Joan Gillchrest 1918-2008. Cornish Fishing Boats At First Light. Framed.

Joan Gillchrest.
English ( b.1918 - d.2008 ).
Cornish Fishing Boats at First Light.
Oil on Paper Mounted on Board. Signed with Monogram.
Image size 26.2 inches x 22 inches ( 66.5cm x 56cm ).
Frame size 35.8 inches x 31.3 inches ( 91cm x 79.5cm ).

Available for sale from Big Sky Fine Art in the English county of Dorset, this original oil painting is by the Cornish artist Joan Gillchrest and dates from around the late 1980s. 
The oil painting is presented and supplied in a sympathetic new replacement frame (which is shown in these photographs) that suits the artwork’s colour palette and behind non-reflective Tru Vue UltraVue® UV70 glass. 
This painting is in excellent condition and presents superbly. It wants for nothing and is ready to hang and display. 
The painting is signed with a monogram lower right.

Joan Gillchrest was one of Mousehole’s and Cornwall’s most recognised and celebrated artists. Her vibrant art sits firmly alongside other great artists of the St. Ives School from the 1960s. She was born into a wealthy and illustrious family of eminent architects and always loved architecture herself. She said that buildings were “in her blood” and painted many of the churches and chapels of the Penwith peninsular. She had a long and interesting life, being both glamourous and bohemian, working as a model and mixing in the artistic circle of her day. As a very private person she never really understood the professional success she enjoyed and was bemused by the demand for her work. She said that she painted in order to give people enjoyment and rarely visited exhibitions, not wanting to be influenced by the work of others. She did not suffer fools gladly, but was warm, loving and generous to those who knew her. She built up a tremendous following and is recognised today as being one in a distinguished line of British naïve expressionists. From 1958 she lived and worked in Mousehole and in 1963 she put up the first string of lights outside her home at Christmas. Now, every year the village and its harbour are illuminated, and the event draws large crowds. This is just one of the enduring legacies from this extraordinary woman.

This original oil painting by Joan Gillchrest depicts five small fishing vessels on the sea. It is dawn and the sun, still pale but with the merest hint of warmth, is rising slowly over the ocean, like a huge globe hanging in the pale blue sky. The boats appear as black silhouettes with white cabins, each riding on a carpet of white surf. The seagulls known that where there are fishing boats there is food and they are flocking over the three nearest boats, eager for their breakfast. The sea is the deepest green but brightening slowly as the new day rises. Overall, the palette is muted but this scene is fresh, balanced and calm. It is a scene which bears a promise of things to come.

For a full biography of this artist please see her listing on www.bigskyfineart.com .

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