A new exhibition will open at the Pier Arts Centre on Friday 15 July to coincide with the arrival of the Tall Ships to Orkney.  The Tall Ships – Paintings by Alfred Wallis and William G Thomson will include works by the Cornish artist and mariner Alfred Wallis from the Pier Arts Centre’s permanent collection, along with paintings by William G Thomson, better known as Wullie o’ Neven, from North Ronaldsay.

Wullie o’ Neven was born in North Ronaldsay in 1902 where he lived until his death in 1987 aged 85. He began to paint as a young man in his spare time whilst working during the harvest season in the neighbouring island of Sanday.

He stopped painting for a time to concentrate on his family and life as a crofter and fisherman, until encouraged, by his daughter Beatrice, he began producing work again when in his early 60’s. Wullie o’ Neven was a self taught artist, painting in a distinctive style on card, glass floats, flower pots and panes of glass usually with ‘Humbrol’ enamel paints.

An exhibition of William G Thomson’s paintings was shown at the Pier Arts Centre in 1989 and his work is eagerly collected locally and further afield.

Thomson drew his inspiration from his own seafaring experience as well as from photographs in books and magazines, painting tall ships, herring fishing boats and the local mailboat with a stylised coastline, often depicting Sanday’s long low coast or North Ronaldsay’s iconic lighthouses, in the background.

Alfred Wallis was born in Plymouth in 1855 and worked as a mariner aboard fishing boats in Cornwall throughout the 1890’s and latterly ran a mariner scrap business in St Ives. He did not begin painting until after the death of his wife in 1922 when he was in his late 60’s. The English painters Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood came across Wallis painting in his tiny house in St Ives in 1929 and encouraged him to continue to paint – inviting him to exhibit with the ‘7 & 5 Society,’ a group of leading British artists. His paintings form part of many collections around the UK including the Tate and Kettles Yard in Cambridge, as well as museums around the world.

Like Wullie o’ Neven Wallis was self taught, often painting from memory on pieces of cardboard and paper collected as scrap due to financial constraints. Wallis’s paintings depict the seascapes and seafaring vessels common to Cornwall with a charming directness and clarity.

The exhibition draws together the work of these two artists who worked at opposite ends of the country, but from similar subject matter to coincide with the Tall Ships arrival in Orkney.

Pier Arts Centre Curator Andrew Parkinson added “It is great to have the opportunity to show work by William G Thomson again at the Pier Arts Centre, alongside the Alfred Wallis paintings from our Collection. The work by these two artists compliments each other very well and it is interesting to compare the similar paths their lives took.”

The Tall Ships – Paintings by Alfred Wallis and William G Thomson is on display at the Pier Arts Centre from Saturday 16 July until Sunday 14 August. The Pier Arts Centre is currently open Monday – Saturday 10.30am – 5.00pm, Sunday 12noon – 4.00pm. Admission is free.

Source: Pier Arts Centre