Tom Cross: Paintings from the Artist's Studio

Cover image: The River, Bosloe / 2006

All works are from The Artist’s Estate.

See website for full details and further images: www.belgravestives.co.uk

Tom Cross Paintings from the Artist’s Studio

14 Oct – 6 Nov 2023

Viewings welcome by appointment

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Copyright ©2023 Belgrave St Ives

ISBN 978-1-9998524-6-7

Tom Cross – Paintings from the Artist’s Studio

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the publication of the seminal book Painting the Warmth of the Sun: St Ives Artists 1930 – 1975, written by Tom Cross, and its associated 3-part Channel 4 TV programme, it seems an appropriate time to be mounting an exhibition of Cross’s own art.

The significance of this publication, which re-ignited interest in the group of artists working in and around St Ives in the post-war period, and no doubt helped pave the way to the establishment of the Tate Gallery in St Ives in 1993, illustrates the wide-ranging practice Cross held as an art educator, writer and artist.

Cross had an academic training at Manchester School of Art (initially in Architecture) and the Slade School of Art, where he won several scholarships. A travel scholarship to Rome was the start of a lifetime of travelling and painting in many countries around the world.

After a period working at the Welsh Art Council, Cross took up a lectureship at Reading University, later introducing artists such as Terry Frost to the teaching programme there. The post of Principal at Falmouth School of Art – a position he held from 1976 to 1987 – brought him to Cornwall, where he settled for the remainder of his life. As a member of the London Group and Penwith Society of Artists (where he became Chairman), many fellow artists coalesced around Cross’s social circle in West Cornwall. Throughout his career, and parallel to his academic duties, Cross maintained his painting practice rigorously; as Principal of Falmouth Art School, for example, he maintained a working studio on site.

The trajectory of Cross’s career as an artist can be traced through this exhibition. From the Sladeinfluenced early still life and landscape paintings of the 1950s, through the abstract work of the 1960s and the Systems-based experimental work of the 1970s, leading to the mature, ultimate phase of primarily landscape paintings, many of which are rooted in his home environment around the Helford River in Cornwall. Throughout Cross’s oeuvre there is a constant sense of structure in the work, and an almost scientific analysis through observation. This is apparent in both representational and abstract idioms. Cross was also a meticulous note-maker, recording his observations throughout his life, and illustrative examples of this from several of his sketchbooks will be on display in the Penwith Gallery as part of this exhibition. Cross’s careful referencing has enabled the inclusion of a selection of his notes pertaining to specific works in this catalogue, providing an insight into artist’s thoughts and processes.

We had pleasure in mounting Tom Cross’s first posthumous exhibition in 2010, with the encouragement of Alan Livingston (Cross’s successor at Falmouth University), and the support of Tom’s widow, Pat, who sadly passed away last year. For this new exhibition, we have been fortunate in having access to all of the work in the artist’s studio thanks to Tom and Pat’s son, David and his wife Carol, who have made this exhibition possible through their commitment to conserve and maintain Tom Cross’s artistic legacy.

Michael Gaca / 2023

Landscape in the Marche / 1956

Completed during Cross’s first visit to Italy, August – September 1955.

‘The offer of a third postgraduate year at the Slade was particularly welcome for it opened up new horizons and brought the opportunity for me to travel and to live abroad... With friends from the Slade over several summers we were centred on the provincial town of Recanati and the Italian landscape became a subject for my work’.

(Tom Cross, A River and Some Landscapes, Halsgrove, p129.)

Oil on canvas / 38 x 55 cm

Landscape at Houghton Green / 1955

Oil on canvas / 73.5 x 99 cm

Exhibited: The Northern Scene, Salford Art Gallery, 1958.

Houghton Green is a rural village in Greater Manchester. Produced during Cross’s time at Manchester School of Art, this piece formed part of Cross’s application to the Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship, awarded to him by the British School in Rome in 1956.

Garden, Denton / 1952

Oil on board / 57 x 47 cm

Completed during Cross’s time at Manchester School of Art, whilst he was living at 3 Percy Road, Denton, Manchester.

Garden in Ireland / 1958

Oil on board / 46 x 104 cm

Based on Crucifixion by Tintoretto.

Completed during Cross’s time at The Slade School of Art.

