CATHERINE HAINES
NOW There is just a light
9 May – 21 June
Opening Party: Thursday 9 May 6 – 8 pm
I walked to Tater Du - I walked to Trevose Head - I swam to Godrevey - I stared out towards Longships - I sailed to St Anthony’s - I drove to Pendeen - I chanced upon Lizard Lights - We anchored near Smeaton’s - We bottled out of sailing to Eddiston - The Gribbin was almost invisible in the mist.
School Gallery is pleased to present Now There is Just a Light, an exhibition of new paintings by Catherine Haines. Haines’ has developed a strong affinity with her local Cornish landscape, to its folklore, local histories and superstitions. She has made work about figureheads, maps, snow globes, the ‘Obby ‘Oss and other nautical memorabilia that has good fortune attached to it. In this exhibition her interest has been drawn to lighthouses – St Anthony's Head, Trevose Head, Godrevy, Pendeen, Tater Du, Longships, Wolf Rock, Round Island, Bishop Rock, Lizard Lights, Eddystone, Smeaton's Tower and the Gibben- all within close proximity to the artists’ studio in Newlyn, Cornwall.
Haines’ had found a collection of postcards with pictures of the lighthouses on them. This inspired the start of her many visits to the sites. Being a keen swimmer Haines’ would often swim to the lighthouses and create a documentation of that journey or emotive feeling from that journey. A 2016 print edition …to the Lighthouse, documents the artists swim, with a friend, to Godrevy Lighthouse. On the swim they were joined by 3 seals. One followed them back to land. The work is a visual diary entry of this journey. The lighthouses for Now There is Just a Light, are a collection of memories, experiences and chance encounters, catalogued by the artist.
On the lighthouses Haines’ has said:
“…it was all the wrong way around. I found the collection of postcards before I set about visiting each destination. The collection of postcards of lighthouses, unsent, no messages, unstamped was the beginning of my journey around all the lighthouses off the Cornish coast. I walked, sailed and swam around them. Watched and waited until it got dark to see them switch on, each with their own unique light and rhythm.
Having grown up within earshot of St Anthony’s lights - remember fragile rock? - and with the heroic story of Grace Darling the daughter of a lighthouse keeper going out into the storm to rescue the shipwrecked sailor. The automation of lighthouses has taken an element of hope away from the beacon of light at sea. Once it meant someone was there. Now There is just a light”.
Catherine Haines was born in Cornwall in 1979. At 18 she studied for one year at Falmouth School of Art, from there she went onto study fashion at Central St Martins in London. She cut her teeth in the fashion industry working for designers: Copperwheat Blundell, Magnus Magnussen, and Myoung-Hee Zo in London, Milan, Copenhagen and Seoul. Her love of drawing led her to textile design, and she decided to move her studio back to Cornwall. During this phase, she wanted to learn more drawing techniques and learnt how to make etchings under the tuition of John Howard, Master Printmaker in Falmouth. From 2007-2009 she returned to London to complete an MA in Printmaking at the Royal College of Art. She won the Villier David Prize in 2007 and travelled to Mexico City to meet Artist and Printmaker Agustin Gonzalez. A year later she returned once again to live and work in Cornwall. Now predominantly a painter and printmaker, she has exhibited at Tate St Ives, Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall; Borlase Smart Space, PayneShurvell, Suffolk and London, Invisible Print Studio, London. She lives and works in Newlyn, Penzance.