DRIFT Volume 28

A lasting IMPRESSION

By revealing the beauty of our inspiration, we seek connection through creativity

Volume No28 £10.00

rift drift noun

1. the act of driving something along

2. the flow or the velocity of the current of a river or ocean stream

verb

1. to become driven or carried along, as by a current of water, wind, or air

2. to move or float smoothly and effortlessly

THE PINNACLE OF LUXURY LIFESTYLE IN CORNWALL

On the cover

The incredibly striking and abstract composition of ‘Lime with Pink’ by talented artist, Sam Brooks. As featured from page 27. whitewatercontemporary.co.uk

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Foreword

Fluidity of form and the authenticity of meticulous manufacturing and creative craftsmanship are threads that underpin these pages. Each conversation reveals an authenticity; a unique combination of skills, abilities, interests, talents, insights and experiences. Contemporary artist, Sam Brooks (27) offers a fluid abstraction, moving beyond the figurative with something of a quiet, yet fierce, rebellion. Ben Sanderson (47) is selfcritical of his work. A symptom of the artist’s energy, it is a defining factor in the materiality of his works which combine techniques to create depth and texture. Florence Super’s authenticity (81) sees inspiration derived from colours, culture and contrasts with a lean towards recycling and reclamation. The detail in Amanda Hoskin’s work (100) comes from brush strokes that respond to

the landscape she paints at a visceral level. An illustrator of magnificent minutiae, she draws on her experience of the ocean to create works both observed and experienced. Not all creativity finds its home on canvas. At Mounts Bay Distillery, (61) owners Ben and Lisa are at pains to create authentic spirits that embody tradition, yet embrace new ideas and flavour. This is alcoholic alchemy in the wilds. For Ella Kite (37), an understanding of self came when she found yoga in her formative teenage years. Finding deep peace and alignment from daily practice during troubled times, Ella shares the benefits from her studio in a full-circle affirmation. Whatever the thread, and however it reveals itself, matters not. The importance lies in the connections we find in them and the enrichment they deliver.

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At a glance

17 FINDING STILLNESS Through the lens of Frankie Thomas 27

81 A LASTING IMPRESSION

The fine work of Florence Super

93 AN OASIS OF TASTE

A look into Michael Caines’ signature style

100 COASTAL KALEIDOSCOPE

Amanda Hoskin’s mastery of the coast

109 FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

Exploring the Isles of Scilly

114 RECONNECTING TO NATURE

Seeking ways to save our planet

122 EVENTIDE

A final word from Alice Jefferson

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Finding STILLNESS

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

Having studied Fashion Marketing at Falmouth University, Frankie Thomas moved to London pursue a career in fashion . fter deciding that city life and fashion weren’t for her, she returned to ornwall, wor ing first for Visit Cornwall and then going it alone managing social media, content creation and PR for tourism businesses in Cornwall, as she explains: “When Covid-19 hit, I was just one year into my freelance marketing career. I lost 90% of my clients, due to my clientele being in the tourism industry.

“I needed to eep my creative flow alive, so I decided to buy a camera. Quickly realising that using a professional camera wasn’t as simple as ‘point and click’, I spent most of lockdown watching YouTube videos and taking photos on Cornwall adventures, in the hope that I would figure out my personal photography style,” explains Frankie. “I quickly realised that I didn’t like taking the standard beach and blue-sky photos. I preferred quirkier, moody locations to be the backdrop of my landscape photos. My Cornish blog (meetmebythesea.co.uk) became extremely popular and I started making connections and creating content for incredible businesses around Cornwall.”

s the loc down lifted, ran ie started pushing her business again, but this time photography was at the forefront. She found that tourism and hospitality

businesses needed that extra visual push for them to stand out from the crowd, as the whole county had an influx of tourists. “I’ve been a photographer for two years now,” says Frankie, “and have found my niche in hospitality and tourism photography – from hotels and self-catering properties to restaurants and cafés.”

“When food is placed in front of me to photograph, I don’t just see a plate of delicious food – I see the story from start to finish. rom where and when the produce is sourced, to when the chef cooks the food, plates it up on the pass and then serves it to the customer.” Frankie’s favourite subject to photograph is food because it allows so many creative opportunities. Action shots are her favourite and getting the team behind the story of the food always ends in a better result. Due to being self-taught, improving has become an obsession: “My partner Scott is the Head Chef at The Wig and Pen, and throughout our relationship, he has shown me a different side of food and hospitality, and what goes into it behind the scenes.

“Being so involved in the food world has really helped my work and I want people to look at my photos and appreciate that it’s not just a plate of food.” frankiethomas.com

Photographer Frankie Thomas’ storytelling and collaborative working creates a desired vision.

The Wig and Pen, Truro

Rose Cottage by Cotton Mills Design House

Stein’s at Home for Rick Stein

Catching the light at Nanjizal, Cornwall

Fisherman at Chapel Porth, Cornwall

Charred mackerel with celeriac remoulade at Little Barn, Looe

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Nori sole, parsnip dauphine and charred leeks at Little Barn, Looe

TOP Turnstones (Polzeath), Latitude 50

Christmas at Walter’s on the Beach, Carbis Bay Hotel

Seared pigeon, blackberry’s and damsons

The Wig and Pen, Truro

Panning for

GOLD

WORDS BY MERCEDES SMITH

Painter Sam Brooks is a contemporary artist with an impressive classical training. When I interview her, she quotes French symbolist Odilon Redon: “these jumbles of strange things, in which the eye loves to chase thousands of apparitions.” The reference perfectly fits her wor which, whether still life or landscape, painting or collage, offers a dazzling array of colour and shape that draws your eye across the canvas until the sense of an image settles.

Sam was awarded a First-Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from Exeter College of Art, having spent time as a student painting frescoes in Italy, and she continues to study under Robin Child, acclaimed artist, tutor, former Head of Art at Marlborough College and Founder of the Art Research Centre, whose own professor was a pupil of 20th century painter Walter Sickert,

who in turn was taught by Whistler and Degas. It is an incredible lineage. “You feel you are in the presence of greatness,” she says.

This spring, Sam will exhibit her latest collection at Whitewater Contemporary in Polzeath, giving collectors the chance to engage with one of the south west’s most impressive artists. “I see my work as part of the revival in painting,” says Sam, “a continuation of the Modernist tradition which forms part of a rich history of artists, many of whom take inspiration from the south west landscape. To be a painter in the art world today is perhaps the most radical act of all. Painting demands your full attention, you have to be fully present, you cannot look backwards or sideways. To put a simple mark on a blank canvas, and then another – well there is a lot of hope involved. It feels li e a uiet, fierce rebellion of sorts.”

Artist Sam Brooks lets spontaneous abstraction reveal the beauty in each of her subjects.

Sam Brooks in the studio

In the tradition of early Modernism, Sam’s work is, in essence, an exploration of colour, form and light. She describes her work as a “structured yet spontaneous, fluid abstraction” and there is no doubt that her images strike a beautiful balance between subject and process. Like so many artists from the 19th century until now, Sam’s inspiration comes from the challenge of moving painting beyond the figurative to a higher, more impactful plane. “I begin by making a mark,” she says, “a first impulse to activate the surface. I try to follow the materiality of the paint and see what it suggests to me. I wait for the painting to tell me what it wants to be, and I try not to get in the way of that. This pushing and pulling of something that is so fluid and porous is both exhilarating and a little terrifying, and there can be a lot of struggle involved. My paintings are explorations of the materiality of paint and finding form through serendipity. My bigger works are about the expansive and immersive qualities of landscape, while my flower wor s are more intimate reveries.” Influenced by her time painting frescoes

in Italy, she uses pure and vivid mineral pigments in her painting: “I am obsessed with colour,” she explains. “During my time at Exeter Art College, I was fortunate to travel to Italy and work with students from Venice and California on a couple of frescoes. Working with pure pigments there was an absolute joy and torment,” she says, “as some of the pigments are toxic, plus the lime you mix to press the pigment into can burn your skin, so we had to be very careful.”

hese days she finds pigments along the coastline near her Devon home, and then prepares them back at her studio. “We are very lucky in Devon that the most beautiful colours form parts of the landscape,” she says. “One particularly soft, orangey-pin pigment can be found along the coast at South Milton, close to my home, which I grind with an old pestle and mortar and mix with linseed oil. There is this wonderful materiality to working with oil, it is sensuous, responsive and allows for delicate glazes and veils of colour, as well as rich, thick impasto. There is so much history to oil and so much potential – you feel like

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you are holding a world on the end of your brush. I give a lot of time to the consideration of colour, carefully judging its weight, value and translucency, balanced against my feeling for opacities. All these decisions enrich my compositions.”

