Penlee House

Little Penlee Explorers
2023-12-11 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Join us to explore, play and create at Penlee House! With activities throughout the galleries, these free, drop-in sessions are for under 5s and their grown-ups.
Monthly on Mondays, 10am-12pm.

Penlee Baby Sensory
2023-11-13 10:00 - 11:30
Free, drop-in session for babies from birth to crawlers. Come and experience the amazing artworks whilst exploring sensory play together in the Gallery.

Arty Afternoons: Paper Chain People
2024-01-06 14:30 - 15:30
Come along and see the bowlers in Bryan Pearce’s painting The St Ives Bowling Club and have a go at making a paper chain of bowlers.
FREE family activities occur every Saturday; drop in anytime between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.

FREE Public Guided Tours
2023-10-31 11:00 - 12:00
Our team of Volunteer Tour Guides will be offering insights into the current exhibition through a program of short guided tours.
Tours will be offered at 11.00 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The tours are included in the admission price to the Gallery and last between 30 and 45 minutes. No booking is required, but places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
During December we will be running additional tours at 2.00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Arty Afternoon: Delightful Decorations
2023-12-16 14:30 - 15:30
Join us to create a variety of homemade Christmas decorations.
FREE family activities occur every Saturday; drop in anytime between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.

Arty Afternoon: Crafty Christmas Ornaments
2023-12-09 14:30 - 15:30

Arty Afternoons: Creative Christmas Cards
2023-12-02 14:30 - 15:30
The Victorians used to make their own Christmas cards by hand. Come along and have a go at creating a Christmas card for someone you know.
FREE family activities occur every Saturday; drop in anytime between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.

Relaxed Opening at Penlee House
2023-12-02 09:00 - 11:00
Join us for a relaxed opening at Penlee House. This event is designed for visitors with sensory needs or those needing a quieter, more relaxed visit, plus their families, friends and carers.
Our friendly team will be around to talk to if you would like to, with objects to handle and a simple making activity. Light and sound levels will be adjusted to provide a more comfortable environment and there will be a quiet space available. Tickets will be limited for early entry.
Penlee House will open early at 9am, with exclusive use until 10am, when the Gallery will open to the general public. Sounds will be turned back on at 11am.
Booking is required; please visit Eventbrite or contact us. Standard admission prices apply.
For more accessibility information, you can view our access guide.
If you have any questions, please contact Zoe.

Arty Afternoons: Craft Stick Christmas Trees
2023-11-25 14:30 - 15:30
Help us celebrate National Tree Week by crafting a Christmas tree from craft lolly sticks. How will you decorate yours?
FREE family activities occur every Saturday; drop in anytime between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.

Arty Afternoons: Colour Collage
2023-11-18 08:00 - 17:00
There is colour everywhere in the exhibition A Passion for Cornish Art. Some artists have chosen dull, muted colours and some use really bright colours! Design your own colourful collage using a selection of craft papers.
FREE family activities occur every Saturday; drop in anytime between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m.

What’s in a Crack? A look at the paintings of Stanhope Forbes RA and the Newlyn School Painters
2023-11-15 19:30 - 20:30
Painting Conservator, Sarah Cove ACR will be giving a lecture about What’s in a Crack? This lecture focuses on the materials and techniques of Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School Painters.
Lectures take place at 7.30 p.m. at Penlee House (unless otherwise stated). Booking is essential.
Please telephone 01736 363625
Paintings conservator and technical art historian Sarah Cove ACR is well known for her re-discovery of ‘lost’ paintings by John Constable on BBC1’s ‘Fake or Fortune?’. In this lecture, she considers the materials and techniques used in oil sketches and exhibited works by Stanhope Forbes and his contemporaries in light of technical examination undertaken during their recent cleaning and conservation. Featuring details of notable and little-seen works from private collections as well as more familiar works scrutinised in gallery collections both near and far.
Ignoring the Fishing and the Folk that are often the preserve of discussions around the late 19th century Newlyn painting colony, from a technical perspective the surfaces of paintings by these artists pose as many questions as they answer. Many of the works are riddled with drying cracks that suggest complex paint layers, multiple changes of mind during the evolution of composition and possibly the hasty use of incompatible or untested materials. However, very little technical examination or scientific analysis of Newlyn School works has been formally carried out in collections worldwide to try and address the questions that arise from such technical problems. Are they linked to the 19th-century era of great change in artists’ materials, the rise of the modern artists’ colourman, the invention of tube paints (with their pros and cons) and developments in pigment technology as a result of the industrial revolution? Are they simply the result of faulty technique? What can they tell us about the underlayers of a painting and the working up of a composition? In recent years, Sarah Cove has treated and examined a number of these works resulting in interesting discoveries about the working processes of this close artistic community. Sarah will reveal the secrets of the painters’ methods as viewed under the microscope, working solely from her own research and conservation records, and will ask as many questions as she answers. Problems with deterioration in the original materials will be discussed as well as comments on the cleaning, conservation varnishing of these works so that they can be appreciated to their best in the long-term. The lecture is illustrated with unique close-up macro-photos and the use of scientific methods such as x-radiography and infrared reflectography.
Sarah Cove is an Accredited Paintings Conservator-Restorer with almost 40 years experience working on paintings for the heritage and private sectors. She is based in Falmouth, Cornwall, and is a specialist in 19th– 20th-century British landscapes and oil sketches on paper and board and British portraiture generally. In 1986 she founded the Constable Research Project and she is now the leading authority on Constable’s materials and techniques. Other research interests include Tudor and Jacobean portraiture, the 19th century Newlyn, Lamorna and St Ives schools and early-mid 20th-century British painting generally. She has been a lecturer for The Arts Society since 2003 and is an experienced international speaker having lectured at major public gallery venues across the UK, the USA, Australia and NZ. She has made several TV appearances including ‘Fake or Fortune?’, ‘Constable in Love’ and ‘Art on the BBC’. Her presentations are lively and enthusiastic as she speaks without notes with an inimitable passion that comes from presenting her own work and research with wonderful images.
© Sarah Cove ACR
