CLICK HERE FOR ARTIST'S PROFILE BY EDWARD KRCMA
BIOGRAPHY: GILL WATKISS studied at the Walthamstow School of Art before coming
to live in Newlyn, Cornwall in 1959. A decade later, in 1969,
she moved to a house at Cape Cornwall, St.Just and says that this
move was a major turning point in her career.
Up till then she describes her life as having been an artistic
desert. But on her arrival in St.Just she would walk to the playing
fields and begin to paint. She continued to paint St.Just and
its inhabitants for the next eight years.
It was at this moment in her career that people first began to
sit up and take notice of her work. Before the move to Cornwall
she had been focusing on still lives in London and her work had
received little interest. The paintings during her time in St.Just
were stimulated by its wind blown streets and cottages and the
vitality and life of its community. It is still a dominating force
in her approach to painting West Penwith today.
Gill Watkiss has exhibited her work widely, though West Cornwall
is her natural territory. Whether she paints bridal processions
across Cornish town centres in stormy weather or family outings
to Cape Cornwall, Porthleven or some other instantly recognisable
locality, Gill Watkiss captures the atmosphere, the people and
the drama of daily life in the Atlantic west of Britain. Her work
can be found in private collections throughout Britain, Europe
and in many far flung corners of the world. A Gill Watkiss painting
evokes instantly vivid memories of some otherwise obscure localities
in Cornwall - Drym, Porthgwarra, Germoe, Cape Cornwall, Marazion,
Tregerest and Lonkey Moor to name but a few - forever captured
in a time frame by this artist.
Michael Jay, Autumn 2000
(with thanks to the contribution of Sarah Brittain)
CLICK HERE FOR ARTIST'S PROFILE BY EDWARD KRCMA
The Great Atlantic Gallery, St Just
5 Bank Square, St Just -in-Penwith, Cornwall TR19 7HH
International Tel: 44 1736 788911/786016 (within the UK: 01736
788911/786016)
e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk