Edward Bawden frequently would take painting holidays in Cornwall. The landscape is hilly and pastoral unlike Bawden’s home in Essex made up of arable crop fields. A stony landscape of quarries, hill contours and spires made from tin mining ruins and churches set a challenge and some of the most curious paintings in his repertoire.
I think what I like so much about these paintings is the lack of abstraction that comes from the Cornish schools of art. Rocks are painted in details to the point they look like leaded stained-glass windows. The Quarry paintings from 1960 look as menacing as the effort to destroy the natural landscape they are in, each of the three I have depicted look like scenes from a nightmare. The only paintings that look typically Bawden are of Caerhays Castle.
Edward Bawden – Caradon, 1958
Edward Bawden – St. Neot, Cornwall, No. 2, 1958
Edward Bawden – Near Liskeard, 1958
Edward Bawden – View Toward Henwood, Minions, Cornwall, 1958
Edward Bawden – Gold Digging Quarry, Minion, Liskeard , 1958
Edward Bawden – Gold Digging Quarry, Minion, Liskeard (detail), 1958
Edward Bawden – Cheesewring Quarry no.4, Minions, NR Liskeard, 1958
Edward Bawden – The Engine House, Cornwall, 1960
Edward Bawden – The De Lank River, Cornwall, 1960
Edward Bawden – The De Lank Quarry No.2, 1960
Edward Bawden – Nant Mawr Quarry, Cornwall, 1971
Edward Bawden – Quarry at Pengwern II, Llanwrst, 1977
Edward Bawden – Cornish Well, 1977
Edward Bawden – Caerhays Castle, 1983
Edward Bawden – Caerhays Castle, 1983