The strandline can also be a source of subject matter, as well as pigments, on her beachcombing trips. “ ittle finds that I bring bac to the studio, small remnants of pattern –scraps of rope, cloth, sea-glass, or the tiny worn-out edge of a pot with an interesting design – they all have these glorious washed out colours and shapes that become accidental motifs in my paintings,” says Sam. he land and s y themselves, of course, are a ey inspiration for her wor . “I live very close to Bantham and Salcombe where you see these incredible sunsets, full of rose madder, cadmium orange and violets,” says Sam. “There is this wonderful expansive quality to living close to the open water which I try to translate on canvas by building colours gradually in a series of delicate washes. I use a variety of tools, including giant brushes, my hands and bits of rag to initiate mar s and gesture. I enjoy the materiality of the paint, and how this interacts with colour and the subtle illusion or suggestion of form.”

Sam’s interest in painting floral still lifes came during loc down “My husband, Martin roo s, is also an artist and member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters,” she says. “When his teaching and exhibitions were cancelled, he started painting the flowers in our garden, and suddenly our shared studio was filled with the most

wonderful colours, textures, patterns and forms. rom there, the flowers had a life of their own and slowly found their way into my wor , perhaps in a more peripheral way at first, but gradually becoming more present, especially in my smaller wor s. lowers are the most beautiful instrument to express colour, tone, form, structure and rhythm in a painting.”

hile her husband is a s illed figurative painter, Sam’s motivation has always been the special power and quality of abstraction. “There is an experience, a phenomenon called pareidolia, where you find images or shapes in random or ambiguous visual patterns. he orschach in blot test is perhaps the most famous example, or cloudbursting another. It’s a wonderful way into abstract painting, it’s a state of grace, a letting go. By embracing uncertainty, you allow for serendipity. rom the mar s and layers of paint, you search and find the image by pushing or editing parts of the painting out, and at the same time you bring other parts of the painting forwards. By doing this, you allow shapes or patterns to surface in the painting. I li en it to panning for gold you can never really now what will come out of the painting, you just have to hope something may appear, and catch it before it disappears bac under the surface.”

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See Sam Brooks Featured Artist from 25th March to 26th April at Whitewater Contemporary, The Parade, Polzeath PL27 6SR.

Wherestillness finds its FORM

WORDS BY ROSIE CATTRELL

As I sit with my legs crossed, feet tucked beneath me with squishy bolsters to rest my knees and a cushion on two yoga blocks to raise me up off the floor, a bewildering feeling of perfect calm finds its home in my mind. Having made a life around meeting deadlines and filling empty spaces with activity and restless movement, to immerse myself in a quiet moment and let stillness find its form around me is a new territory. The hazy glow of the warm studio light readies me for Andrew’s meditation session, and after finding comfort in the position of my body, with fingers relaxed and palms turned up, I close my eyes and we begin.

There is a welcoming atmosphere at Sunshine that seems to draw curious minds from all around, and I’m certainly one of them. Washed in white from the outside, with charming murals imprinted onto the walls as you walk up to the door of the café, it’s hard to believe that this beautiful building was once an old stone barn, rundown and abandoned in the heart of Penryn. Nevertheless, Owner and Founder Ella Kite saw a magic in these stone walls that would weave its way into the beautiful space that is now known as Sunshine Café & Yoga, and our conversation takes me down a route that led to this remarkable venture.

In a world of noise and distraction, Sunshine Café & Yoga brings together food, yoga and meditation to nourish much more than the body alone.

TOP Owner and Founder, Ella Kite

“I grew up with travel-loving parents that carted me off all around the world from a young age,” explains Ella in fond reflection, “which inspired in me an intrepid heart. I have always loved travelling to new places and absorbing rich cultures and aesthetics from around the world. So much of the interior of Sunshine is inspired by these travels and my mother’s love of travel in particular – she would always collect bits and pieces of handmade woven textiles, wooden sculptures, paintings.” This is certainly reflected in the rich earth-tone textiles of the cushions around the café that invite a seat at the table, mixed with a space simply decorated with framed art and woven wall hangings.

“Sunshine is a place to come to reset, find balance and recharge,” Ella continues. “I really want people to make this a part of their daily or weekly routines, to weave it into their lifestyle, become a part of our community and just watch how it benefits their life! It’s a great opportunity to meet new, like-minded people and have inspiring chats with someone over a coffee that was practising next to you in your morning yoga class. We just want to help show you ways to live your life in a healthier, more thoughtful and nourishing way.

“My love of café culture had eventually become woven intrinsically with my love of yoga, meditation and wellbeing, and I

realised how well these two went together. I dreamt of bringing this combination to Cornwall (where I always returned to in-between my travels) and creating an inclusive community here around mental and physical wellness, and healthy eating and living!”

Ella’s relationship with Yoga began when she was just 16 in a welcome moment of rest and release from a tricky few years at home after her mum had become unwell with early-onset Alzheimers, which she kindly shares with me: “Yoga was always there for me when I needed it. I was originally drawn to that deep peace and alignment that I felt after class, but then I started to notice this ripple out into other aspects of my life and that was what really got me hooked. When I started to deepen my practice and explore meditation, I realised just how much it helped me understand myself and the world around me. It allowed me to work on my own selfdevelopment and grow into the person I really wanted to be, and react to life in the best way I could. It was an amazing support for the mental health issues that I suffered with around my Mum’s illness and then her passing, and I feel truly grateful to have been introduced to it at such an early age. Now, I love to be able to share it with my students at Sunshine and watch as they deepen their practices and reap the benefits of yoga in their lives.”

ith a range of yoga classes on offer, from more energising inyasa classes, which are good to start your morning or help find a boost later on in the day, to slower Restorative and Yin classes that help to ground your body and calm your nervous system, allowing you deep rest and release these slower practices are great to balance out our busy estern lives and introduce a harmony. “I have a particular personal passion for in,” Ella reflects, “as it has helped me a lot in my life through intense periods of burn out, anxiety and fatigue, to heal my body and bring my nervous system bac into balance. Similarly, there more energising practices have been ama ing to help me build up my energy levels again in a healthy and nourishing way.”

Sunshine is also a space where people can get an insight into meditation and how this is such an integral part of a yoga practice, with free sessions held every Sunday. “ or me,” Ella continues, “meditation has probably been the biggest support in my life and has really led me to grow as a person, to understand myself, my patterns, my reactions and has dramatically affected the choices I ma e now and the habits I create in my daily in life. e try to ma e this slice of magic as accessible to people as possible, and we love to be able to offer this as a free class every wee .”

or those loo ing to go a step further, Sunshine holds regular events that explore yoga in slightly deeper ways, allowing explorers to delve into a specific practice for two to three hours and really learn,

while other wellness style events, li e Sound aths, Energy ealing, omen’s ircles, Movement or shops and irtans, bring people together in a way that encourages real connections and a true sense of community, as Ella explains “ hen people come to our yoga and meditation classes, they realise just how much more there is to being a yogi. It really is a way to live your life in the best way possible and ma e the best choices that impact you and the world around you. It’s an ama ing way to understand the inner wor ings of your mind and a way to develop yourself into the ultimate version of you, to align yourself to your true life’s purpose and ultimately find joy and happiness in all areas of your life. The physical practise of yoga has a whole heap of ama ing physical health benefits too, but really it’s that mental state and awareness that is the goal of your practise.”

I admit to Ella that Sunshine has been a favourite hideout of mine for some time now, and in fact I often fre uent the café with a boo or a friend in tow to sample the incredible food that is yet to disappoint and enjoy the calm atmosphere of the space. hile, until now, I had never explored the yoga or meditation side of Sunshine, there is an aura that finds its way into the café through the doors of the adjoining studio, adorned with the phases of the lunar cycle. owever, now that I have ta en my first steps through those doors into a uiet world of peaceful contemplation and internal exploration, I don’t imagine they will be my last.

sunshinecafeandyoga.co

The space

BETWEEN

Surprisingly, for an artist whose recent paintings have featured scatters of flowering plants and effusive garden borders that might also be walls, the idea of the ‘delete’ button is a tool for Ben Sanderson and his way of working. Indeed, destruction plays a central part in his making. That seemingly paradoxical approach entails reusing old canvases and not just the imagery within them. Many artists will paint over an existing work to create a new picture; Sanderson does that, too, but reuse also means taking a knife to the pictures he rejects (or ‘retires’), and cutting them into strips and squares. After separating out colours and mixing the pieces with water, he puts everything into a kitchen blender.

