The Great Atlantic Galleries

neil pinkett
on the edge - landscape and life

Porthmeor beach
36 x 48” 92 x 124cm oil on canvas

Please call 01326 318452 / 01736 788911 or e-mail: gallery@greatatlantic.co.uk to reserve the painting of your choice.

Paintings may be collected by arrangement or we can arrange delivery from as little as £20 depending on size and distance. Money back if not entirely satisfied (provided we are informed within 3 days of your painting being collected/delivered). Cheques and all major credit cards accepted. Colours may vary between the original paintings and the reproductions shown here. All paintings are framed.

Neil Pinkett - On the edge: landscape and life

It is once again a pleasure to welcome Neil Pinkett’s new body of work to The Great Atlantic Galleries. The changes that were evident a year ago in Neil’s subject matter and approach clearly gain momentum in this collection. “Man and Dog”, his spring 2005 collection rang the changes both in the areas and subjects that were attracting his attention and in the interpretations that he began bringing to the canvas.

When I first met Neil some 15 years ago, he earned his living as a professional illustrator and I earned mine as a partner in a firm specialising in educational field work equipment. I had approached Neil to request an illustration of a new product that couldn’t be photographed as the prototype had yet to be built. I needed the illustration for a British Council sponsored trade fair in Palm Springs California. He did the piece and the product flourished.

By the time we next worked together, both our lives had changed. The educational business had been sold and the Map Works Gallery had been opened. For Neil, the illustration work had dwindled and he was taking his first steps along the path that has led to his great success as a professional artist.

Now I sense another change. As The Great Atlantic Galleries shift emphasis from the backstreets of St Just-in-Penwith to a wider stage, Neil Pinkett is moving in directions that I feel will take him to a higher plain.

Firstly, there is change evident in the wonderful work reproduced here. Note the the darker palette, the figures on the beach and note especially the shining townscapes - Penzance, St Ives, Mousehole and Newlyn.

Secondly, Neil is about to embark on an epic journey from Cape Wrath in the North of Scotland to Cape Cornwall, near his birthplace, St Just. During June and July, Neil plans to cycle the 1000 mile plus route that he has surveyed, sketching, photographing and painting his way through Scotland, North West England, Wales and the entire Atlantic Coast of Devon and Cornwall. Out of this journey will come a major body of paintings and other closely connected expressions that will be exhibited at a number of venues during 2007.

So, enjoy this work and look forward to Neil Pinkett’s career developments to come.

Michael Jay, The Great Atlantic Galleries,
St Just-in-Penwith, March 2006

Neil Pinkett

Neil Pinkett was born within spitting distance of Cape Cornwall at St Just-in-Penwith, Britain’s most westerly town in 1958. Although art school trained, he didn’t become a full time professional painter, as such, until the late 1990’s. Until that time he had made his living as a visualiser in the adverting business and as an illustrator of books.

A change in the market for illustration in the 1990’s prompted a move into fine art, with Neil going back to his core skills as a painter of landscape and life. After a brief spell in further education, he became fully focussed on his painting and over the past 5 or 6 years has emerged as a leading West Country oil painter. He regularly shows at selected galleries in Cornwall, Bristol, Bath and London; has had a major touring exhibition in New England and is about to embark on a “lifetime’s journey” along the Atlantic coast of Great Britain. This significant project will lead to a series of major exhibitions in 2007 - 2008.