Western Morning News

WESTERN MORNING NEWS

Saturday July the 20th 2019
NATURAL APPROACH TO CAPTURING CORNWALL

Hurry down to a Penzance gallery to catch the last day of Maggie Matthews’ exhibition, says Frank Ruhrmund.

If you’re quick - and you’ll have to hurry as it ends today, Saturday, 20th July - you can still see Maggie Matthews’ latest exhibition The Nature of Home in Cornwall Contemporary in Penzance.
An artist about whom it has been said that she never disappoints but always pleases she lives up to something Lorenzo de Medici once famously maintained that three things are called for in the making of a perfect painting.
Namely: a good support on which the paint is applied; an artist who is very good both in drawing and in colour, and that the matters painted be in their own nature, attractive and pleasant to the eye, Maggie Matthews ticks all three boxes.
An artist who once said that the colours she uses in a composition reflects the ambience of the day when it was made, from Sea Hedge and Path of Light to Clifftop Cove, Gwenver and Dusk the pictures in this exhibition suggest she must have enjoyed good weather for all her en plein air excursions.

One who was born and bred in the small mining village of Blaina in South Wales, she studied fine art at Newport College of Art and Design and at Exeter College of Art and following her graduation came to settle in Cornwall, at Botallack near St Just. As she reminds us: “I first walked the length of Cot Valley thirty years ago, and thought I’d found paradise. The valley ends with a tiny cove, where I immediately took a quick dip in the sea. I knew I’d found my forever home, and over the years I’ve worn out many pairs of walking boots. The footpath is where my adventures begin, rambling through overgrown sea hedges, glimpsing the beautiful beaches below. Quickly sketching clifftop flower shapes or making collections of seed pods, bringing nature into my home.

“All my special finds play their part in connecting me to the landscape. Living here in Cornwall has given me the opportunity to visit exotic gardens, rugged moorland and an incredible coastline. You don’t have to travel far to find inspiration and season after season I get to explore my home and enjoy life's simple pleasures. I’ve taken root in this place and nature has become my retreat and breathing space”. 

During the past years she has exhibited extensively throughout the UK from the Penwith Gallery, St Ives, to the Affordable Art Fair, London, and her work now forms part of a number of collections from that of BBC Wales to Women of the World, Claudia DeMonte in the USA. One who is unusual in being a part en plein air, part abstract artist, she makes sketches when out and about and then develops them in the comfort of her studio. On her walks she often picks up stones, seeds, shells and bits of seaweed, with the intention of turning them into paintings.

“Starting with sketches of these found objects I develop the drawings until I’ve found a really strong image,” she says. 

But that is only the beginning. The secret of her success lies in the way she arranges and composes these life forms on her canvas until, as she says, “They float in a timeless space.” As unassuming as she is unusual, her paintings are as fabulous as they are flowery, and can be seen, admission free, in Cornwall Contemporary, 1 Parade Street,  Queen’s Square, Penzance, until 5pm today.

Frank Ruhrmund.