Different Ways of Seeing

From Alfred Wallis onwards, Cornwall has nurtured a healthy crop of idiosyncratic painters, each individualist producing work that could only be theirs. In this study of three leading post-war figures Fred Yates is the self-styled 'happy Lowry' whose lush vibrant colours, in thick impasto, are instantly recognised - Victorian aunts, mums with prams and little dogs, scenes of local village life, Cornish clifftops and beach scenes. In complete contrast, Bryan Pearce's naive paintings, cool, measured and tending to pastel colours, depicted the parish church, houses, harbour and seascapes of his beloved St Ives and West Cornwall. Joan Gillchrest's distinctive naive paintings commemorate the fisherfolk of Cornwall's rugged Penwith peninsula, its farmers and growers. Like the Victorians before her, she often told stories in paint, often with a wry, humorous slant.