”
Image credit: Sarah Woods
In her studio, Sarah focuses on the process of painting rather than the outcome, describing it as “a continuous flow of time balanced between the coast at the studio.” Her practice is intuitive and tactile, shaped by an immediate response to the forms and colours she observes in the landscape. Whether focusing on large-scale canvases or intimate studies, she creates pieces that reflect nature’s rhythm, translating Cornwall’s wintery calmness into meditative works of art.
“The powerful combinations of colour in the grey, wet wind-blasted stones and moorland of West Penwith” inspire Jack’s minimalist approach.”
Place and perspective
Building on Sarah’s introspective approach, the next stop on this artistic journey takes you to the small town of St Just. Here, The Jackson Foundation invites you into its industrial space where art and nature become one. The current exhibition showcases Kurt Jackson’s paintings, taking inspiration from Valency Valley in north Cornwall.
Image credit: Jackson Foundation Gallery
It features large-scale works capturing the valley’s wooded banks, flowing waters, and the Boscastle Harbour. The collection reflects Jackson’s philosophy that “no man ever steps in the same river twice” – each piece is a silent reflection on both a nostalgic past and a scenic future.
Image credit: Kurt Jackson
This play between nature’s physical environment and artistic response also unfolds in Jack Doherty’s ceramic work. In 2008, he became the first lead potter at Leach Pottery in St Ives, after it was refurbished, carrying forward its “modernist awareness of material and technique.” Today, Jack’s work is shaped by Cornwall’s jagged environment and changing weather. His recent exhibition, Weathering, reflects Cornwall’s shifting weather patterns and the passage of time that shapes not only the landscapes but also his ceramics.
Image credit: Jack Doherty
“The powerful combinations of colour in the grey, wet wind-blasted stones and moorland of West Penwith” inspire Jack’s minimalist approach. Using just one clay, one colouring mineral – copper, sourced from Cornwall’s mining history – Jack’s soda-fired porcelain creates a striking palette of greys, russets, and flashes of cerulean, all without glazes.
“The winter weather is an ever present influence on how we live here,” he says. Even when the dampness and wind challenge Jack’s drying process, they become part of his everyday life as “life goes on.”
Image credit: Jack Doherty
Together, these gallery stops offer moments to pause, linger, and connect with the area’s artistic spirit.
From gallery-hopping to discovering the intimate connections artists share with the coast, Cornwall’s #SecretSeason is a great time to explore Penwith’s artworld. Find a coastal retreat and be part of the artistic spirit…
