Sometimes you don't realise quite how much you've changed until you look back at where you started.
As I approach my final weekend on the Porthmeor Programme at the St Ives School of Painting, I've found myself reflecting on everything this experience has given me. Not just in terms of the techniques I've learnt or the paintings I've created, but in the way I now approach my work, my creativity and, perhaps most importantly, myself as an artist.
And almost perfectly timed with this final weekend is the release of my newest collection of original paintings, Pieces & Place.
It feels like a rather beautiful way to mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.
Giving Myself Permission to Explore
When I first began the Porthmeor Programme, I was already working full-time as a Cornish seascape artist. I had developed my own distinctive way of painting, combining acrylics with textiles, upcycled fabrics and other materials to create sculptural, textured interpretations of the coastline.
But I knew there was more I wanted to explore. I wanted to challenge myself, to experiment, to learn from other artists and to push beyond the familiar.
And that's exactly what this experience has encouraged me to do…
There is something incredibly valuable about giving yourself permission to be a student again. To try things that might not work. To question the way you've always done something. To discover new approaches without feeling that everything you create needs to become a finished painting.
It hasn't always been comfortable. Growth rarely is. But looking back, I can see just how important that space to experiment has been.
Bringing All of Myself to the Canvas
One of the biggest things I've taken from this period of study is the confidence to embrace all the different parts of my creative identity. Before becoming a full-time artist, I spent twenty years working in the fashion industry. I've always loved fabrics, texture, colour and the stories that materials can hold.
I've also spent much of my life connected to the ocean. The Cornish coastline is where I find calm, perspective and inspiration. It's where so many of my memories live. For a long time, these different parts of my life felt like separate chapters. But increasingly, I've realised that they don't need to be separate at all.
My background in fashion, my love of photography, my connection to the sea, my fascination with textiles and the experiences that have shaped me all have a place in my work. In fact, they're what make it mine.
And perhaps that's been one of the most important lessons of all. Finding your artistic voice isn't always about discovering something new. Sometimes it's about having the confidence to embrace everything that's already part of you.
A Different Way of Seeing the Cornish Coast
The ocean has always been at the heart of my paintings, and that hasn't changed.
I'm still fascinated by the movement of water, the shifting colours of the shoreline, the patterns left behind by the tide and the incredible sense of calm that comes from being beside the sea. But the way I'm interpreting those things has been evolving.
Through my studies in St Ives, I've been exploring new approaches to composition, mark-making, materials and texture. I've been looking more closely at how a painting can capture not just the appearance of a place, but the feeling of being there.
Because for me, a seascape has never simply been about recreating a beautiful view. It's about connection.
The memories we attach to particular stretches of coastline. The way a beach can transport us back to a moment in our lives. The feeling of standing at the water's edge and, just for a little while, everything else falling away. These are the things I want my paintings to hold.
Pieces & Place: A Collection Six Months in the Making
Over the past six months, alongside my studies, I've been quietly creating a new body of work. It's a collection that has grown and evolved with me, shaped by everything I've been learning, questioning and discovering.
I've called it Pieces & Place.
The name reflects so much of what sits at the heart of my practice: the fragments of fabric and materials that become part of my paintings, the pieces of our lives that we carry with us, and the places that shape who we are.
It's about memory, belonging and connection. And it's also about bringing all those different pieces of myself together.
I don't want to reveal too much just yet, because I want you to experience the collection as a whole when it's released. But I will say that this feels like some of my most personal work to date.
Not necessarily because I've moved away from what I've always created, but because I feel I've moved closer to what I've always wanted my work to say.
The End of One Chapter, the Beginning of Another
As my time on the Porthmeor Programme comes to an end, I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have stepped outside my usual routine and invested this time in developing my practice. For the tutors who have challenged and encouraged me. For the other artists I've shared the experience with. And for the reminder that, however far you've come, there is always more to learn.
I think it's easy, particularly when you're running a creative business, to become so focused on producing work and moving forward that you forget how important it is to make space for your own creative development. This experience has reminded me why I fell in love with making art in the first place.
And while this chapter of formal study is coming to a close, I certainly don't see it as the end of my learning. Quite the opposite. It feels like the beginning of something.
My new collection of original textured Cornish seascape paintings, Pieces & Place, will be released very soon. For now, I just wanted to share a little of the journey that has brought me here.
Because sometimes the story behind a painting is just as important as the painting itself. And this collection has quite a story.
Pieces & Place — Coming Soon
Gemma x