Art, St Ives and the Art of Brewing
There are places where art happens, but there are places where it feels like art breathes, like it is stitched into a community or way of life. St Ives is one of those places, a home for art, tucked away on Cornwall's wild Atlantic coastline.
It hasn't always been a place synonymous with art, it's history is steeped in fishing. St Ives was a working fishing town, where its fisherman headed out to catch pilchards and other fish, where nets ad pots weren't just ornamental, they were a way of living. Beneath that hustle and bustle something else was quietly brewing.
JMW Turner arrived in St Ives in 1811, drawn in by the the quality of the light, as many other would be after him. That light is the towns finest export, a light that is difficult to describe, light that bounces around the town and reflects of the sea. Later in the 1800s transport improved and the railways bought many more artists to the town. The likes of Whistler and Sickert traded city smog for fresh sea air and made the town their home, a place where they could commit to creative freedom.
Like a good craft beer, the town's art heritage grew from simple ingredients. Light, landscape and a touch of curiosity fermented into something all the richer.
By the 1900s artists would start to call St Ives home, they weren't just visiting, they were setting up shop. Studios were being established, artists being shared, a creative community was forming. 1920 was one of the most defining years in St Ives history. Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada set up Leach pottery, fusing Eastern and Wester traditions that changed pottery from simple craft into art. They placed huge value on process, material and how things were made.
Much like the art of brewing that we live by, giving respect to ingredients and processes and putting that into the hands of passionate brewers like Tomasz and Ross.
Around 1930 modernism arrived in St Ives. Renown artists Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood encountered local fisherman turned modern painted Alfred Wallis. He painted purely from memory, using scraps he found to paint on, like drift wood and used paints he could get his hands on that in some cases was simply house paint. He had a raw and highly instinctive style, something that you wouldn't find in London or the wider world of art.
When Nicholson returned, it was to start something bigger, inspired by what he'd seen.
In the late 1930s and 1940s, Nicholson, Hepworth and Bago all relocated to St Ives. this was what led to the forming of the St Ives School, which wasn't a formal institute at the time, more a gathering of like-minded artists keen to experiment with abstraction, form and landscape.
The studios overlooking Porthmeor became the home of modern art., their inhabitants, a collection of painters and sculptors pushing the boundaries of art and blending it seamlessly with the rugged beauty of Cornwall.
By 1950 the town's art was as bigger export as its fishing.
Over the years there were further developments, not least the addition of the Tate St Ives Gallery in 1993, cementing the town's place on the international stage, allowing it to showcase modern and contemporary work intrinsically tied to the town.
Outside those famed galleries is where the real magi lies though, a continuation of processes and artists committed to experimentation.
Much like our approach to craft beer brewing. Always seeking new ways to express ourselves and craft something new and exciting.
If you visit St Ives make sure you take some time to explore the galleries and studios, in those places you will meet some of the most inspiring humans,
