Free Spirit

Free Spirit
Cornwall Today Magazine
Words by Peta-Jane Field
Photography by Maggie Matthews

Maggie Matthews’ first solo exhibition at Cornwall Contemporary Gallery celebrates the landscape in a joyous riot of colour.   Words by Peta-Jane Field 

Maggie Matthews is one of Cornwall's most individual and articulate painters of the outdoors. Intuitive and instinctive she abstracts all she sees around her into sensuously coloured yet gentle and feminine forms: the cliffs, the shoreline where land meets the sea, sky and the horizon, even the seabed itself. Having lived in west Penwith for many years, Matthews knows it intimately and, saturated with its atmosphere and moods, her paintings capture the landscape’s hidden mysteries "The colours reflect the ambience of a day, whether it was hot and sunny, cold and windy or foggy and damp," says Maggie. "l distil the essence of all I see, be it a pool of light, the motion of a wave or a wafting clump of seaweed. The beach never fails to inspire me. Its beauty draws me. Collections of small, jewel-like shells and soft grey pebbles are, perhaps, nostalgic mementos of fine sunny days. Shaped by time, they fascinate me in their endless variety. It is this relationship between man and nature that is at the heart of my work." Describing herself as a bit of an outsider, Maggie is conscious of the current unfashionable nature of ’uplifting' work. ”This is what I love doing," she says. "I always show in the summer because I think my work has a summer-time feel to it, although I do often sketch in the fog when the colour has been dissolved and absorbed by moisture.” 

Brought up in South Wales, Maggie was heavily influenced by Graham Sutherland’s dark mystic landscapes. "When I first came to Cornwall what I was trying to do was to beef up Sutherland’s dour landscapes with colour, but what I am doing at the moment is making a marriage of ideas into big paintings. The solidity of the land is represented by blocks of strong colour which soften into more diffused tones as it submerges under the sea." 

Reality is part of her work and shells are a recurrent motif. On a trip to Tresco, Matthews found herself drawing them on the beach, but back in the studio, where colour is applied, this will obey the demands of the painting, rather than the shell itself. Matthews thinks: "I am constantly striving to express the wholeness of a subject which includes its intangible qualities.” 

Although she acknowledges the influence of iconic St Ives artists Patrick Heron’s colours, Peter Lanyon’s concept of looking at the landscape from an aerial viewpoint, which is something she finds fascinating, and Roger Hilton's mark-making Matthews says: "I like the freedom to paint whatever I like.” And, indeed, her paintings are the visual expression of a free and happy spirit. 

Info Maggie Matthews’ work is at Cornwall Contemporary Gallery, 1 Parade Street, Queens Square, Penzance from 6 28 July.

Photography by Maggie Matthews
Small image: Shore Collection
Large Image: Waterside, Watersplash
Both paintings by Maggie Matthews