Alfred Wallis (18/10/1855 – 29/10/1942)

Boats Leaving Newlyn Harbour                  Alfred Wallis

Artist Alfred Wallis is perhaps not a name everyone will be familiar with.

He was a fisherman based in Cornwall who started painting after the death of his wife around 1922.

He had little money for materials, so he painted using paint brought from ships chandlers,

in a limited colour palette and onto found driftwood and pieces of ripped cardboard boxes.

His work is described as both naive and childlike.

He painted from memory and the scale of certain objects relates to their importance

within the work, giving it an often obscured perspective or a map like quality.

I love the way in which his memories of real events are captured in a style

that nowadays we associate with contemporary illustration.

There’s a lovely collection of his work at Kettles’ Yard somewhere I will blog about soon.