He says the process brings relief. “I have a lot of uncertainty about my work,” which is refreshing to hear from an artist. Doubt exists at the heart of all true creativity; few practitioners, however, will say so, regardless of their artform – whether it is literature,

music, dance or painting. “I make a piece, then I go back and I doubt it. It’s an impulse in the work: when it comes to past production, sometimes all I want to do is chop it up.” In Sanderson’s case, that self-criticism propels him forward: it is one symptom of the energy that is characteristic of the man and his art. “All the energy that went into the piece is whisked up and, somehow, the blended pulp holds that energy even though the image is gone.”

Sanderson makes the most of what he touches. He still loves the natural weave of new, raw canvas, and paintings started on fresh material that are never retired to the blender retain large areas where that texture is exposed. The translucency of watercolour excites him, so does oil paint and ink, especially the thick, tacky ink used in printing that is rich in pigment. That attraction to materiality is apparent in paintings that display several techniques simultaneously to their viewers. Consequently, distinct forms of handwork co-exist in a single artwork –

In the work of Ben Sanderson, any notion of a specific ime or place falls awa in o a uni ersal communion wi h he po enc of na ure

‘23/02/2022’, ink, watercolour, monotype, charcoal and oil on canvas, 42 x 59cm

Damian Griffiths

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Installation of Ben Sanderson’s exhibition reen a an An le at Kestle Barton, April to June 2021.

The nursery at Bethlem Mother and Baby Unit, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, painted by Ben Sanderson. Courtesy of Hospital Rooms.

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drawing, painting and collage, and although he usually refers to his output as paintings, they often involve printmaking techniques.

Modelling details involves brushes of different widths, but he also scratches with a stylus into wet paint or the ink on a plastic printing plate. Close attention is often needed to detect the separate stages and processes that produce the final image. He might also sew pieces of painted canvas and patch-worked offcuts onto his large-scale hangings, pictures suspended in free space like drapes or false walls. Tracks of cotton stitching layer painted strips to the unstretched canvas plane, contrasting with the brush marks or chequered borders around them. A sewing machine sits alongside his printing press as work tools in his studio. Pulping represents yet another kind of handwork. The blended residue of old work becomes literally fundamental to another cycle of paintings. The mulch is transformed into handmade paper in a simple mold Sanderson made. Once any remaining liquid is forced out under pressure it dries into a roughly rectangular shape. Pulps derived from the separated colours can be laid into the mulch as variegated patches of madder pink and indigo blue amid tones of grey to provide a unique textured ground upon which a new painting takes shape. Or they remain as an assemblage of balanced abstract forms.

Sanderson values these processes as mimicking qualities he perceives in nature. Winter dieback absorbs the previous year s exhausted vegetation then returns it as fresh

growth in spring. Indeed, the turn of the seasons acts like a metaphor for his entire practice: here, too, the seeds of the future are planted in the past. He has become aware that nature has its own time Works are titled with dates significant to their making. It could be the day I sat for five hours under a magnolia tree, or something much darker. The annual seasonal change, combined with lockdown, made me reconsider the mechanisms of measurement I have reluctantly relied on my whole life. Constructs such as the calendar and the clock don t fit with the garden, in fact I d say they miss the point In the paintings I have become unstuck in time I dip in and out of all the possible outcomes and everything gets mixed up.

Time even appears to weave his pictures into existence. The make-up of 17 02 2022 is as complex as the genesis of a garden. The flower heads and tendrils of stems are drawn, painted and printed with ink, watercolour, acrylic, charcoal and oil onto a support that is not a continuous sheet of paper but plaited strips of an old drawing fed into a shredder that Sanderson then neatly wove back together by hand. Within edges as organically uneven as any border in nature, a range of effects –decorative, spatial, dynamic and sensual – spring out of a system of borders within borders with which Sanderson organises his surfaces. Walls enclose and divide, he observes and, ust as he resists the restraints of clock-time, his images instinctively break through the internal edges of the composition.

Nature is rapturous, the artist

ABOVE 05 02 2022 , ink, watercolour, monotype, charcoal and oil on canvas, 42 x 59cm

says, a sensation he seems dedicated to pro ecting.

Inspiration comes from the gardens he has visited for years in west Cornwall. His favourite is Pen errick, ustifiably known as the region s true ungle garden . Planted in the nineteenth-century, rhododendrons, camellias, magnolias, tree ferns and long-stemmed bamboo have matured into a profusion of colours, shapes and scales. Near and far appear interchangeable to the visitor navigating paths through shrubs onto which greenery has eagerly encroached.

Sanderson attributes a watershed experience in his career to another garden, Trebah. This collection of subtropical specimens extends across mixed terrain to the banks of the Helford River on the Lizard peninsula. Its significance for him is equally visual and emotional, perceptions Sanderson has incorporated into his paintings. He recalls visiting Trebah six years ago when he was struggling with what to make after an intense period of study at an innovative art research programme for nationally selected participants at progressive venues across Britain. I was thinking a lot at home and in the studio, but nothing I made seemed to work.

Born in Coventry, he chose Falmouth for his art degree because it contrasted with his metropolitan upbringing. Choosing to stay in the south west, he has had a studio at CAST in Helston since 2013. At university he had made a large-scale origami sculpture from wastepaper in a studio bin a decade later, he was making satirical portraits. Drawing was a common theme and he had already started making his own paper. His interest in printmaking had recently been revived by working with St Ives-based painter Naomi Frears at her light-heartedly named, but seriously professional Printmaking for Boys sessions. Indeed, Sanderson mentions collaborations with other artists as a notable benefit of working in Penwith.

So, although his focus had varied since graduation, the elements were there in his approach, as if awaiting the spark that brought them together in sub ect matter he could commit to long-term. A walk through Trebah was the catalyst to change. The rhododendrons in flower blew me away, he says. The colours were wild I had a euphoric feeling and wanted to find out what it was. At the same time as he was assimilating the garden environment, he attended an event at CAST in Helston with London curator ina Buenfeld. She had been researching contemporary indigenous artists and makers

Ben Sanderson in his studio at CAST, Helston Photograph by Martin Howse

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ABOVE

‘12/08/2021’, ink, watercolour, monotype, charcoal and oil on canvas, 42 x 59cm

ABOVE ‘16/04/2022’, ink, watercolour, acrylic, monotype, charcoal and oil on handmade rag paper, 25 x 37cm

ABOVE ‘17/02/2022’, ink, watercolour, acrylic, monotype, charcoal and oil on handwoven paper, 35 x 42cm

in the Amazon region of Brazil at risk from violent exploitation. Her talk struck a chord with Sanderson by describing how these artists’ work mapped territory, materials and processes to which they had deep spiritual connection. Throwing off the rationales of cartography and conventional time, their approach reached subjectively into details important to their sense of themselves.

In 2019, Sanderson became Trebah’s artistin-residence. The garden offered space for thought and reflection on these topics. He organised walks with specialists that included gardeners, a psychiatrist, poets, a herbalist and ethnobotanical researcher, fellow artists and friends to discuss how the lives of plants and people interrelate. Paintings made at his studio in CAST then embedded those exchanges in imagery drawn from observation and feeling that, in 2021, formed an exhibition at rural Kestle Barton. “Since my time at Trebah, I have become fascinated by the garden’s edge, and the ways that rogue, uncultivated, uninvited species meet and mix with the carefully selected ones.” He does not aspire to botanical accuracy. The plant forms he paints as individual specimens rather than bunches are graphically recognisable as vernacular species like red valerian, dandelions, herb-Robert or cow parsley. Most importantly, he communicates their sensory essence. The flowers in the work aren t meant to be garden flowers. They are the ones that live in the cracks of the pavement and that are crawling up the walls.”

Sanderson looks beyond appearance into deeper associations. “Systems of power and

oppression are echoed in the garden,” he points out. “Naming, categorising, cultivating, displacing, collecting and weeding.” That outlook gives further context to the references in his paintings to boundaries, edges and those constraining garden walls.

Out of these ideas have come important developments, such as his ‘holistic’ view of landscape as a vivacious retreat expressed in his contribution with other artists to a project masterminded by the art charity Hospital Rooms in London to enliven the care-centre environment in collaboration with service users. Another is present in making big paintings that almost enclose the viewer, resembling tapestries that hang like fabric walls in the gallery space. Moreover, both sides of the painting could now be worked – not in a continuous way but like a boundary wall encountered in reality, where each side has a discrete character, expressed in shape, texture and colour. The comparison with stage scenery is compelling; as well as defining a place in the way boundaries do, the surfaces acquire even greater resonances of body and spirit inside their raw, undulating edges. Any notion of a specific time or place falls away into a universal communion with the potency of nature.

