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From: Frank Ruhrmund in the Cornishman & online at: thisiscornwall.co.uk Category: Art Date: 15 January 2007 Time: 05:43 AM Review: Jonathan Polkest;Although currently based in Penzance the artist Jonathan Polkest was born and bred in the Isles of Scilly. It is not surprising that one of the three maritime icons from this part of the world featured in the works he is contributing to the exhibition Shoreline Threads now being held in the Artist Harbour Gallery in Portsmouth Dockyard, should be the Pettyfox, a traditional Breton crabber built in 1992 by Alfred Hicks and Peter Martin on Scilly. Not all that surprising either that the other two should be the pilchard driver Rosebud PZ 87, built in Newlyn in 1919 by Joe Peake (which in 1937 carried a petition from its home port to Whitehall Pier, London in protest against the proposed demolition of so many of the fishermens homes) and the lugger Ripple currently being restored in Newlyn. An artist who studied at Redruth College of Art and at the University of London where he gained an M.A. in fineart, since then he has been a visiting tutor at Goldsmiths College in London and has exhibited extensively on his home patch from Penzance to Pendeen, Newlyn to Truro, further afield from London to Edinburgh in the U.K. and further afield still from Sydney, Australia to Beijing China. Renowned in particular for his drawings, in 2001 he was awarded the Northbrook College Prize for drawing in the Royal Institute of Painters at the Mall Galleries, London. He has also been a welcome visiting artist to many schools with his pinhole cameras and drawing installations. He says,"All my work is connected to drawing, either the act or the outcome informing my paintings, constructions and photographic works". As a significant element in all visual language, the linear mode provokes an entirely unique act of cognition, whilst simultaneously developing an entire vocabulary of technique. Using many references to Cornwalls indigenous culture, his new work contains a textile element hence the title; Shorelines Thread. Jonathan Polkests three shiops - "I saw three ships go sailing by", - "Tri gorhel splann a welis vy" - that he admits are more of an iconic metaphor of Penwiths coastal communities than a seaworthy proposition can br seen in The Artists Harbour Gallery, Store house 9, Portsmouth Historic Dockyatd, H.M.Naval Base, Portsmouth U.K. until February 24th 2007. Aides Memoir;There is still a chance to see several of the exhibitions that opened before newyear, among them ,The Quite Small Big Picture Show at the RAINYDAY Gallery, Penzance and the St.Ives Society of Artists, Life Open Exhibition, which both end tomorrow. /Users/jonathanpolkest/Desktop/Jonathan Polkest portsmouth.doc