With its programme of regular exhibitions by artists such as Sir Terry Frost, Sandra Blow and Jeremy Le Grice, plus several recent graduates from Falmouth School of Art who have gone on to make considerable reputations for themselves, it has long since been recognised as being in the first division of the many art galleries in Penwith.
The only commercial fine art gallery located in Newlyn which, as well as being one of this country's leading fishing ports also has its own art history, it is now run by Nickie Carlyon who helped out at the gallery for several years.
When first Fiona and later Mimi decided to leave and explore new territories, Nickie was only too happy, as she says, to take over the gallery.
A Cornish farmer's daughter, born and bred near St Columb Major, who worked at various jobs on leaving school, it was not until the mid-1980s when recovering from a serious accident, that she decided it was time she did what she had always wanted to do – to attend art school.
She duly enrolled as a student at Farnham School of Art where she obtained a degree in fine art.
Following her graduation, "eager to explore its creative field and to see what her native Cornwall had to offer", she came back to live and work in the county.
Prior to becoming involved with Badcock's Gallery, she ran her own business The Fairy Factory at Sheffield, near Paul, for several years and also worked on commissions for murals.
One whose interest in art is wide and varied, who has travelled widely from the USA to the Far East, including a prolonged stay of nine months in Thailand, she is celebrating the tenth birthday of Badcock's Gallery and paying tribute to the success Fiona and Mimi made of it, with an exhibition of works by many of the artists who have shown there during the past decade.
Impossible to list them all but, from paintings such as Sandra Blow's Interactive Series II and Sir Terry Frost's Newlyn Rhythm to Sir Peter Blake's On the Beach and Daphne McClure's Sheep on the Hill; ceramics and sculptures by Claire Loder, Steve Lewis, Beth Carter and Geoffrey Bickley; plus works by Richard Ballinger, Romi Behrens, Marilyn Browning, Jessica Cooper, Hannah Davies, Sue Dove, Marie Claire Hamon, Elizabeth Hunter, Alice Mumford, Simon Pooley, Trevor Price, Michael Rees, Tracy Rees, Lindsay Simons, Kristin Vestgard, Paul Wadsworth and Jerry White, it could hardly be more star-studded or satisfying.
Admission is free, and The Birthday Show, celebrating 10 years at Badcock's Gallery, The Strand, Newlyn, can be seen there 10am-5pm Monday-Friday, 11am-5pm Saturday, until June 1.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN