Enjoy a window into the themes and ideas that inform their practices, featuring Lou Tonkin, Eleanor Russell-Hsieh, Felix Packer, Michael Brett, Debbie Bunce and Clementine Neild.

The exhibition is free to view in Trebah’s exhibition space.

Clementine Neild

Clementine is a Cornish-born print artist working and living in Falmouth.

“Inspired by family connections to Japan, China and Africa as well as the beautiful Cornish landscapes and walks with my large, beautiful and boisterous lurcher. Hounds feature a lot in my prints along with the batty birds collected by my grandmother and the dream world of ancestors, cultures, family and mindful present that, at times, I feel either immersed or lost in.

Objects are so important in our memory recall and those passed down or collected on holidays are intrinsically linked to our experiences. They are our stories. These trinkets and objects feature in my work, allowing the viewer a glimpse into my world.”

Debbie Bunce

Debbie studied Fine Art at Falmouth University where she focused on Printmaking. Living and working in Cornwall, Debbie’s practice using wood lithography is concerned with themes around repetition of line and broken rhythms echoing traces sensed within, as well as those seen around her in natural and man made environments.

Eleanor Russell-Hsieh

Eleanor’s work explores the beauty and importance of flora and fauna. She experiments with various mark-making techniques in her printmaking – from the delicate scratching of drypoint that speaks to her love of drawing, to the looser monotype method. Forest dwellers, ocean oddities or dark, woodland vignettes – all invite the viewer to consider what each image represents beyond the nostalgia they might see on the surface.

Her new drypoint, Derwen, spotlights the powerful role of the oak. Supporting over 2,300 species from root, to trunk, to branch, to leaf, it is the UK’s most important native tree for biodiversity. Derwen’s subject stands bold in the woods situated on Russell-Hsieh’s childhood home. At an emotionally turbulent time in which war, polarised thought and environmental crisis pervades our every day, this oak – the smell, the sound, the feel, the memories – reminds the artist what is important. Eleanor graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2003 with a BA in Paper Conservation.

Lou Tonkin

Lou Tonkin is a printmaker producing lino cut prints & homewares which are inspired almost exclusively by nature, our community & the beautiful environment she is surrounded by in her home county of Cornwall & her rural adventures.

Lou’s work focuses on movement, tone and texture, to allow you to feel like you are there with the subject & feeling the connection to the wild elements in that moment.

“Knowing where the wild orchids & wood anemones grow each year, where the song thrushes choose to go for their supper & the best hedgerows for when you really wish to share part of your walk with a wren is everything to me”

Communicating a love of nature is the foundation of Lou’s work process.

Felix Packer

Felix is an artist and craftsman who works from his studio in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. You can find his work dotted across Cornwall and further afield, from the Eden Project to the homes of art lovers nationwide and beyond. Felix specialises in wood and linocuts woodcarving and sculptures and is inspired by the environment around him, in particular the Cornish landscape and the sea. The stories and occurrences it holds has fed his creative necessity for many years.

Michael Brett

Michael studied Fine Art at Falmouth Art College, Cornwall specialising in painting and printmaking. He draws constantly; at breakfast, whilst teaching and late into the evening. Drawing from life and direct observation is key to his printmaking.

Michael’s work explores the landscapes and histories of Cornwall. The wind swept heights of the cliff tops offer vertiginous perspectives; lines and shapes drop away, colours hover taking the viewer on a weightless journey over the edge and away. Cornwall’s flora and fauna inhabit much of his work.

This exhibition include prints from this summer studies of dragonflies and gunnera drawn at Trebah Garden.
He exhibits regularly at the Heseltine Gallery, Truro, the Poly, Falmouth and the Penwith Gallery, St. Ives.

Find out more here