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According to the German-born American painter and sculptor Eva Hesse,
"The best artists are those who have stood alone and who can be
separated from whatever movements have been made about them," writes
Frank Ruhrmund.While, as far as it is known, no movements have been
made about either Romi Behrens or Geoffrey Bickley, now exhibiting at
Badcock's Gallery in Newlyn, they certainly stand alone and in a class
of their own.
Wiltshire-born Romi Behrens came to Cornwall as a girl.
As a painter she is largely self-taught and, in fact, only started painting after marrying her farmer husband Mike.
Despite juggling a farm and family she has exhibited widely, gaining a considerable reputation and following for her work.
She
has been described as being one "who paints with conviction and without
caution" and quite cheerfully confesses to being an instinctive painter.
"My
work is nearly always made in direct response to a visual scene -
nothing intellectual about it, although someone once suggested that
probably I subconsciously analyse through painting.
"Colour is
the thing that makes me paint. I paint what I see, rather than what's
in my mind: more a visual than an ethereal expression."
A sense
of speed and spontaneity is paramount in all that she does. While she
works fast and may, indeed, throw caution to the wind, there is nothing
careless in her compositions.
They exude a well nigh
irresistible sense of exuberance and enthusiasm, but at the same time
her approach, style and technique are firmly under control and she
applies her paint with a confidence and consideration, and a total
absence of either artifice or affectation, that can only be admired and
applauded.
Of the 33 paintings on show, several sold immediately the exhibition opened.
Much the same can be said for St Erth-based woodcarver Geoffrey Bickley's birds.
Almost
before they had a chance to land in the gallery, a cry went up "Where
are the Reed Buntings?" and several were snapped up at once.
A Devonian, born and bred in Exmouth, Geoffrey has worked in Cornwall since the late 1960s.
The
birds he uses as a subject are found either in the Hayle estuaries, no
more than a few minutes away from his studio, or on the seas of his
adopted Cornwall.
Entirely self-taught, he has exhibited widely
throughout the region, featured on television in West Country Lives and
exhibited at Trelissick Gardens to commemorate a visit by Prince
Charles.
With birds carved mostly from pine - he professes a
fondness for its grain - he said: "Some I paint and then finish with a
wax polish, others I feel are best left unpainted to show off the wood
grain.
"I often create a shoreline or a group picture. I find carving like this enables my work to flow."
A
fact exemplified by a group of six godwits mounted on what appears to
be a piece of driftwood but is actually a remnant of the celebrated
Newlyn fishing boat Rosebud, formally known as the Cynthia Yvonne.
An
artist-craftsman who finds inspiration for his work during his walks
along the estuaries of Cornwall and Devon, all the birds in this
exhibition were hatched during the past winter.
"It was a good
stormy winter and enabled me to not only see interesting birds but also
to gather some interesting pieces of wood.
"The idea for the
large flock of oystercatchers came when I was on Trenow Beach at
Perranuthnoe where they were all busy on the rocks and shoreline
looking for food. The egrets I've noticed more in the fields around my
home, and I'm especially pleased with the cormorants drying their
wings."
Whether drying their wings or swimming his cormorants
are superb, but then, so too are just about everything that attracts
the attention of his sharp chisel and even sharper eye.
The exhibition can be seen at the Badcock's Gallery, Newlyn, until June 26.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN
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