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JOAN GILLCHREST (1918 -
2008)
We first exhibited Joan's work in 1992. This was something completely
different for a Gallery that had specialised in 19th and 20th century
watercolours. We started with about 20 of her typical character paintings
and many of our established customers used to purchasing Allingham, Birket
Foster, Stannards and other Victorian watercolourists, thought we had taken
leave of our senses. However the humour and unique quality of the paintings
worked their magic and many of our regular buyers of traditional art
succumbed and became regular and avid collectors of Joan's work.
Every year from 1992 Wren Gallery held a solo exhibition of Joan's paintings
bringing the magic of Cornwall's Penwith Peninsula to Burford and beyond.
Our collectors' file grew and grew and buyers from all over the world bought
her work. Joan quickly became established as the Gallery's best selling and
best loved artist but much more than this she became a very dear friend.
Visiting Joan in Cornwall was always memorable. We would meet in a pub (the
Lobster Pot in Mousehole, the Wink in Lamorna or the King's Head in Paul)
where crab sandwiches and "whisky macs" were on the menu and then move on to her
home and studio in Mousehole. Once home, out came the sherry bottle and
Titus the cat joined the party. (I knew both Titus IV and V and they were
virtually indistinguishable.) Eventually I was allowed into the studio to
collect the work but Joan never wanted to part with her paintings. They were
all her friends and she would be reluctant to hand them over. She would take
the odd one back saying "I can't bear to part with that yet". She hated an
empty studio and would rush to start filling it with paintings again.
Joan Gillchrest is established as one of the foremost naïve artists of her
time. Just as L. S. Lowry's work depicts the life and times of the working
class people of Northern England Joan's distinctive paintings of people
going about their business will be forever identified with the fisher folk
of Cornwall's rugged Penwith Peninsula. Her work sits proudly alongside
other great artists of the St. Ives School working from the nineteen
sixties.
She was essentially a very private person who shunned publicity and could
never quite understand the tremendous following for her work. Joan held
strong views, didn't suffer fools gladly and using her own words "could be
difficult." But for those fortunate to have known her she was warm, loving
and generous. Her tremendous sense of humour, the concern and affection she
felt for the people and places of Penwith will live forever through her
paintings.
Gill Mitchell
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