We came across Ithell Colquhoun’s artwork at an exhibition in Falmouth. The artwork, which could be classified under the rubric British Surrealism, is extraordinary. Vivid colour, complex forms, organic abstraction, much of it inspired by the Cornish landscape. Colquhoun was interested in the occult, and its relationship with nature. Yet, in this text dedicated to the time she spent in a corner of Cornwall called Vow Cave, where she had a cottage, she comes across as an extremely dry, level headed soul. The book’s chapters escort us on her journeys to witness folk fairs and find hidden wells. She is an archeologist/ anthropologist and her love for her adopted county is evident, even if the book lacks the strangeness and mystery of her artwork.
What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.
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