Ben Sanderson has been selected for South West Showcase 2023, organised by Mirror at Arts University Plymouth, a year-long programme of mentoring and support, culminating in an exhibition at Mirror in early 2024.

bensanderson.co.uk

THE BODMIN JAIL HOTEL

The Bodmin Jail Hotel has been painstakingly renovated from a dilapidated former jail into a boutique, modern hotel. Offering unrivalled hospitality, knowledgeable staff, luxurious rooms, amazing food, and is the perfect location for you to explore all that Cornwall has to offer. It is a unique place to stay.

www.bodminjailhotel.com

Kindred SPIRIT

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

Mounts Bay Distillery is nestled in a copse, high above Praa Sands beach with views out across the bay. Arriving on a bright morning, the air is fresh and the heady smell of salt on the air, mixed with the sweet coconut of early gorse flowers, fills my nostrils. Warmly greeted by owners Lisa, her Nordic lilt giving away her Swedish heritage, and Ben, whose soft Cornish tones tell of his birthplace, we head into the distillery to talk about all things rum.

Meeting Lisa while travelling in Australia, the couple returned to Ben’s roots in the Duchy. Ben’s background is in food; working as a chef in his younger days in the nearby fishing village of Porthleven, he went on to cater for hungry mouths on the high seas. Fitting then, as a self-confessed

rum lover with a passion for food, flavour and the ocean that he would turn to distilling.

In terms of the finer points of distilling, I m a novice so I ask Ben to talk me through the process. “We make our rum from scratch using molasses, water and yeast,” explains Ben. “This requires a licence which is hard to get and is normally reserved for larger distillers with 1800 litre stills. To put it into perspective, ours is only 200 litres. We started off with something called a rectifiers and compounders licence which meant we could buy in spirits, add flavouring to them, and then sell them as our own. A lot of people do this, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but our main goal was to make rum from molasses, sugars or any other sugar cane juice derivative from scratch.”

Raising a glass to a coastal distillery that combines traditional methods with ingredients from the wilds of west Cornwall.

Ben goes on to explain that the process, as with many a good drink, starts with boiling the kettle; although in Ben’s case his is a 200-litre one! He does this four times to give him 1000 litres of water to which he adds molasses, as well as yeasts, PH adjusters and nutrients for the yeast. This is then left to ferment in a vat for a set period of time, at the end of which you have what’s known as a ‘rum beer’ or a ‘rum wash’ which is then distilled to create a white rum. I’m allowed a deep sniff from a previous batch – at around 60% proof it’s not drinkable at this stage – but you can already smell sweet notes of butterscotch.

“Once we have our white rum,” continues Ben, “we put it into casks, which we then leave for varied amounts of time depending on whether we want a gold rum, or we can leave it longer for a dark rum. A lot of the flavours change when you cask age. There are esters in rums which interact with the wood sugars in the barrel, they create other chemical compounds which then give you tropical flavours like banana, toffee apple and pineapple.”

I learn that all rums start off white and then you can colour them by adding caramels or you can use barrel char, which is what Ben

does along with charred and cooked wood chips made from sherry casks to oak the rum: “Temperature plays an important role in flavour too as it affects the wood sugars. For example, if you cook at 200 degrees, you might get more spice than if you cook at a lower temperature, where you’ll get more vanilla. The science is mad! The other cool thing is that sometimes casks are used for convenience without knowing how much of a difference they make to the flavour. It turns out that copper and wood are the best things to play around with spirits, as the copper removes the nasty compounds while the wood sugars affect the flavour.

One of the barrels comes from the Diamond distillery in uyana where they are one of only five distilleries to still use a wooden still. “Their rums are heavily estered”, says Ben, meaning they ve got all these cool flavours. There’s actually an ester count for how much flavour a rum has. ou might have a really clean rum, which is more like a vodka, or you can have a heavy, 1000-ester count rum from the Caribbean where it s actually been infected with washes containing bacteria, acids all sorts of different things.

Ben does this too, which he says is similar to fermenting food with lactic fermentation.

Old Lanwarnick Cottages

Family is at the heart of Old Lanwarnick. We are a family run business, and we firmly believe that every guest should be given the opportunity to make holiday memories in a way that suits them.

When he makes the rum wash, he infects it with bacteria and that competes with the yeast creating more flavour. The distillery has its own ‘mother’ which is fed with the waste rum wash or ‘dunder’ and then a percentage of that is put back into the rum to increase flavour. Ben also adopts an open ferment, allowing wild natural yeasts to settle on the surface, making each rum unique and interesting.

Once you have your rum wash I then do a stripping run, running the wash hard and fast through the still to get as much alcohol out as possible. Once you ve taken all the alcohol, you end up with something called low wines. We then proof that down to 30 and run it back through the still again, but this time, we run really slowly and carefully and the we take our cuts. As you distil you get heads, hearts and tails, with hearts being the main part of the rum, the good stuff. For a clean white rum, you just want to take the hearts, but if you want to make a dark rum with more flavour you might take a little bit of heads and a little bit of tails that will marry well with the wood sugars in the barrels.

As a chef turns to his spice rack, Ben has boxes of natural flavourings he uses in his rums and gins. From pepper dulce seaweed

foraged from the pools just below the distillery to local honey, he is as much of a culinary craftsman in the distillery as he is in the kitchen. For such carefully crafted spirits, only the most beautiful bottles will do. Illustrator, Jago Silver s design adorns the Keynvor bottles, a honey spiced rum balanced with salty seaweed umami tones. The Ebba gin, which gets its crisp citrus notes from Cornish seaberries, sea aster and locally foraged samphire comes in an exquisite ceramic bottle, designed especially for Mounts Bay Distillery.

What strikes me is that everything that Ben and Lisa do has purpose and meaning. There is no settling for second best here. Even if a process takes longer or requires more research, they will absolutely do this in order to achieve the best possible product. Sustainability, of course, is something which they also take very seriously repurposing waste water using Hoffman Haulage, a carbon-free logistics company, to deliver their products in Cornwall posting bottles in Flexi-Hex s eco-friendly bottle packaging. All of which makes each sip of a Mounts Bay Distillery spirit that little more special. mountsbaydistillery.com

OUT to sea

Set in the idyllic Village of Porthpean, backed by tree-topped cliffs and with crystal clear waters lapping the sandy beach, Seaways makes for an exceptional detached modern house. Architect-designed and in a truly breathtaking location, the reverse level arrangement maximises the magnificent views that stretch across the coastline and out to sea.

With a stylish contemporary interior throughout in over 2,800 square feet of sleek accommodation, a double height entrance hall with a bespoke staircase lies at the centre of the home, with an outside oak-framed wall of floor to ceiling glazing combined with a galleried landing providing a aw-dropping introduction to Seaways.

The spectacular open-plan kitchen, dining and living room en oys vast views of the sea through bi-folding doors and an oak-framed gabled window which leads out onto a balcony made for star-gazing and sunset watching. The three double bedrooms are all en suite, while the master en oys the spectacular view through bifold doors that open out onto a large outside patio area, inviting al fresco breakfasts and evenings spent together with a glass of something cold.

SEAWAYS

Guide Price £1.975M

ROHRS & ROWE

01872 306360

info@rohrsandrowe.co.uk

rohrsandrowe.co.uk

Looking out across the beautiful St Austell Bay, Seaways makes the most of the stunning coastal paradise that surrounds it.

QUINTESSENTIALLY Rock

This detached three-bedroom house offers over 2,200 square feet of accommodation and is located in a tranquil residential position in the heart of the charming Cornish village of Rock. Tucked away and arranged over two floors, The Knot House lies within easy walking distance of the beach, the golf course, and countless other stunning Cornish locations.

This spacious three-bedroom property has been lovingly refurbished by the vendor to create an airy and light-filled home, and the wellproportioned rooms make for a comfortable family residence with three large double bedrooms, and further potential to create a fourth bedroom by incorporating the mezzanine landing space. Offering a low maintenance patio and garden for those summer eves spent outside with friends and family, The Knot House makes for a wonderful family home, while also presenting an opportunity for a lock-up-andleave second home or holiday investment alike.

THE KNOT HOUSE

Guide Price: £1.5M

sales@johnbrayestates.co.uk

johnbrayestates.co.uk

Arran ed o er wo oors The no ouse has een lo in l refur ished in o a s and ou proper us momen s from he ornish coas

FOUNDED on family

An exclusive development of two private residences at the end of a private driveway, oozing quality and individuality.

