The Great Atlantic Map Works Gallery

Tom Cross lived in Cornwall for 30 years. He will be known to many, not only through his teaching as a former Head of Falmouth School of Art but also through his many writings on the history of art in Cornwall.

Born in Manchester, he trained at the Slade School and spent two years travelling and painting in Italy and France. On his return he worked in Wales for the Welsh Arts Council, later becoming Senior Lecturer in painting at Reading University and then, until 1987, was principal of the prestigious Falmouth School of Art. He died in March 2009.

Tom Cross continued to write and lecture and his major books The Shining Sands, Painting the Warmth of the Sun and Catching the Wave are standard works on the history of the Newlyn and St Ives Schools. He recently published an autobiographical account of his time living on the Helford River.

In a recent show at The Great Atlantic Arwenack Street Gallery in Falmouth, he captured, through his Cornish paintings the very spirit of the landscapes of the Helford River.

“My early experiences offered much of what ultimately came to be so important to me - an introduction to that part of Cornwall dominated by the Fal and the Helford Rivers which became the basis of my painting”

“In recent years the river has become my principal subject for painting and I am daily aware of the changes of the weather and of the season. In describing this landscape I am conscious not only of the forms of land and the reflecting surface of water but the interaction of tide, current and wind.”

From “Helford a river and some landscape” by Tom Cross;
published by Halsgrove in 2005

A selection of Tom Cross’ paintings and drawings may be seen at:
www.greatatlantic.co.uk/tomcross