In 1955, Cross exhibited at Young Contemporaries, RBA Galleries, London, alongside Francis Hewlett, Alan Windsor, Ray Exworth, Raymond Briggs and Christopher Hall.

Flowers I / 1957

Oil on board / 55 x 39 cm

Anemones / 1958

Oil on canvas / 34.5 x 44.5 cm

Tom Cross Archive FCP3/B/1/10 sketchbook dates this piece as having been completed in February 1958, whilst Tom and Pat were living in Biot, France.

Untitled (Construction) / 1960

Gouache / 34 x 52 cm

Study for Ploughed Field / 1961

Oil on canvas / 36 x 46 cm

Completed at the home of Christopher Hall, 244 Andover Road, Newbury. Christopher Hall was a fellow painter, lifelong friend and godfather to Tom and Pat’s son, David.

‘4th April 1959. After 5 days work on Hall’s Wood – 244, I have one day more. Started Monday drawing on rough side of hardboard improved with two coats flat white. Drawing in cobalt blue and then with yellow ochre. Monday, Tues & Wednesday now still transparent but in full colour. On Wednesday evening I decided it was necessary to use opaque paint, and for Thursday and Friday used that paint with grey base for structure. Colours – soft green, veridian clove green cobalt blue. ivory. Black. Burnt amber, burnt sienna...red yellow ochre, cardamon yellow, clove yellow and lemon yellow... white.’

(Sketchbook, 1959, Tom Cross Estate.)

Hall’s Wood / 1959

Oil on board / 75 x 121 cm

Hall’s Wood 2 / 1964

Oil on canvas / 76 x 92 cm

Five years on, Cross revisited his earlier work on Hall’s Wood (TC55), completed during Cross’s time as Lecturer in Fine Art at University of Reading.

Exhibited: Tom Cross – Paintings and Drawings, The Dillwyn Gallery, Swansea, 1964. Completed during Cross’s time as Lecturer in Fine Art at University of Reading.

‘I worked with students on an introductory course in Fine Art, together with Terry Frost and Rita Donagh, following teaching ideas that had been developed by Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton, then working in other parts of the country.’

(Tom Cross, A River and Some Landscapes, Hallsgrove, 2005, p118.)

Sunlight in the Room / 1963

Oil on canvas / 122 x 152 cm

The Cottage / 1961

Gouache / 38 x 30 cm

Reds / 1964

Gouache / 28 x 22 cm

Interior of a Room / 1962

Oil on canvas / 182 x 183 cm

Exhibited: Tom Cross: Early Paintings, Kestle Barton, June – August 2013 (illus. in catalogue) / Four Painters and Two Sculptors, Bangor Art Gallery, 1965. (Alongside Tom Barrett, Terry Frost, Peter Kalkhof, Carole Hodgson.)

Completed During Cross’s time at Reading University, where he commenced employment in 1963 following the appointment of Claude Rogers as Professor of Fine Art.

Catch Two / 1968

Oil on canvas / 162 x 112 cm

Exhibited: Recent Paintings by Tom Cross, University of Sussex, 1969 / Paintings by Tom Cross and Alan Plummer, Didsbury College, Manchester, 1970.

From the exhibition catalogue for ‘Recent Paintings by Tom Cross, University of Sussex, 1969: ‘These spatial paintings lead, in the more recent series Catch, to an examination of the three dimensional companion of the hexagon, that is to say the cube, and to an investigation of the spatial tensions that exist when a series of cubic networks are pictured in movement.’

Flat / 1975

Mixed media collage on canvas / 106 x 152 cm

Competed during Cross’s time as Lecturer in Fine Art at University of Reading.

Untitled (Two Engine Houses) Ink and wash / 55 x 37 cm

Fronheil, Tegryn / 1969

Pen, ink and watercolour / 38 x 37 cm

Tom, his wife Pat and their son David spent many years staying at Fronhaul in Pembrokeshire, which was the location from which Tom painted many of his Welsh paintings.

Watercolour / 25 x 35 cm

Falmouth Harbour from Greenbank / 1977

Window to the River / 1987

Oil on canvas / 91 x 152 cm

Exhibited: Artists from Cornwall, Royal West of England Academy Bristol, 1992. Tom Cross, Paintings of Cornwall and Wales’, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1995, touring to University of Birmingham and Penwith Gallery, St Ives, 1995/6 / Goldmark Gallery, Rutland.