Built to a high specification, Chynoweth Lodge and House have both been designed with the Cornish family way of life in mind. Each property will allow the fine balance of spending time together as a family whilst offering personal space by providing a large sitting room, open plan kitchen and diner, WC, utility room, versatile double bedrooms along with a principal luxury en suites. With the highest quality contemporary finishes and fixtures, this development really does allow the combination of modern village living with a sense of uniqueness and privacy.

Located in the traditional Cornish village of Cubert, the immediate facilities include a farm shop, primary school, community hall and park. The quaint sixteenth century inn The Smugglers is located in the nearby hamlet of Trebellan on the edge of the village and is famous for its annual pie and ale festival, whilst offering all year-round delicious lunches or evening meals.

CHYNOWETH

LODGE AND HOUSE

Guide price: House – £525,000

Lodge - £750,000

DAVID BALL LUXURY COLLECTION

01637 850850

sales@dba.estate davidballagencies.co.uk

TREETOP haven

A unique and award-winning modernist home at the head of a quiet creek.

Near the Fal River is where you will find this highly energy efficient and beautifully conceived modernist home. Designed with natural materials that impact minimally on the picturesque sylvan setting, it delivers a oyous combination of open-plan and private spaces, garnering a string of recent awards and even featuring on the cover of rand Designs magazine.

As for its location, despite being tucked away in the heart of the countryside, Loe Beach and Trelissick ardens are each less than a mile away. Mylor acht Harbour, Truro, St Mawes and Portscatho are less than ten miles distant, and there are several stunning walks to en oy right from the front doorstep. Nestled within a wooden setting at the heart of Pill Creek, Sylvania is ideal for those who love an outdoor lifestyle.

The exterior of the property is enough to impress on its own. Traditional Cornish Trebarwith stone complements the Silver Larch and the wider wooded setting.

Sylvania was designed by ward-winning Cornish firm, Kast Architects, whose ethos is sustainable buildings with a Cornish spirit, designed and built with a respect for the people that we work with and the planet whose resources we are borrowing . It graced the cover of Grand Designs magazine in 2019 and has also been featured in a variety of other national property magazines. Kast was awarded Best Architect for a Self Build for Sylvania at the Built Awards (2019), as well as being shortlisted for other presitgious accolades in relation to this unique property.

The superb attention to detail, from the outside in, draws the eye to a spacious, central open-plan living area that allows you to en oy the expanse of wood beyond, not to mention the bi-fold doors leading to the upper garden terrace.

This five-bedroom home is ideal for families that en oy their own space, whilst still wanting to come together for mealtimes. In fact, the bespoke erman kitchen (Nolte) is equipped with polished concrete worktops, splashbacks and Siemens appliances. Whilst the interior is a sight to behold, there is also an outbuilding that can be used as a gym, studio, or home office with a relaxing view of the garden. The land is a combination of manicured lawns and wild gardens. Lined with Poplar trees and featuring an outdoor heated shower, they extend as far as the stream, and have the feeling of a true forest haven.

SYLVANIA

Guide Price: £1.65M

SHORE PARTNERSHIP

01872 484484

contact@shorepartnership.com

shorepartnership.com

HAND-CARVED ALCHEMY

MEL CHAMBERS, OF ALCHEMY TILES is one of the last artisans in the UK to use ancient 13th century techniques to create multi-awardwinning, handcrafted tiles in a modern-day context.

Awarded best hand-crafted tile company for a third year by the Southern Enterprise Awards (SME), Mel’s unique combination of ancient techniques, philosophy and poetry result in tiles that are inlaid with unique coloured clay and inspiring words.

Every tile is bespoke and hand-carved, perfect to personalise any kitchen, bathroom or fireplace. Each one takes a minimum of two weeks to complete and is created to stand the test of time.

IMPRESSIONA lasting

WORDS BY ROSIE CATTRELL John Hersey

Having found her feet in the world of enchanting painted murals, Florence Super has made her mark in homes and restaurants all the over world. Florence’s fascination for local wildlife and the salty sea has been a creative source from a very young age, and remains as such today.

If you’ve visited Stein’s Fisheries and Seafood Bar in Padstow in recent years, you may have noticed a rather striking mural adorning the restaurant, bright with finely detailed fish and marine life. As her very first big commissioned installation, this is a landmark piece for Florence. In places like The Duchy of Cornwall Nursery, Florence has impressed her talents straight onto the walls, filling the space with her creativity and finely tuned artistic talent in the form of botanical beauty.

“My preference is to work onto recycled planks of wood. Using recycled and reclaimed surfaces is important to me and I think many of my customers value that too. I also use recycled paints where possible and recycled or plastic-free packaging,” Florence explains. “Inspiration comes to me through colours, culture, contrasts, movement and all wildlife experienced while travelling and diving around the world.”

Florence’s work has been exhibited within private exhibitions, art fairs and is now decorating homes and restaurants all over the world. Welcoming challenges great and small, home installations are a growing passion for Florence, who harbours a particular talent for impressing fine art murals onto the very walls themselves.

florencesuper.co.uk

i h a repu a ion for her s unnin fine ar installations all over the country, Florence Super is now bringing home interiors to life too.

John Hersey

James Ram

Paul Matthews

Paul Matthews

Paul Matthews

John Hersey

ABOVE

An early crustacean painting, now installed in a private home in Port Isaac

John Hersey

ABOVE

Commissioned paintings for Scottish Import Finefood GmbH, Germany

Paul Matthews

Paul Matthews

Seafood artwork and mural for Cutfish, Scotland

John Hersey

ABOVE Salmon on recycled planks, sold at Padstow Christmas Festival

Paul Matthews

Set within four acres, this dog-friendly retreat offers rustic oak beams with sumptuous interiors and four blissful bedrooms. Guests can look forward to lazy days basking in the sunshine beside the pond and evenings relaxing in the warmth of the wood-fired hot tub.

This unexpected discovery lies at the end of a long private lane. Set on the site of a former Cornish farmhouse, Keiro Veor is an impressive energy efficient, Carpenter Oak framed home. Here, you are just minutes away from the golden sands and calm estuary waters at the popular

village of Rock. A wood-fired hot tub can be found sheltered within a balmy walled garden. Enjoy warm soaks and breathe in the delicate scent from the rainbow-hued, flower-cutting garden.

An outdoor kitchen provides the ultimate setting for a holiday barbecue. As darkness falls, gather around the crackling flames of the firepit and gaze up at the stars in the clear night sky.

Please note: Keiro Veor is available to book from 23 March to 02 November 2023

oasis of TASTE An

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

Michael Caines brings his signature style of modern British cuisine to Cornwall’s coastline

White and green asparagus with quail eggs and chervil butter sauce

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS:

8 white asparagus tips

20g butter

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar

1 sprig of thyme

Water to cover

8 green asparagus

16 quail eggs

METHOD

Prepare the two types of asparagus; for the white asparagus, peel them to the same thickness and cut then all to the same length. Place into a saucepan and then add the butter, salt, sugar and sprig of thyme. Now cover with water and bring to the boil, simmer until cooked through. Remove from heat and leave to cool within the cooking stock.

The green asparagus should only be peeled if very thick, let’s assume these aren’t, so just pic off the leaves and cut to the same length, it’s important that they are, however, the same thickness. If not, then cook in two separate batches. In boiling salted water, cook the green asparagus on a rolling boil. Once cooked, remove carefully and place into a bowl of iced water.

For the quail eggs:

It’s easier to crack them onto a plate and then into the fryer. Taking a large nonstick pan, rub around some butter and heat lightly, remove from the heat and using a small knife carefully crack the quails eggs into the pan, keeping them separate. Cook lightly and then remove from the pan onto a tray that’s been oiled or buttered.

Vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

Chervil, picked

For the chervil butter sauce:

50ml vegetable nage

100g butter

Chervil, chopped

Salt and pepper

Repeat until all are cooked and then take some cling film, oil well and place the oiled surface on top of the quail eggs to keep refrigerated until needed.

For the chervil butter:

Take the vegetable nage and heat, don’t boil, then whisk in the butter and season with salt and pepper. hop the chervil finely and add to the sauce at the last minute. Reheat the green asparagus in a little water, butter and salt and pepper. Reheat the white asparagus in its cooking liquid. When these are hot, remove the cling film from the uail eggs and place into a preheated oven 180°C/Gas Mark 4 for two to three minutes. Whilst these are warming, drain the asparagus and dress alternatively tip to tail, two white and two green per portion.

Now remove the quails eggs and season with salt and pepper and place three each down through the middle of the asparagus tips.

Add the chopped chervil to the sauce and bring to boil, remove and sauce over the eggs and asparagus tips. Garnish with chervil and serve.

