Gerry Plumb is a firm favourite. A Lifelong fascination with the sea and many sailing trips to the West Country eventually tempted him to settle in a 17th Century Water Mill in the very far west of Cornwall. Gerry has the most remarkable ability to translate great humour into fabulous artwork.
‘I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember and first began life drawing as a teenage student at Shrewsbury School of Art. I started my career as a press artist at the Express and Star where I discovered I had a talent for cartooning which has been with me ever since.
After 5 years with the Shropshire Star I moved to London to work in the advertising industry where I was fortunate enough to work with some of the country's top illustrators.
As a commercial illustrator I produced drawings of different styles and subjects on a daily basis, from drawings of beautiful people for cosmetics ads to cartoon characters for tea commercials in styles from Manet to Beryl Cook. All this was great fun but stressful and probably explains why my painted works are so varied and experimental I find drawing from life brings a form of discipline to the chaos.
Any form of drawing is merely the process of making marks on a surface the challenge comes from making the right marks in the right places, this can take time but as always practice is the key.
Some of the works in this exhibition were produced at the famous Penzance School of Art, others are from the English Bridge Studios and the Hive in Shrewsbury a facility that in normal times is open to everybody.’
