Representing the best of art in Cornwall today

practice

Bridget Leaman describes a moment of realisation that came when she was just twelve, with her brother and sisters and indomitable mother, wheeling trolleys loaded with all they needed for a train journey and their annual camping holiday. As they arrived in a field at the point where land ceases and the sea begins she knew, above all else, what she wanted: to live on a cliff and paint.

And with extraordinary steadfastness, returning to Cornwall all through her student years to live and work on the land, welcoming primitive living conditions and tough jobs, she held on to that early desire. Now she has a cosy house and a beautiful studio that is almost entirely surrounded by sea: the Atlantic at the front door, the Channel at the back and the rich springy grass of little cliff top fields for the daily walks that are so vital to her. And always the light on the sea; flocks of wheeling seabirds catching the light; and rooks by the thousand making their synchronized swerves across that immense sky. It’s a setting that is absolutely necessary for Bridget’s work.

Today there are

finished canvases stacked against the walls of the studio waiting to be taken off to the Cadogan Gallery for Bridget’s upcoming show. There, in the oil on canvas is not so much a representation of, as a feeling for, the sensuous curve of a
headland, the shimmering air, the fleeting shadow of the sudden sweep of rooks' wings. Colour, texture and form are underpinned by Bridget’s intense scrutiny of detail and distance, and her deep knowledge of both the slow evolution of this landscape and the fast-moving shifting quality of seascape and light.

Many artists live and work in West Cornwall but few have such an acute sense of place as Bridget has. Her work is a highly sensitive response to all she sees and feels, full of beauty and strength. Here is a distillation of all the elements of a landscape that is charged with meaning and contrast - from the ancient rocks that signal mortal danger when the weather is raw and pitiless to the sublime beauty of May morning cliff tops packed with gently blown thrift and scabious. And work that is as beautiful and rich as the landscape itself.