Pan-fried monkfish with mussels and a grain mustard tarragon sauce

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS:

Mon fish

1 tablespoon curry powder

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

g mon fish tail, cut into medallions

Olive oil

60g unsalted butter

Juice of one lemon

Mussels

40g shallots, chopped

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C

For the fish:

Mix the curry powder and one teaspoon of salt together. Season the fish with the curry, salt and a good twist of black pepper. Heat one tablespoon olive oil in a non-stick ovenproof frying pan, then add the fish and 20g of butter. Cook over a medium heat until the fish is golden brown, then turn it over and put the pan into the oven for approximately three minutes. Remove, squeeze over the lemon juice and set aside to rest.

For the mussels:

Wash and clean the mussels. Melt 20g of butter in a large saucepan, then add the shallots and cook out until they are soft and transparent. dd the bay leaf, thyme and tarragon followed by the white wine and bring to the boil, then add cleaned mussels and cover with a lid.

1 bay leaf

Sprig of fresh thyme

50ml white wine

400g mussels, washed and cleaned

inch of saffron

25ml double or whipping cream

ml fish stoc

1 teaspoon grain mustard

Chopped fresh tarragon

Once the mussels have opened, pour them into a colander over a bowl and leave to drain (discard any mussels that have not opened).

Pour the cooking liquid back into the saucepan, add a pinch of saffron strands, the cream and the fish stoc . ring to the boil, then whisk in the remaining butter and simmer until reduced to a creamy consistency. Add a teaspoon of grain mustard, season with salt and pepper and finish with chopped tarragon.

To serve:

riefly re-heat the mon fish in the oven for a few minutes, then remove and transfer to your serving plates.

Pour the cooked mussels over the top (in or out of the shell, as you wish) and spoon over the sauce.

DESSERT

Caramelised lemon tart with crème Chantilly

SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS:

Sweet pastry

250g butter

175g icing sugar

3 eggs

Pinch of salt

Zest of an orange g flour

For the lemon cream:

400ml lemon juice

Finely grated zest of half a lemon

12 egg yolks

METHOD

For the pastry:

Pre-heath the oven to 160°C.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the icing sugar until white, using a hand blender or whis . dd the sieved flour, orange zest and the pinch of salt and bring the mix to a sandy crumble.

Little by little, add the eggs, then bring the mix together on low speed. Once the mix is firm, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least two hours before using.

utter the ring and place on to a flat bottomed tray, roll out the pastry evenly and line the tart using a piece of pastry to ensure that the corners are well pressed into the bottom of the ring. Leave the excess overhanging the edge, then line with parchment paper before filling with ba ing beans to the top.

a e for minutes in the pre-heated oven and then remove from the oven and using a sharp serrated knife, cut away the top of the excess pastry and then return to the oven and continue to bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and place back into the oven and cook for a

6 eggs

300g sugar

250g butter

For the Crème Chantilly: 150ml whipping cream

20g icing sugar

Planning ahead: The pastry must be prepared in advance, wrapped in cling film and refrigerated for at least two hours before using. further minute or two to ensure the base is dry. eave to cool before filling with the hot lemon cream.

For the lemon cream: ring the lemon juice and est to the boil in a saucepan. Cream together the egg yolks, eggs and sugar, add 10ml of the hot lemon juice, whisk together until smooth and then add the remaining lemon juice. ring bac to the boil, whisking all the time until smooth and the eggs are just beginning to thicken and set. Remove from the heat and place into a blender, add the butter progressively and blend until smooth. Pour into the prebaked tart and leave to set in the fridge.

For the Crème Chantilly: Sift the icing sugar into the cream and whip to peak. Leave in fridge until needed.

To serve:

Remove the ring from the tart and cut the tart into the required portion size and then dust lightly with icing sugar. Using a blow lamp, caramelise the icing sugar and leave to cool. Spoon on some Crème Chantilly and enjoy.

KALEIDOSCOPE Coastal

WORDS BY LUCY STUDLEY

Landscape painter Amanda Hoskin’s

Amanda Hoskin will show a new body of work at Lighthouse Gallery in Penzance this spring, and it has collectors excited. Amanda’s work epitomises a distinctive phase in the Cornish landscape tradition. Over the past 25 years, she’s honed and perfected her mark-making with sublime results, culminating in this confident, immersive, and deft collection of canvases.

The arrival of a new collection of paintings from one of Cornwall’s most acclaimed contemporary artists coincides with the gallery’s own 20th anniversary. Directors Tracey Spry and Christine Weschke first opened the gallery on Causeway Head in 2003. Over the course of two decades, Lighthouse allery has firmly established itself as one of the most respected in Cornwall, showing work predominantly inspired by the Cornish landscape. Christine, who retires this year, reflects with pride on the gallery’s contribution to the Cornish art scene: “Over the years, we’ve supporting emerging artists, helping them forge successful careers by connecting them

with a diverse audience. It’s wonderful to have created something alongside a dear friend out of a shared passion, and to have the privilege of calling it ‘work’ for two decades! Lighthouse Gallery will continue under Tracey’s extremely experienced directorship and I’ve no doubt will go from strength to strength.” Amanda Hoskin has been represented by Lighthouse Gallery for around 15 years. “Amanda has a loyal following with collectors,” says Tracey. “Her work is technically accomplished, but it also brings a warm, life-affirming feel to the spaces in which it’s displayed.”

After studying at Falmouth and Chelsea Art School, Amanda’s career began as a wildlife illustrator in London. She spent her time meticulously detailing plant and animal life – from the prickly seed head of a browning teasel to the unique markings of a swallowtail’s wing. Using a magnifying glass, her task was to record nature on a micro scale, revealing details few people paused to see. Then in 1990, she moved back to Cornwall and began experimenting with landscape painting.

latest collection of work shows a mastery of her subject – the evocative Cornish coast.

Soft Morning Light and Seapinks at Godrevy Lighthouse’ – oil on paper

From the beginning, her painting practice was loose and expressive. “It was probably a bit of a reaction against that quest for detail which I’d been so focused on in my work until then,” she posits. “I immediately found a wonderful freedom in trying to capture nature on a much bigger scale, one where land, sea and sky are all part of the picture!”

As Amanda recalls, everything just clicked with this new phase of her artistic practice. “The art scene in Cornwall was buoyant at that time, and happily my work started to sell right away. The Affordable Art Fair popped up in London at the end of the 1990s, and that was a big boost for lots of artists like me.” Christine says: “We have a stand at The Affordable Art Fair in London every year,

showing Amanda’s work alongside other gallery artists including Benjamin Warner, Mark Poprawski and Kirsten Elswood. It s a fantastic way of connecting our gallery artists with a wider audience.”

The Own Art Scheme, which was introduced in 2004, has also helped both artists and art lovers. The scheme allows people to live with the art they love, spreading the cost of purchases over 10 months. This in turn supports contemporary artists by encouraging increased sales of work and generating a steadier, more reliable income.

“We’re proud members of the Own Art Scheme, says Christine. Making art more accessible and inclusive has always been part of the ethos here at Lighthouse Gallery.”

and Still at Retallack Ponds’

TOP ‘Lovely Colours on the Coastal Path from Lamorna Cove’ – oil on paper

‘On the Coastal Path to Gwithian’ – oil on paper

Amanda’s style is best described as impressionistic, fluid and expressive. Her brush responds to landscape at a visceral level. Standing in front of any of her canvases, you can sense the unbridled joy she finds in her long walks on the Cornish coast, and her intense protectiveness of this whole gnarled peninsula, perilously striking out into the Atlantic. However, the details don’t escape her notice either, as you’d expect from someone with her training. In the foreground you might find a congregation of sea thrift nodding eagerly in a cli op breeze, or gorse flowers popping in the hot summer sun. Elsewhere, bluebells form a bright carpet in spring woodlands, while grasses slowly brown and crisp, heralding autumn.

Amanda’s practice is also informed by another important aspect of her life – her love of sailing. She has sailed all her life, and for many years worked as an instructor in the summer months, a job which gave her both

the freedom and the inspiration to paint. When you learn this, a final piece of the puzzle falls into place. Here is an illustrator of the tiniest of details, who sees the Cornish coast as if through a kaleidoscope – from all angles and scales. From wave-pounded coves, along windswept cli ops, across pristine beaches and through sheltered harbours, Amanda knows this land like few other artists working today.

A landscape thoroughly observed and experienced – from changing tides and shifting seasons down to the details of flora and fauna – is the subject of her work, but light is its lifeforce. As Amanda explains: I m not ashamed to say that I m after what every other landscape artist in Cornwall wants to capture – that ephemerality of shifting light. It s a constant challenge and one that happily will never be fully met; what makes it so fascinating is that it’s always just out of reach.”

