‘ALKEMI –
in search of re-Enchantment’
Sara Bor, Feargal Shiels, Pete Ward and Patricia Wilson Smith
Jupiter Gallery
3 Chywoone Hill, Newlyn, Penzance, TR18 5HQ
Tuesday 15th June – Monday 28th June 2021
Open 12 – 5p.m. daily
In the wake of a second national lockdown, is it realistic to return to the way we are accustomed to living? While imminent threats such as climate change are pressing from all sides, do we allow our governments to divert us with promises of a new ‘normal, or should we be looking back, to learn lessons from the past?
These are the questions shared by four artists who launch their exhibition of experimental work at Jupiter Gallery in Newlyn, on 15th June.
‘Perhaps we should embrace the darkness?’ suggests Pete Ward, whose work involves intimate contact with the earth as an animate force. Pete works instinctively using natural materials and primitive processes to express his relationship with his environment.
Painter Sara Bor, who explores landscape in its many forms, has been using earth pigments in recent paintings, and has begun tracing the history of land use on the farmland where she has lived for 25 years. Feargal Shiels mines meaning from the repetition of quiet acts of drawing and painting. His meditative work recalls a simpler, monastic tradition. Patricia Wilson Smith, who curates the exhibition, uses clay to explore the power of the primitive. She believes we have gone too far in our destruction of the natural world. ‘So my work is about mourning: my cups and bowls are empty, blackened, damaged. We have lost ourselves and lost the earth and it seems we don’t have the will or the power to reclaim it.’
Alkemi is a dark exhibition, but not without hope. The artists will also explore the possibilities for optimism, and invite visitors to join their discussion ‘In search of re-Enchantment’ on Saturday 26th June at 3pm.
The artists are members of the Newlyn Society of Artists, and Alkemi is a satellite show to the Society’s spring exhibition ‘Looking Forward’ which will run concurrently at the Tremenheere gallery.
Admission to Jupiter gallery is free. For opening times and more information: email
patwilsonsmith@icoud.com Please observe Covid guidelines; masks and social distancing at all times in the gallery.
Alkemi – Exhibition at Jupiter Gallery, Newlyn. Four artists explore their relationship to an uncertain future through experimentation with materials, a deep connection to the landscape in which they live, and a desire to reclaim fragments of their personal history.
Contact: Patricia Wilson Smith 01736 788358 or 07530 446499
Participating Artists:
Sara Bor is a painter based in Devon. Her new project documents the historical and current land-use of where she has lived for almost quarter of a century and some of the people who have lived and farmed the land. www.sarabor.co.uk
Feargal Shiels graduated in June 2015 from the BA (Hons) Drawing course at Falmouth University. His mixed media works on paper are inspired by contemplative transcription as well as by the West Cornwall landscape. www.feargalshiels.com
Pete Ward’s artistic practice is rooted in a sense of evolving human relationships within the animate earth. An intimate response to the social and ecological conditions of our age, his work is shared through painting, photography, workshops, installations and presentations. www.peterward-artist-illustrator.co.uk
Patricia Wilson Smith is a multimedia artist whose work in recent years is evolving into a personal archive of the landscape of West Penwith. Through paintings, digital media, words and now clay, she continually explores the everyday of her natural surroundings. In 2016 she moved to Cornwall from Kent, where her practice included curatorial collaborations and exhibitions. Inventing Alkemi has given her an opportunity to shape and curate an exhibition that questions our expectations about returning to a ‘normal’ life post-Lockdown. www.patriciawilsonartist.com
Artist Talk – ‘In search of re-Enchantment’ Saturday 26th June 3-4pm This talk will begin in the gallery and depending on numbers will continue outside in a convenient location to maintain social distancing. Visitors are encouraged to join in with the discussion.
Image: Fergal Shiels (paint on card)
Image: Pat Wilson Smith (black clay and sand)
Image: Sara Bor, (paint and found objects)
Image: Pete Ward (earth face and body painting, video collaboration with Sean White-Hayes’)
