Inspired by the beautiful coastline around St Ives Bay, Emma Jeffryes’ distinctive paintings express the beauty and vitality of the west Cornwall coast.
In her work, spring flowers, bright umbrellas and dazzling waters are framed against the simple shapes of sky, sea and sand. Emma’s talent with colour and the lively characterisation of people and places have made her work among the most recognised and best loved in Cornwall.
Her new collection, which is on show at New Craftsman Gallery throughout April, combines key creative influences from the last few years into one definitive collection for 2024. As always, St Ives and the surrounding ocean feature strongly, beginning with Emma’s first artwork of this year, titled ‘January Sea’, painted en plein air on Porthmeor Beach on a bitter January day, as well as ‘Tea Tate Town’, inspired by the view from the Tate St Ives café. Emma’s ongoing studies of the South West Coast Path, which she has been walking in sections and painting over the past few years, also form part of this collection, taking in Hawkes Point and other spectacular views of the Cornish coast.
Last August Emma spent a week in residence in a waterside apartment in Falmouth in order to paint the 2023 Falmouth Tall Ships Regatta. Sadly, this world famous event was cancelled at the last minute due to the arrival of Storm Betty, and so the works Emma made there, from a little terrace just above the sea, depict the lives of Falmouth’s sea-going folk, from swimmers and paddle boarders, to fishing boats, sailing yachts and huge military ships, along with Tall Ships anchored patiently in the harbour during unusually stormy conditions. All these works continue Emma’s lifelong study of our powerful connection with the sea, and how this in turn has affected the nature of Cornwall’s coastline.
See Emma’s By the Sea exhibition from 30th March to 26th April at New Craftsman Gallery, 24 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1HE.