‘Turquoise Sea at Sennen’ – oil on paper

Whilst out on her daily wanderings, Amanda undertakes quick outdoor sketches using watercolours and pastels before returning to the studio. Here the work begins to evolve from a combination of sketches and memory as she builds colour and depth with each layer of oil paint. Even in the studio I work quickly,” says Amanda, “it still feels like a race to capture the essence and energy of a particular moment before it’s gone.”

Amanda feels it has taken years to truly get to know the nature of oil paint. “Learning to build up layers, scrape back and then rebuild again is something you steadily learn to master. My work has evolved over the years and it’s now richer, with stronger colours and more sophisticated textures.” She continues: “I’m increasingly introducing mixed media – acrylic inks, pastels, watercolours and charcoal – but it’s a very natural, gradual evolution. I don’t think you can force things as an artist, you have to go on the whole journey, not just skip ahead to the destination! You also have to bring the regular viewer with you. Collectors love to see an artist’s style evolve if they can understand the process.”

Although this latest body of work isn’t on the scale of a solo show, it is a collection intended to be viewed as a whole in the bright, contemporary space of Lighthouse Gallery. “I like to produce ‘capsule collections I suppose, where different themes are explored but which coalesce beautifully as a whole,” says Amanda. “In this collection there’s a recurring theme of mining stacks and engine houses, which

aren’t that common in my work. I enjoyed introducing these manmade features into my landscapes – I love that the landscape is gradually claiming them back!”

Another theme in the upcoming collection is a heightened sense of drama, moodier colours, and greyer skies, as Amanda subtly pushes the boundaries of her practice. From one painting, another will often develop, as I light on a passage of markmaking or a chink appears in the sky that needs exploring more thoroughly,” explains Amanda. Again, here she shows her creative maturity, knowing the limits of what can be achieved in a single work.

For Christine, the arrival of Amanda s collection is a fitting farewell to her work as a gallerist. “Amanda’s distinguished career is already inspiring a new generation, especially through her teaching practice as one of the tutors at Newlyn School of Art,” she says. “She has always had a deeply ingrained relationship with the Cornish landscape, which is conveyed in every brushstroke. But this latest body of work is something special – it’s infused with the kind of self-assurance and honesty that only comes with decades of experience. I certainly feel as if I’m going out on a high, with this beautiful collection on our walls!”

Amanda Hoskin’s new collection will be available to view at Lighthouse Gallery in Penzance, 16th – 29th March.

amandahoskinart.co.uk lighthouse-gallery.com

TOP RIGHT ‘Seapinks on the North Coast’ – oil on paper

TOP RIGHT Amanda Hoskin

ABOVE ‘Silver Light and Yellow Gorse at Kenid ack, St Just – oil on paper

the Footprints SAND in

WORDS BY HANNAH TAPPING

The Isles of Scilly lie just 28 miles from the Cornish mainland and are known for their mild climate and white sand beaches. Only 2,200 people live here, across five inhabited islands and an abundance of uninhabited islands. Reached from Cornwall and Devon by plane, helicopter and passenger ferry, this tiny cluster of low-lying islands surrounded by clear waters offers a wonderful sense of wellbeing, a place where you have the space and freedom to do everything, or nothing; where life moves at an easier pace. In summer, you would be forgiven for thinking you had landed upon a tropical paradise.

However, before the main tourist season gets into full swing, the archipelago adopts a more mellow tone. As the winds of winter retreat and the temperatures begin to rise, island life in all its forms springs to life and with it comes Walk Scilly. Now in its 16th year, the much-loved annual walking festival is often considered the opener for the island s main tourist season. The festival celebrates the coast paths, beaches, tracks, footpaths, fields, gardens and farmland of Scilly. It offers visitors a chance to not only explore the islands including its uninhabited ones, through a series of carefully curated, guided walks, but also to meet some of the island s inhabitants along the way.

Reflecting Scilly s intrinsic link to the natural world, wildlife and conservation will again feature prominently on the programme. Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust s CEO Julian

Branscombe will lead a walk around the Trust s Higher Moors reserve, from Holgate s Green via Salakee Down and ending at Old Town Bay. There will be an opportunity to look for plants, birds and insects, to learn more about the work of the Trust. As Scilly s only local nature conservation organisation, the Trust manages around half of the land area of the Isles of Scilly – an area of nearly 700 hectares of land above the high-tide line, which includes coastal heaths, maritime grassland, wetlands and pockets of mature elm woodland.

Resident ornithologist Will Wagstaff will focus his attention on tiny isle of Bryher. This rugged island is one of two halves exposed to the Atlantic on one side with more sheltered beaches on the other. Scilly has always been known for its seabirds and seals, and the popular Scilly Seabird and Seals walk will highlight. Birder and environment academic, Dr Rob Lambert will be joined by local St Mary s Boatmen s Association boatman Joe Pender, on a marine meander search of breeding seabirds, passage wading birds, sea ducks, divers, and Atlantic grey seals.

It will focus on the seabird city of Mincarlo (Norrard Rocks), which supports up to ten species of breeding seabird. It is also home to the largest colony of cormorants and puffin on islands, as well as being only one of only four sites in the archipelago for breeding storm petrel. This epic adventure will also include a trip to Annet, the second

Exploring the wilds of Scilly, one step at a time.

largest of the uninhabited islands. This island is the main seabird breeding sight on Scilly, and while closed to the public to limit disturbance to breeding birds and Atlantic grey seals, its majestic inhabitants can be safely viewed by boat.

Turning their attention to what lies beneath the waters rather than above, independent Cornish-based business specialising in seaweed pressings, Molesworth Bird (as featured in DRIFT 27) will be collaborating with St. Martin s-based organic seaweed skincare brand Phoenix Providence (DRIFT 10), for foraging walks along the pristine shores, followed by pressing workshops. Melanie Molesworth and Julia Bird share a love of nature and the outdoors, and press seaweed gathered near their homes. Foraging further afield, they will oin Ella MacLachlan at low tide to collect some of St Martin s delicate specimens in advance of the workshop.

It s not ust the flora and fauna of the islands that s significant. Scilly has a venerable history and resident archaeologist Dr Katharine Sawyer will be speaking during the festival on the historic significance of the islands bronze and iron age periods in particular the evocative post-medieval houses and the Bronze Age burial chambers on Samson. These walks are particularly special given they offer access to several uninhabited islands, where visitors are not usually granted permission. Teän has a long history of occupation and the walk here will take in sites from the prehistoric period to the 20th century. There s a further Bronze

Age burial chamber on Teän, as well as an early mediaeval chapel and cemetery and the remains of houses from the 17th and 18th centuries.

This year, the islands will play host to Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path; a story of resilience in the face of life-altering events. Just days after Raynor learned that Moth, her husband of 32 years is terminally ill, their home and livelihood was taken away. With nothing left and little time, they made the brave and impulsive decision to walk the 630 miles of the South West Coast Path. Despite Raynor and Moth having walked the entire South West Coast, the writer has never visited Scilly, so she will be exploiting the unwalked coast paths of the islands and hosting a talk on St Mary s.

The finale of the week is a much-loved lowtide event held between Tresco and Bryher. As the sand bar revealed at low tide, it becomes the location for a short-term food and drink festival. Guests can enjoy paella in crab shells and sip on an island gin whilst the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust and Scilly Rockpool Safaris offer some educational family fun, before the tractor takes the tables, chairs and umbrellas away at the same time as the tide reclaims the ground underfoot.

Walk Scilly is held from 15th-21st April 2023. Full details can be found on the website. For a 10% discount on travel to the islands for Walk Scilly Weekend, quote WALKSC2023 when booking www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk.

visitislesofscilly.com/walkscilly

Reconnecting NATURE to

WORDS & IMAGES BY GEORGINA JEREMIAH

When did you last notice nature? Virtual reality, busy schedules and a societal need to succeed mean that slowing down to appreciate the natural world is oft considered a waste of precious time and a little too ‘hippy’. I challenged this by taking the time to attend an outdoor session run by Nature Connects, an organisation that proves how noticing nature is actually intrinsic to finding our inner balance and perhaps the missing key to safeguarding our home.

But what is nature, anyway? Is it a childhood memory of climbing trees or rockpooling? Is it the feeling of peace when listening to birdsong and ocean waves? Maybe it’s a national park or even a small green refuge in a busy city. We all have our own perceptions, and shifting baseline syndrome means

that as we reshape nature, we re-evaluate our accepted versions of it with younger generations feeling more dissociated from the nature of the youth before them. Have we lost our ‘nature smart’?

