NOT ONLY Francophiles but all those with an interest in good food and good paintings will welcome this evening's opening of Bonjour Annie!, the exhibition of paintings by Newlyn-based Annie Metcalfe in the Tolcarne Inn, Newlyn.
It was just a decade ago that the artist held her first solo show since coming to Cornwall in the Tolcarne Inn and to mark her tenth anniversary, "mine host" Maura Thompson is holding one of her popular French evenings when everything on the menu, the wine and the food, will have the decided and delicious, mouth-watering flavour of France.
A regular visitor to France during the past six years, in 2010, accompanied by her partner Howey, Annie travelled from Bilbao in northern Spain to western France and, although she had no time to sit and paint on the journey she did manage to keep a journal.
She said: "I mainly and madly worked on it as we travelled from town to town, needless to say I was the passenger and not the driver."
It is this illustrated record, comprising her drawings, photographs, thoughts, gallery tickets and so on, together with memories of her previous travels in France, that have inspired the 30 or so pictures in this exhibition.
One of the places she and her partner stayed in was La Baule. A place which still remains special for her. She said: "I remember the setting sun as we entered La Baule, while it was beautiful, the next day the early morning sun was even more beautiful. I shall never forget it, nor its out of season sense of peace and calm or its sprawling beaches full of long vacated fascinating forms of life. I couldn't resist bringing back some oyster and mussel shells coated with tiny crustaceans that have since inspired a number of small impasto oil paintings."
An artist who studied at Brunel College of Arts and Technology, Bristol, and University College, Chichester, where she gained a BA (Hons) degree in fine art, since then she has exhibited at various venues throughout her adopted Cornwall from Newlyn to Newquay and further afield from London to Bath.
A member for a long while of the St Ives-based artist cooperative Taking Space and currently closely involved with Newlyn's annual Festival of the Arts, she now has a considerable following and reputation for her paintings of the landscape in parts of both Cornwall and France.
Happy to explore both visual and tactile surface textures through a variety of media, she added: "The greatest challenge for me lies not in the form of the subject but in its underlying qualities presented through the powers of nature that are unique to each subject."
From The Cherry Orchard and Lavender Field to the Rooftops of Rousillon and Light of Provence she faces up to that challenge extremely well to produce paintings that reflect her joie de vivre. As inviting as "mine host" Maura Thompson's menu, as vibrant as they are vital, pictures that veritably ooze oomph and suggest Annie Metcalfe's exhibition could well be sub-titled "Ooh la la, Annie!", admission is free, and they can be seen in the Tolcarne Inn during normal opening hours until May 4.
NOT ONLY Francophiles but all those with an interest in good food and good paintings will welcome this evening's opening of Bonjour Annie!, the exhibition of paintings by Newlyn-based Annie Metcalfe in the Tolcarne Inn, Newlyn.
It was just a decade ago that the artist held her first solo show since coming to Cornwall in the Tolcarne Inn and to mark her tenth anniversary, "mine host" Maura Thompson is holding one of her popular French evenings when everything on the menu, the wine and the food, will have the decided and delicious, mouth-watering flavour of France.
A regular visitor to France during the past six years, in 2010, accompanied by her partner Howey, Annie travelled from Bilbao in northern Spain to western France and, although she had no time to sit and paint on the journey she did manage to keep a journal.
She said: "I mainly and madly worked on it as we travelled from town to town, needless to say I was the passenger and not the driver."
It is this illustrated record, comprising her drawings, photographs, thoughts, gallery tickets and so on, together with memories of her previous travels in France, that have inspired the 30 or so pictures in this exhibition.
One of the places she and her partner stayed in was La Baule. A place which still remains special for her. She said: "I remember the setting sun as we entered La Baule, while it was beautiful, the next day the early morning sun was even more beautiful. I shall never forget it, nor its out of season sense of peace and calm or its sprawling beaches full of long vacated fascinating forms of life. I couldn't resist bringing back some oyster and mussel shells coated with tiny crustaceans that have since inspired a number of small impasto oil paintings."
An artist who studied at Brunel College of Arts and Technology, Bristol, and University College, Chichester, where she gained a BA (Hons) degree in fine art, since then she has exhibited at various venues throughout her adopted Cornwall from Newlyn to Newquay and further afield from London to Bath.
A member for a long while of the St Ives-based artist cooperative Taking Space and currently closely involved with Newlyn's annual Festival of the Arts, she now has a considerable following and reputation for her paintings of the landscape in parts of both Cornwall and France.
Happy to explore both visual and tactile surface textures through a variety of media, she added: "The greatest challenge for me lies not in the form of the subject but in its underlying qualities presented through the powers of nature that are unique to each subject."
From The Cherry Orchard and Lavender Field to the Rooftops of Rousillon and Light of Provence she faces up to that challenge extremely well to produce paintings that reflect her joie de vivre. As inviting as "mine host" Maura Thompson's menu, as vibrant as they are vital, pictures that veritably ooze oomph and suggest Annie Metcalfe's exhibition could well be sub-titled "Ooh la la, Annie!", admission is free, and they can be seen in the Tolcarne Inn during normal opening hours until May 4.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN