My friend Victor Bramley, who has died aged 80, was the longest serving member of the St Ives Society of Artists, in west Cornwall. Elected to membership in 1961, he exhibited with the society every year until shortly before his death. He also showed regularly with the breakaway Penwith Society of Arts and was one of the few to bridge the gap between the two societies.
A self-taught artist, he arrived in St Ives in 1959, when Barbara Hepworth, Bernard Leach, Peter Lanyon and Patrick Heron were all working in the area. For several years Victor taught as well as practised art. He was equally at home in a variety of styles and genres. Making the same painting over and over again was of no interest to him, but good drawing and his contemplation of the "stillness of life" were.
Continue reading...