This is the introduction written by Michael Canney for the catalogue of the exhibition, “Painters in Cornwall” at City Art Gallery, Plymouth, July 21-August 31, 1960.

Michael Canney’s own oil paintings, “Cornish Painting” and “Newlyn” were included in the exhibition, along with works by Shearer Armstrong, W. Barns-Graham, Anthony Benjamin, Trevor Bell, Peter Blakely, Angus Brent, Michael Broido, Frederick Cook, June Feiler, Paul Feiler, Michael Finn, Terry Frost, Leonard Fuller, Alethea Garstin, Jeffrey Harris, Michael Heard, Patrick Heron, Francis Hewlett,  Mary Jewels, George Lambourn, Peter Lanyon, Alan Lowndes, Alexander Mackenzie, Margo Maeckelberghe, Jack Merriott, Lionel Miskin, Kate Nicholson, Marion Paul, Misomer Peile, Jack Pender, Dod Procter, RA, Peter Rainsford, William Redgrave, Adrian Ryan, John Tunnard, Reg Watkiss, James van Hear, Karl Weschke, Nancy Wynne-Jones and Bryan Wynter.

To represent all the painters who are working in Cornwall in one exhibition would be an impossibility, for their number far exceeds the space that is available in any gallery in the West. It is hoped, however, that this exhibition will give some idea of the many different aspects of art in Cornwall.

The tradition of painting in the county of Cornwall goes back as far as Turner, Rowlandson and Opie, but it was not until 1880 that the first colony of artists grew up at Newlyn, and shortly afterwards artists settled at St Ives and Falmouth. Today the painters are not only concentrated in St Ives, Newlyn and Mousehole, but they are also scattered over the peninsula of West Penwith and can be found as far afield as Polperro, Looe and Mevagissey.

Painting in Cornwall today is largely concerned with the landscape, the coast, the sea, and the characteristic harbours and villages with which the county is richly endowed. The traditional approach to the picturesque in Cornwall needs no explanation, but the visitor may find that the ‘contemporary’ works present something of a problem, especially if he seldom visits exhibitions of modern painting. I believe that this modern painting can be best explained by saying that it deals with, and represents, the artist’s total experience of his subject, and not merely one aspect of it. This can include experience which is physical and experience which is connected with the past as well as the present. A modern landscape painter is aware not only of the country around him but of the sky above him and the hidden mineworkings beneath his feet; he recalls the road he has just travelled, the hill he has just climbed. The traditional painter selects one view, at one time of day, and at one particular season, but modern painters are not so restricted. The purely abstract painter, on the other hand, is concerned with problems of pure art, freed from all associated ideas, and this pure art, like music, represents nothing except possibly a mood or a general environment. In spite of this, it would seem that abstract art is not as detached as it would like to be, and in many abstract paintings the light and colour and the atmosphere of Cornwall come across to the spectator very forcefully.

It is not surprising that younger painters should react violently against the picturesque and sentimental treatment that the county has received in the past, and that they should prefer to find an entirely new approach and even new subject-matter. I believe that there is an underlying unity that exists between the earliest painters and those who have made their home in Cornwall more recently, although we are perhaps too close at present to see it in its true perspective. In the modern paintings the local colour of the land and seascape is particularly apparent, and the forms of boats, harbours, the rocky West Penwith peninsula, the tightly packed cottages and the ancient granite churches are all visible in the essential structure of the pictures. The severity of the county is an asset rather than a hindrance, and it is an invaluable stimulus to painters who are concerned essentially with fundamentals in art. The first artists in Cornwall were impressed by the comparatively primitive existence led by its people, and it is still true today that the elemental is more obviously present than in most parts of England, and that the feeling of an ancient land and its early inhabitants and traditions is inescapable. The modern artist’s imagery of Cornwall is permeated with it, and I don not think that anyone who knows the county could fail to find evidence of it in much of the painting in this exhibition.

Apart from London, there is nowhere else in this country where so many artists are working in such a small area. Painters from Cornwall have recently been represented in many important exhibitions both here and abroad and have received important awards in national and international exhibitions. There is every reason to suppose that they will continue to make an important contribution to British art and that many of the younger painters whose work you can see in this exhibition will be in the front rank of our painters in the future.