Catherine Harvey Jefferson’s Exhibitions of Jamie Muir’s Art at Wharf Side Art Hub

This is the story about how I arrived in the unexpected position of archiving Jamie Muir’s art and curating his solo exhibition ‘Carry me gently home’. In November 2024 I met a tall white bearded man in the queue at the Post Office in Penzance. He was walking with a stick and carrying a bicycle helmet, which I thought was an intriguing combination of artefacts. Since waiting was interminable, I offered to get him a chair, which he declined. He was writing meticulously on a painting-shaped parcel. I said, “With handwriting like that you must be an artist”. He looked me straight in the eye and said “Yes I am”. It was like a statement of intent and almost like he was hearing himself say that for the first time in a long while. We started chatting and I asked him what he was currently working on. He said he was making pencil drawings, I asked “What are they like?” he said “They’re very strange.” He was delighted to talk to another artist and he promised to dig out his camera and send me photos of his work. After this encounter I had a curious feeling of having walked through a door into the open air. 

In February 2025, Newlyn Society of Artists received an email asking if they knew the artist who had met Jamie met in Penzance Post Office… I don’t know how they worked out it must be me! It was via this route that George Muir tracked me down and told me that Jamie had sadly passed away, and had left me one of his cameras in his will which was very touching on such slight acquaintance. Subsequent conversations with George ensued and when George showed me Jamie’s work at Jamie’s studio in Heamoor, I was immediately convinced that this skilled, poignant and powerful work needed to be shown. As a curator and artist myself I knew that I could make this happen. 

It has been a pleasure, and a learning curve. Despite my curating experience with large exhibitions over the last few years nothing can prepare you for dealing with an artist’s archive that contains 40 years artwork – with few titles and no dates! Just one of many challenges which has led to fascinating conversations, with my incredible team, about the very nature of Jamie’s work. The artwork is sometimes exquisite, sometimes challenging but always deeply humane.

Catherine Harvey Jefferson