Renowned Creede artist Stephen Quiller will open a show of paintings from Cornwall on May 24 alongside emerging talent, daughter Allison Quiller. The pair spent three weeks in April capturing the unique area of Great Britain in water media, and their completed body of work will be on display at the Quiller Gallery for the summer months.
Cornwall, England, is known for its rugged coastlines and unique light. While Allison and Stephen had discussed taking a painting trip together, it wasn’t until Allison read a book set in a post-war St. Ives that the pieces fell into place. In the 1940s, many artists fled to Cornwall from London to escape the Blitz, and amidst their discovery of the light and landscape, St. Ives became an artists’ colony. After a visit to nearby St. Agnes, Stephen and Allison began their Cornish adventure to get a feel for the area and its art, there, they experienced the Tate St. Ives, the St. Ives Society of Artists located inside a converted Mariner’s Cathedral and the home and garden of one of Britain’s greatest sculptors, Barbara Hepworth.
Stephen and Allison then journeyed to a place Stephen had painted before, a working fishing village nestled into a cove called Polperro. For most of its history, Polperro was only accessible by water, which made it an ideal place for smugglers and pirates. While today it can be reached by a small road, there are still no cars in the village proper, and the cobble pathways and sea-worn homes built directly into rock make the place feel like a step back in time. While Allison and Stephen spent their days painting the rocks, boats, flowers, and seagulls, they also discovered a familial connection. Their ancestor, John Quiller, was a prominent Polperro smuggler in the late 1700s. The first local they met was a taxi driver, Darren Stevens, whose son promptly discovered their family also shared Quiller ancestry. Darren later took the Quillers to paint for a day in the nearby village of Lansallos, where many historic Quillers are buried.
After a week of crashing waves and history, Allison and Stephen travelled to a different Cornish treasure: the Isles of Scilly. This archipelago is forty miles off the coast and is just south enough to be considered sub-tropical. Allison and Stephen settled in on Tresco Island, known for its lavish gardens, flowers, and birds. It was a monastic settlement in 946 AD, and an Abbey was built that fell into disrepair in the sixteenth century. In the mid-1800s, a caretaker developed an extraordinary garden in the ruins, where palm trees, outstanding flora, fauna, and rare pheasants thrive today. On the other end of this mile-square island are castle ruins and turbulent waves against the rocky coast, where Puffins are known to thrive. Allison and Stephen spent a week capturing just some of the distinctive aura of this special and little-known place.
The show of paintings by Quiller and Quiller can be seen in the upstairs area of the Quiller Gallery starting Saturday, May 24. Tea, scones, and Cornish Pasties will be available to the public, and the artists will be in the gallery or working on the street to discuss the work.
