Granite and Gesso

This exhibition finished on the 25th July 2026. I almost didn't get to see this exhibition but luckily there was a short break in the back to back heatwaves we have been experiencing and I was able to visit on the last day.  It was lovely to meet Simon and Chantelle as they looked after the two venues, because this exhibition also utilised a space at Back Lane West.  It was the first time I had been to Back Lane West. It was simple to navigate between the two sites, as long as you are able to feal with Redruth's infamous hill.  The quickest route takes you out of the Auction House on to Station Hill.  Going downhill, there is a car park on your right, just below the Buttermarket.  Going across the top of the car park, you will find a set of steps down on the far side, which lead to Back Lane West.  Following Back Lane West downhill, it is the last unit on the left.  You can also get here by road or to avoid steps, although there is no public parking....

This exhibition closes on the 9th August 2026 Moving from the Home Counties in 2000, it didn't take me long to understand that the religious landscape of Cornwall was different.  Where I grew up there were churches but there didn't seem to be a religious landscape in the same way.  In Cornwall, it is not just about churches, older traditions were adopted by the church and kept alive in a way that makes Christianity much more deeply engrained on the landscape here. When the Roman Empire fell, the Dark Ages came to the British Isles.  Although Christianity had spread with the Romans, it largely left Great Britain, except for in the Celtic nations.  Here Christianity was allowed to grow with the people and for the people without an overseeing church authority.  As a result, they merged their own existing traditions with their faith and because their lives were linked to the land, Christianity became inextricably linked as well. There is not only a network of church...

This exhibition finishes on the 12th September 2026 This exhibition features work created as part of each students final project and there was a really wide range of work.  Each student had a different approach with often different materials and techniques used.   Some students work was just beautiful.  I would happily live with their work in my house.  They are obviously producing commercially saleable work that would happily sit in any gallery in Cornwall.  Hannah Hudson's beautiful plates were colourful and graphic and she had beautifully captured familiar places around Cornwall.  Rachel Carter has a lovely appreciation of pattern and form with a love of botanics and her hung piece laying out pressed leaves and flowers in a circular pattern was very striking. Others were however working on the uncomfortable cutting edge of art, where you need a little help understanding their perspective perhaps in order to appreciate their work.  These works c...