I was lucky enough to experience a childhood where ‘screen-time’ and GIFs didn’t exist. Riding my bike around the village, playing in the park until it was dark and building sand forts as the tide came in are treasured memories compared to the day I got my first mobile phone or learned how to use the television remote. I wonder if ‘nature-alienated indoor upbringing’ has been added to the dictionary yet?

It’s not all doom and gloom because biophilia is definitely in the dictionary. his is the idea that humans are instinctively drawn to the natural world. his needs no further

Sarah Witts at a Nature Connects session

Why hugging trees and walking barefoot could be the answer to saving our planet.

explanation when we think of that urge to see the sea or to get lost in the woods. It makes sense, because being in natural environments is proven to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and mental distress to name just a few benefits.

Although there are already many initiatives in Cornwall to encourage children to get stuck into nature, what is there for adults? Is it too late for us? Of course, we have numerous ways to preserve local nature with volunteering organisations like Shoresearch and the oodland rust, but what about actually being in nature for the sake of it? Is it too childish for us to climb a tree, play pooh sticks or make mud pies? How about actually understanding how nature makes us feel before committing to acts of conservation that perhaps make us feel good only because we believe that we should?

Nature Connects was founded by Alice and Sarah in to help people find a connection to nature and improve their emotional well-being. hey offer a six-wee Woodland Wellness course for those looking to restore their relationship with nature; as well as for individuals suffering from anxiety, depression and stress, which Alice says is rooted in a deep disconnect from nature and the indoor sapiens we have become. Alice says that nine years ago: “I realised

nature had helped me heal and that I wanted to know everything from that point on.” raining as a forest school practitioner, lice became a leader and the founder of Nature Playgroup for children before taking the plunge with Sarah and embarking on Nature Connects.

Meeting and discussing over a bowl of nettle soup, Alice and Sarah were both initially nervous to start this next chapter but they decided to hold hands and leap together. Alice says that: “Although I love working with children, since the beginning I have always wanted to work with adults, not being able to shake the feeling of deep knowing that they need to find nature”.

ature-deficit disorder is an increasingly common term used to describe the breaking of the bond between people and the natural world. 90% of the human genome is shared with every other mammal and yet we have created a human-nature split, forgetting that we need nature more than it needs us and ignoring our biological origins at the cost of our mental health and wellbeing. Alice and Sarah have helped numerous people awaken to nature and will continue working to help “solve the human and environmental health crises through reconnection to the natural world – physically, mentally and spiritually”. hey have also wor ed hard

TOP RIGHT

Alice’s leaf sculpture

ABOVE Nature Connects

MIDDLE

Alice Wall and Sarah Witts

to receive funding from various sources including crowd funders, collaborations with organisations like the Cornwall Wildlife rust and partnerships to deliver nature training and stress relief for NHS workers. wo years on, ature onnects is going from strength to strength and Sarah hopes to wor towards offering an ecotherapy service.

Having the opportunity to attend a session with Alice and Sarah and to absorb their enthusiasm for nature was an honour and an inspiration. I had expected to be a flyon-the-wall, but before I knew it, I was getting carried into the rhythms of nature with everybody else. Having experienced anxiety, I had already been aware of the great teacher that is nature in reminding me that life is but a series of moments to be enjoyed in the present. However, building and lighting my first ever fire, ma ing a somewhat modest) sculpture out of sycamore leaves and empathising with the other participants made me understand that I am not alone in my uest for healing. he search for ature’s Wisdom is now becoming acceptable in a society that has traditionally suppressed it. o begin the session, lice guided us through a grounding exercise whereby we closed our

eyes and experienced the feeling of being safe and supported by nature. As we breathed in, we were made aware of the life that nature provided us, but also of the gift we gave in return by breathing out. Is it possible for us to really feel good about ourselves as natural beings in a nature-separated society? In order to love nature, we will first learn to give ourselves love, for we are nature too.

Nature Connects follows the five pathways to nature connectedness as researched by the University of Derby. hese encourage us to access our ‘old brain’, thinking of our relationship with nature in a sensory and nameless way rather than with reason and language which dominate our consciousness. If we think back to our school days, we were taught the name of every colour so that when we see the word blue written in green, we will say blue and let our reasoning overpower our natural senses.

hese pathways include senses, emotion, beauty, meaning and compassion. For Sarah, compassion is the most important pathway as “it is what will save the planet”. Alice adds: “through my experience of working

with actual people and nature in this way I have discovered more than I could ever feel or now through self-reflection or study. I realise that we need to learn how to feel our way through life as well as think and this is how I try to work as a facilitator.”

Although green education is typically promoted to understand how to protect our planet, we sometimes offer not inspiration, but ecophobia, with the stories of loss and despair doing little more than encouraging further separation from that which we are born of. Alice and Sarah root their work in ecopsychology, described as a means to restore our wellbeing by restoring our biophilia and a more eco-centric way of living. Isn’t this what we have all been waiting for? his is the opportunity to put ourselves first and help the planet at the same time.

onservation, li e nature, has different meanings to different people. I had felt that we should isolate nature from humans and protect the untouched and untainted from our destructive presence. But this is wrong. Pristine nature doesn’t exist anymore, and our idealistic impressions are reserved for postcards and greenwashing campaigns. We should also remember that we are not a tumour that has infected nature but the stewards in charge of nurturing it back to health. We must not cower away from wild nature but be open to its mystery and the life all around us. It may sound a little spiritual, but to understand that nature is calling

us home, we will heal not just the planet, but ourselves.

If ecotherapy generates feelings of wonder and a connection with oneself and with nature, doesn’t it seem obvious that this is the starting point for us to want to protect our planet instead of being told that we must? Like us, the planet is alive. It feels what we feel and reflects our actions, good or bad. Science has proven that water, plants and animals show molecular responses to our intent. We must stop relying on cold facts and figures when tal ing about conservation because it is who we become that changes the world, not just what we do. We must go back to our roots; in order to save the planet we must first save ourselves.

So, how do we get started? Walking barefoot, wildlife watching, keeping a nature journal, taking a photo, feeling the texture of a leaf or simply talking about nature, and even to nature, are just a few ideas to show us just how easy it really is. It has been proven that simply noticing nature leads to more pronature behaviours, from picking up litter to building homes for wildlife. We protect what we care about, it’s as simple as that.

If you’d like to share this experience, visit ature onne ts to find out a out ourses runnin as well as the ro en enefits of getting outdoors.

natureconnects.org

Eventide

WORDS BY ALICE JEFFERSON

At ShelterBox, we’ve responded to many earthquakes around the world since being formed in 2000, but the scale of devastation that we’ve seen in Türkiye and Syria has surpassed many of them. Whole cities have been destroyed, 12-storey buildings completely levelled, making the humanitarian response spanning two countries hugely complex. At least two million people have lost their homes in T rkiye and more than 80,000 people in Syria have been displaced – many not for the first time. As a charity that specialises in emergency shelter, our response teams in southern Türkiye have been visiting affected areas, finding out what and where the shelter gaps are and where we can get aid in.

Although it can be really challenging getting the right aid into countries after a disaster of this size, we strategically pre-position crucial supplies all over the world to help disaster affected communities as quickly as we can. Ten days in and ShelterBox aid is already in Türkiye and Syria, including essential items such as tents, blankets, mattresses, and winter coats for children, with more on the way; items that might seem basic, but for people surviving through this ongoing nightmare is a start, protecting them from the winter weather, preventing the spread of disease and providing some privacy as they get back on their feet.

The logistics of getting aid where it is needed is complicated and it can be time-consuming. With the search and rescue effort almost at

Alice Jefferson

an end, we are expecting already busy supply lines to get congested, so we are trying to get aid in as quickly as we can, working with local authorities, agencies and partners, including Rotarians. We have experience in successfully getting aid into hard-to-reach areas of northern Syria from our work over the last ten years, and we’re expanding on this expertise to help families affected by the earthquakes.

More than 45,000 people have died across Syria and Türkiye and the death toll is rising every day. Behind every statistic are people who need our help, including in very hard to reach, conflict affected regions. Three million people were already displaced by the war in Syria, and this disaster has left many of them without shelter again. Not only that, but facing thousands of aftershocks, a cholera outbreak, water shortages, and rising frustrations. The bitter weather presents an immediate risk to life to people who survived the earthquakes. ShelterBox will be helping people over the coming days, weeks, and months with tangible aid – help that is possible because of our supporters.

Alice Jefferson is he ead of mer enc esponses a he in erna ional disas er relief chari Shel er o Shel er o has an emer enc fundraisin appeal o help people affec ed he ear h uakes and o her disas ers around he world

shel er o or