Santa Maria delle Vittorio, Rome / 1966

Ink and gouache / 38 x 37 cm

Exhibited: Richard Philp, 1994, Goldmark Gallery, 1996.

The composition of a still life in front of a window was one that Tom Cross returned to regularly through the 1970s and 1980s. He was first inspired by a visit to Eagles’ Nest in Zennor, the home of Patrick Heron, where the Cross family stayed during the summer of 1977, not long after they first moved to Cornwall.

Further information about this painting can be found on the gallery website.

In a Window / 1979

Oil on canvas / 152 x 107 cm

St Anthony Head No.2 / 1978

Gouache / 41 x 57 cm

Open Water / 1980

Gouache / 43 x 59 cm

Still Life – Evening Light / 1980

Written alongside preparatory sketch for this work:

‘Monday 1 January 1980. Writing after a late breakfast on New Year’s Day. Hard frozen snow all over Falmouth. It came on the night before New Year’s Eve and has stayed since. There are no cars moving round the town, roads everywhere are blocked, and movement is slow and difficult. We went out this morning to walk to the beach, partly to see the ship wrecked on Maenporth beach, but we turned back after Gyllingvase beach. Slow waking. Last night, New Year’s party with Francis Hewlett kept up until 3’.

(Tom Cross Archive, Falmouth University, FCP3/B/1/24.)

Gouache / 43 x 60 cm

Still Life with Fountain / 1990

Gouache / 53 x 72 cm

Completed during a trip to Italy in 1990.

‘As an alternative to landscape I have also often used still life as subject. The forms that I use are simple, a few well-known jugs, mugs and beakers on a table. Their familiar contours set up a resonance with each other and they are instantly familiar by their outline.’.

(Tom Cross, Helford: A River and Some Landscapes, Halsgrove, 2005, p92.)

Fishing Boats / 1983

Gouache / 25 x 35 cm

Against the Light / 1983

Gouache / 55 x 74 cm

Exhibited: Tom Cross: A River and Some Landscapes, Charleston College, 1983. Completed during Cross’s time teaching in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, and based on an earlier sketch.

‘Well into the routine of teaching & work now. This suits me well, and I have now finished 6 gouaches, and started one more complicated one from a drawing earlier in this book... (Sketchbook, Charleston, 9 October 1983.)

‘The Helford has great character, from the busy life of its estuary to the remoteness of the upper reaches. The history and ever-changing appearance give endless opportunities for the landscape artist, and my landscape is the river.’

(Tom Cross, Cornwall Today, 30 July 2005).

Groyne Point / 2004

Oil on canvas / 71 x 81 cm

Exhibited: Falmouth Art Gallery, 2004. Helford: A River and Some Landscapes, Trelowarren, 2005.

River Beyond the Trees / 1999

Oil on canvas / 102 x 97 cm

Exhibited: Tom Cross, Paintings of the Helford River, Trebah, 2003. Helford, A River and Some Landscapes, Trelowarren, 2005. Recent Paintings, Penwith Gallery, St Ives, 2000.

Calamansac Woods as described by Cross in Helford: A River and Some Landscapes, Halsgrove, 2005, p7: ‘It is a magic place where the river shines between the trees’.

Estuary 2 / 1995

Watercolour / 17 x 30 cm

Estuary 1 / 1995

Watercolour / 21 x 24 cm

Untitled (Helford River) / 1982

‘Painting in either watercolour, gouache or oil paint heavily thinned with turpentine, Cross lays delicate washes of a fairly limited range of colours upon each other, the shimmer of paper through the brushstrokes suggests the sparkling light on the ever-changing surface of the Helford river’.

(Robert Meyrick in Tom Cross, Paintings of Cornwall and Wales, University of Wales, 1995.)

Gouache / 52 x 34 cm

Untitled (The River at Bosloe) / 2006 Oil on board / 41.5 x 51.5 cm

The River, Bosloe / 2006 Oil on canvas / 46 x 65 cm

Untitled (Anemones) / 1989

Watercolour and gouache / 48 x 36 cm

Exhibited: Tom Cross, Fifty Years’ Work, Belgrave St Ives, 2010 / Great Atlantic Gallery, Falmouth, 2006.

