Galleries - July 2010

fascination for coastline. But even this could be misleading: Gardiner's impetus shares more with the surrealist, neo-roman- ticism of such mid 20th C. figures as Tunnard or Paul Nash, whose former flat in Swanage he rented while working on his 'Jurassic Coast' series. Nash described the coast there as having, “a strange fascination, like all things which combine beauty, ugliness and the power to disquiet”. Much the same can be said of the penin- sula's rugged, wild, post industrial coastline, a fact not lost on Gardiner who, working a good deal in situ, has the ability to mine the seemingly timeless topo- graphy for those fleeting transient moments of veracity that are the very spirit of place. Writer and art critic Andrew Lambirth's assertion that, “St Ives is famous for its art, but it's high time there was some new blood in the galleries of Cornwall”, is one that chimes well with Petronilla Silver, Director of the Wills Lane Gallery who, since its re-opening in 2007, has consistently shown interesting work by 'out of county artists'. Apposite then that Lam- birth has been given free reign for his 'Critic's Choice' –- a selection of work by fourteen artists that is hard to fault. There are exuberant sea studies by Maggi Hambling and watercolours of trees by John Hubbard while David Inshaw (lyrical and as evocative of Eng- land as Elgar) is also well represented. Contrast this with Jason Gathorne-Hardy's graphite particular) often set in mystic landscapes that suggest dream- like narratives and elusive relat- ionships. Echoes of myth and antiquity together with the ex- periences of travel and the rich- ness of a life well lived give a meditative quality and spirituality to this painterly, beautiful and compelling work. Recounting that artist Jeremy Gardiner based 'Atlantic Edge', his recent exploration of the coastline of West Cornwall at Belgrave Gallery , on a similar journey taken by pre-Raphaelite John Brett might give a false impression. Though he admires the earlier artist's work they have little in common beyond an intense involvement with landscape and a ART IN CORNWALL Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year Badcocks Gallery in Newlyn is now well established as one of the most significant gall- eries in the peninsula. This is Elizabeth Hunter's second exhi- bition here but she too is no stranger to the area. After bagging an impressive array of awards for portraiture and drawing at the Slade, she initially moved here in the 60s, beginning an involvement with the heady St Ives art scene that included co-curating, and indeed for a time living in, the then Victor Pasmore, now Newlyn Art Gallery. Resident again in Penzance and now in her 70s, Hunter has moved away from early abstraction and once more focuses on the figure (the head in Pip Palmer highlights some of this month’s outstanding shows