The 4th annual exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints by members of the Porthmeor Group will open on Saturday the 13th of October in the Mariners Gallery (The Crypt), St Ives. The exhibition will be open until the 26th of October 2007. 10.30 to 5.30 pm daily   There is an international flavour to the group with members coming from the USA, Holland, Germany and Ireland, as well as from the UK and of course locally from Cornwall.

The inspiration for the work on show is as diverse as the artists' responses, from landscape, natural forms, the human form, and the narrative of human existence with its pains and pleasures.   The artists use a variety of media to transform their experience into contemporary images that range from the figurative to the abstract.      

For her abstracted landscapes, Cornish artist Tamsyn Williams likes the flexibility and the possibilities of mixed media, whilst Doris Lindemann, back on colour this year, will show her personal response to features of the Penwith landscape, using texture and luscious oils in warm reds and oranges.   The remote, enigmatic, pagan landscapes of Penwith is the source for Tony Sutcliffe's paintings, which he says represent nothing but themselves, whilst Reina de Weijer, also responding to the pagan landscape, has found that visits to the Halligye fogou have inspired an evolution in  her work, from the very dark to the very light, from highly textured surfaces to calm quiet ones.

Over the past year, Sharron Page Stocks has been investigating the relationship between art and nature, with bigger and bolder work imbued with the hues of the Cornish landscape and the movement of the ever present sea.   On a smaller scale, Lillian Elliot enjoys exploring the rhythm and texture of organic objects such as animal skulls, fossils and driftwood, finding them a rich source of ideas for drawing, painting and print making.   Paul Stayne describes making a journey away from figure/landscape painting towards thought provoking images which are a personal response to issues which concern him.

Richly colourful, and the most purely abstract works on show, Carol Hosking-Smith's recent paintings relate to music, consisting of rhythmic layers in varied moods often constructed by minimal means.   Colour is also the expressive vehicle for Cynthia Davis whose work is instantly recognizable for her intuitive and vibrant handling of colour.   Anita Plume describes her current work as exploring the intimacy of two human forms bathed in a red light, creating a feeling of passion and sensuality.   Figurative, though not representational, the internal landscape of human experience is the main concern of the two remaining artists.  Diane Rush describes her monoprints and paintings of faces as depicting archetypal themes related to fear, pain, loss and death, while Jenny Campbell works intuitively, trying to communicate aspects of her identity and experience from the position of her 'female gaze' in an inherently patriarchal world.