|
|
History of Glandore Gallery
In 1989, the Duchy of Cornwall renovated the old granite cattle barn next to Glandore and converted it into four studios for local artists. The first occupants included two artists and two photographers. Nan Heath was one of the artists and her studio was Nan Heath Studio 4 where she and her husband, Frank, sold her original watercolours together with a range of prints, cards and postcards.
After Nan's untimely death in July 1995, Frank kept the studio going since her prints and cards were still very popular. However, it was becoming increasingly hard for him and he was now in his seventies. The solution arose from an evening over a bottle of whisky with his nephew, Stephen who was also an artist and had been encouraged by Nan when they painted together on Scilly in the 1980s and early 1990s. He had sold the occasional original watercolour painting and showed great potential to follow in Nan's footsteps.
Originally, when Stephen and his wife, Lois, came over to the Isles of Scilly in January 1981, it was to help Nan and Frank run Glandore Guest House. Three years later, they started a family with Simon arriving in March 1985 and Joy in October 1987. But as the new Millennium approached, they faced a quandrary. Simon would soon be going to study on the mainland at the end of his secondary education on Scilly while Joy, who had been diagnosed as autistic with moderate/severe learning disabilities, would be following him two years later. It would be extremely difficult to run the guest house yet still fulfil their increasing family commitments.
The solution that Stephen and Frank arrived at during their discussions over a bottle of whisky that evening was to close Glandore Guest House, convert the top two floors to self catering apartments and bring the Studio into Glandore itself, renaming it Glandore Gallery.
So Glandore Guest House served its last guests in August 2000 and then closed its doors for the final time. Immediately, Stephen threw himself 110% into converting the six bedrooms of the guest house into two luxury self catering apartments, working extremely long hours over the winter of 2000 but finally emerging triumphant at the end of May 2001. The first guests arrived in July 2001 but Nan Heath Studio 4 remained in the Porthloo Barn Studios for that year
Winter 2001 arrived and Stephen began work with Frank to move everything from the old Barn studio into the new Glandore Gallery, created from the wonderful room that had served as Guest Lounge and Dining Room for the Guest House. It had windows at both ends with stunning views over Porthloo and the sea to the north and over the duckpond and fields to the south. Stephen built an impressive solid wood counter, display shelves and stands, installed new hanging systems and shifted tons of prints and cards into new storage areas in the main house. Spring 2002 saw the opening of the new Glandore Gallery selling Stephen's original watercolours together with Nan's prints, cards and calendar.
Over the past twenty years, the Gallery has gone from strength to strength with Stephen's unique style developing through three Solo Exhibitions and two joint Exhibitions and thousands of hours of painting, almost exclusively 'en plein air' (as Nan had done). Winter 2005 saw the purchase of an Epson Professional 4800 wide format giclee inkjet printer and the first Glandore-produced giclee prints made their debut in spring 2006.
Every year we try to add something new, and Stephen's 2009 solo Exhibition 'Scilly Seasons' at Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston, Birmingham produced another selection of seasonal prints and another set of blank greetings cards.
In 2011, Stephen's second solo Exhibition, again at Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston 'Islands of Sun and Ice' combined original works in watercolour and acrylic inks featuring not only the Isles of Scilly but also Iceland where we spent almost a month late in 2010. The original paintings were all produced as prints but not the smaller acrylic inks of Iceland which are genuinely unique artworks and have all been sold. There was also another set of blank greetings cards taking the total to eighteen in all.
Stephen has continued to paint his hallmark tall/narrow and wide/narrow format original watercolour artwork together with the occasional square painting but has also branched out into much larger watercolours, large acrylic inks and small ink sketches.
Another development fairly recently has been the creation of an Online Shop and Gallery where customers can purchase giclee prints in large and small sizes as well as all Stephen's greetings cards. Sadly, we haven't been able to include Nan's artwork because all were created before her death in 1995, before modern technology in cameras and computers came along, so we don't have good enough images and all the originals have long gone to new homes. Nans's work is still on this website and customers can purchase it directly from Glandore Gallery.
|
