MAC | RAGS: Artists who share a love of St Ives When seven artists who met at St Ives School of Painting formed a collective prior to staging their first exhibition, they decided to call it MAC | RAGS – a combination of the first letter of each of their first names. The seven – Mary Scott, Andrew Rothwell, Claire Norton, Rosanna Gardner, Anna Clarke, Gwynne Perry, and Sue Emms – were all part of the Porthmeor Programme at the School of Painting in 2020. They lived in different parts of the country, but came together for regular weekends in St Ives. MAC | RAGS was a name which not only represented each artist, but also captured their experiences as a group. ”On one of the weekends we were together, it was very wet and we had to wear macs,” said Gwynne Penny. “And some of us paint with rags!” The pandemic delayed the start of the programme by five months, and several weekends had to be postponed – but as Rosanna points out: “The silver lining was that we completed the programme over fifteen months rather than 10, which enabled us to get to know each other more deeply in the exploration of our art practices.” Gwynne added: “There were times when we nearly got blown away in the harbour, and times when we had socially-distanced fish and chips on the beach. It all helped to forge a bond between us.” In April, the MAC | RAGS art collective presented its first exhibition, Breathing Space, at the Crypt Gallery. It was curated by Greg Humphries, environmental artist and course tutor at St Ives School of Painting. “We are grateful to the School of Painting for giving us the opportunity to undertake the Porthmeor Programme, and to the tutors who inspired us along the way,” said Rosanna. She describes her paintings as a response to two contrasting places – the city skyline view
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from the attic studio of her home in north London, and the great horizons where the sea meets the sky in St Ives. During lockdown, she felt drawn to paint the pigeons on the roofs of the buildings near her studio: “I had to try and capture them before they took off!” Gwynne’s work is inspired by the shoreline and the objects she discovers there – seaweed, bits of fishing net and even plastic – which she captures in her paintings, sketches, prints, sculptures and photographs. Anna took voluntary redundancy from a senior position in the fashion industry shortly before she joined the Porthmeor Programme. “I wanted to follow my passion for art and find my creative voice. Coming from a textile background, I love texture, pattern and colour.” Mary, a geologist, is drawn to the shapes of the boulders on the coast path between St Ives and Zennor; sports massage therapist and keen surfer Claire explores the shapes of waves in her oil paintings; Andrew paints portraits of both real and imaginary people; and Sue creates abstract pieces of art using charcoal and ink, as well as acrylics, oils and pastels. “The exhibition was a celebration of our time together,” said Rosanna. “We discovered that, while each of us has our own distinct identity and artistic practice, collectively we share a love of St Ives. The town has been the lynchpin of our work.”
Follow MAC | RAGS on Instagram: @mac_rags
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