Helford: A River and Some Landscapes’, Trelowarren, 2005.

Oyster Quay, Port Navas / 2005

Oil on canvas / 92 x 102 cm

TOM CROSS 1931–2009

Self Portrait / 1957

Oil on canvas / 47 x 36 cm

One-person Exhibitions

2023 Tom Cross – Paintings from the Artist’s Studio, Belgrave St Ives, Towednack, St Ives, Cornwall.

2013 Tom Cross – Early Paintings’, Kestle Barton, Manaccan, Cornwall.

2011 Tom Cross: Paintings of Cornwall and Other Places’, Belgrave St Ives, St Ives.

2010 Tom Cross – Fifty Years’ Work, Belgrave Gallery St. Ives. Connections, in the collection of the Falmouth Art Gallery. The Tom Cross Archive University College, Falmouth launch.

2009 Paintings of The Helford River, The New Yard Restaurant, Trelowarren, near Helston.

2005 Helford – A River and Some Landscapes, The Gallery, Trelowarren near Helston, Cornwall. Paintings of the Helford River, The Great Atlantic Gallery, Falmouth.

2003 Paintings of the Helford River, The Garden Gallery, Trebah, Cornwall. Paintings of Venice, The Chelsea Arts Club, London.

2000 Recent Paintings at the Penwith Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall.

1999 Paintings of Cornwall and Australia at Gallery East, Fremantle, Western Australia. The First Ten Years, the Majlis Gallery, Dubai.

1998 Tom Cross Paintings, The Coach-house Gallery, Guernsey, Channel Isles.

1997 One-man exhibition, the residence of the British Ambassador, Muscat, the Sultanate of Oman.

1995–96 Tom Cross – Paintings of Cornwall and Wales, The University of Wales, School of Art Gallery, Aberystwyth, The University of Birmingham, the Goldmark Gallery, Rutland, Penwith Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall.

1993 Italian Paintings, Richard Philp Gallery, London.

1989 Paintings of Cornwall, Austin Desmond Fine Art. Albany Gallery, Cardiff.

1986 Ocean Landscapes, Jan Going Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

1984 A River and Some Landscapes, William Halsey Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

1981 Paintings From Cornwall, Montpelier Gallery London.

1971 Light Works – Paintings and Graphics by Tom Cross, Hopkins Hall Gallery, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.

1969 Recent Paintings by Tom Cross, Sussex University Arts Centre.

1968 Pembrokeshire Landscape, Playhouse Theatre, Oxford. Paintings and Constructions, Architectural Association, London.

1966 Playhouse Theatre, Oxford.

1963 Dillwyn Gallery, Swansea.

1963 Everyman Theatre, Cardiff.

1963 Howard Roberts Gallery, Cardiff.

1961 Ashgate Gallery, Farnham.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021–23 St Ives and Modern British, Belgrave St Ives, Towednack, St Ives, Cornwall.

2011–20 St Ives Exhibition, Belgrave St Ives, St Ives, Cornwall.

2010 Post War Abstract, Belgrave Gallery St Ives.

2002 Landmarks of Arabia, the Majlis Gallery, Dubai.

Commissioned to paint a mural for a swimming pool at 11 Eaton Square, London.

1999 Visit to Wales, Christopher Hall, Bob Brown and Tom Cross, Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, North Wales.

1997 The New Orientalists, The Cultural Centre, Abu Dhabi and the Majlis Gallery, Dubai.

1994 The Art of the Chelsea Arts Club, Chelsea Town Hall.

1993 Homage to Claude Rogers, Royal West of England Academy. Summer Exhibition, Montpelier Studio Gallery, London.

1992 A Centenary Exhibition, University of Reading. Artists From Cornwall, Royal West of England Academy, Autumn Exhibition.

1990 Pelter Sands Gallery Bristol – 3 man show.

1989–90 The Northern Scene, touring exhibition.

1987 Grenville Gibbs Corporate Art, London.

1986 Cornish Connection, 3D Gallery, Bristol.

1984 Artists of Fame and Promise, Montpelier Studio Gallery, London.

1980 Art In The Making, King Street Gallery, Bristol, The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath and the Brewhouse Theatre, Taunton.

