Joan Gillchrest

British 1918-2008

Joan Gillchrest was one of the best-known naive painters of Cornwall of the twentieth century. Hailing from an illustrious family her great-grandfather George was the architect of St Pancras Station while her uncle, Sir Giles, designed Battersea and Bankside power stations - the latter now Tate Modern - as well as the iconic red telephone box.

Joan studied art in London before moving to Cornwall in the late 1950s. She lived in Mousehole where she was responsible for beginning the illumination of the town and harbour with lights at Christmas, now a famous tradition.

After exhibiting at the Newlyn Orion gallery for several years, Joan had her first solo show in 1969 and thereafter at galleries across Cornwall and later, the UK. Her paintings, influenced by those of Alfred Wallis and Kit Wood among others, are among the most avidly collected of any of the post-war St Ives school artists' work.