SU CARROLL rounds up the very best activities to do and things to see close to the coastline this month
1 SALUTING LIFE SAVERS
As the Royal National Lifeboat Institution marks 200 years since it was founded, renowned Cornwall-based artist Kurt Jackson has documented his work in an exhibition, RNLI Cornwall, at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
The exhibition features a selection of paintings he created inside Mousehole’s old Penlee Lifeboat Station. He was given special access to it, left as it was following the tragic 1981 disaster that resulted in the loss of 16 souls, including the entire crew of the Solomon Browne lifeboat. It’s a poignant tribute to the sacrifice made by the RNLI’s brave volunteer crews.
The paintings vary in scale from postcard-sized pieces up to massive canvasses which capture the charity’s iconic blue and orange lifeboats nestled into Cornish harbours or breaking through mountainous waves, as in Punching Through, (2021 pictured). Closer to shore are paintings featuring lifeguards at the centre of Cornish beach life at locations including Sennen, Gwithian, Porthtowan and Trebarwith.
Ends November 3, nmmc.org.uk
Art has always been an important feature of cultural life in Falmouth. JMW Turner visited the town in 1811 and many artists have made their homes here -Henry Scott Tuke, Charles Napier Hemy and William Ayerst Ingram – and it has attracted visiting painters such as John Singer Sargent and J M Whistler. The visual arts have been taught at Falmouth for over a century and Falmouth School of Art has a fine reputation. Discover artists old and new at Falmouth Art Gallery where entry is free. falmouthartgallery.com
2 COASTAL INSPIRATION
This delightful exhibition by three artists based in Penwith, Cornwall -Sara Bevan, Graham Black and Gillian Cooper – shows how each are inspired by different aspects of the wild coast and moor landscapes in which they live. A Trio of Printmakers brings their print work together for the first time highlighting individual styles and choice of imagery, whilst showing an insight into their knowledge and expertise of a wide range of techniques belonging to an age-old craft.
All three artists hail from outside the county. Sara Bevan was born in Walsall and studied at Liverpool Polytechnic, specialising in printed textiles. She now lives and works in Sennen near Land’s End. Graham Black moved to Cornwall after a long career as an art director in London to rekindle his love of printmaking and loves the forms and shapes of the ancient granite rocks and cliffs that dominate Land’s End where he lives. His work Sandbar at Sennen (pictured) is in the show. 2 Gillian Cooper studied Art in Camberwell and Bristol, before moving to Cornwall in 1999 w