1979 Prints and Etchings by Invited Artists, Penwith Gallery, St Ives.

1978 London Group, Gulbenkian Galleries, Royal College of Art, London. A regular exhibitor with the London Group from this date.

1977 Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives.

1976 Regular exhibitor at the Penwith Society of Artist, St Ives, from this date.

1975–76 Colour, toured by Southern Arts to Southampton, Winchester, Worthing, Portsmouth, Bracknell, Salisbury and Falmouth.

1972–73 Light Works, shown at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the Welsh Arts Council Gallery, Cardiff, Reading Museum and Art Gallery and the Durham Light Infantry Gallery, Durham.

1970 Light Works, Painting and Prints, AIA Gallery, London WC2. Two Painters and a Sculptor, Manchester.

1969 On Paper – An Exhibition of Recent Graphic Work, Reading Museum and Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Manchester College of Advanced Education and Birmingham College of Art.

Structural Growth in Natural Form, Whitechapel Gallery, London.

1968 Arranged and exhibited in Twelve Artists, Reading Museum.

1967 London Group – The Roman Baroque, photographic exhibition at Chelsea School of Art.

1965 Four Painters and Two Sculptors, Bangor Arts Gallery. John Moore’s Exhibition, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

Public Collections

Coff’s Harbour Cardiology Clinic, New South Wales, Australia.

The University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Glamorgan Education Authority.

Leicestershire Education Authority. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

Contemporary Art Society, London.

Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.

University of Manchester.

Ohio State University.

Reading Borough Council.

University of Reading.

Salford Museum and Art Gallery.

Southern Arts.

University of Sussex, Brighton.

Scolton Manor Museum, Pembrokeshire.

Arts Council for Wales.

Contemporary Arts Society for Wales.

IBM, UK.

The British Embassy, Oman.

German Embassy, Abu Dhabi.

University College Falmouth, Cornwall.

VADS (Visual Arts Data Service) Library and Learning Services

Department, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham.

Private Collections

Work held in Private Collections in the UK, Europe, Australia, Dubai, North and South America.

Publications

How Impressionism Began, Welsh Arts Council for the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff 1960.

Ceri Richards, The Royal National Eisteddford of Wales, Cardiff, 1961.

Josef Herman, The Royal National Eisteddford of Wales, Llanelli, 1962.

British Art and The Modern Movement, The National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

Graham Sutherland – Drawings of Wales, Welsh Arts Council, Cardiff, 1963.

Two painters: Brenda Chamberlain and Ernest Zobole, Welsh Arts Council, Cardiff, 1963.

John Piper In Wales, Welsh Arts Council, Cardiff, 1964. The Slade Tradition, Fine Art Society, London, 1971.

Colour, Exhibition and Catalogue, Southern Arts, 1976.

Art In The Making, exhibition catalogue for South West Arts, 1980.

St Ives Revisited – Innovators and Followers, Peter Davies, Old Bakehouse Publications, 1994.

Painting the Warmth of the Sun – St Ives Artists, 1930–1975, Alison Hodge, Penzance. Lutterworth Press, Cambridge 1984, Halsgrove, 1995.

Painting the Warmth of the Sun, script for three one-hour programmes based on the book, Television South West for Channel 4, 1984.

Artists and Bohemians, 100 years with the Chelsea Arts Club, Quiller Press, London, 1992.

Artists From Cornwall, introduction to exhibition catalogue, Royal West of England Academy, 1992.

The Shining Sands, Artists in Newlyn and St Ives, 1880-1930, Westcountry Books, Tiverton and Lutterworth Press, Cambridge 1994.

The Artists of St Ives for NADFAS NEWS, Autumn/Winter 1995.

Orientalism, 1997, introduction to the catalogue for the New Orientalist exhibition at the Majlis Gallery, Dubai.

The Artists of Newlyn, entry for the New Dictionary of National Biography. Catching the Wave – Contemporary Art and Artists in Cornwall from 1975 to the Present, Halsgrove, November 2002.

Helford – A River and some landscapes, Halsgrove, 2005.

The Artist Who Loved Boats, Halsgrove, 2006.

St Ives 1975-2005 – Art Colony in Transition, Peter Davies, The St Ives Printing and Publishing Company, 2007.

Echoing the Times – Reviews from The St Ives Times and Echo, Peter Davies, The St Ives Printing and Publishing Company, 2020.