Morwenna Thistlethwaite was an artist virtually unknown outside St Ives where, from her mid-60s on, she lived and worked. Born in 1912 in Kew, she enrolled as a mature student at Leamington Spa Art College in 1938 for two years, and then Birmingham College of Art for four years during the war, where she was a prize-winning scholarship student.

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In 1976 Thistlethwaite relocated to an old family home in colloquial ‘Downalong’, in the Mount Zion area of St Ives, and became a regular of the local art scene. Her subjects were typically imagined interior scenes, muted still lifes, or paintings of the world going by, tinged by a dreamlike, cryptic quality in the vein of Winifred Nicholson. In 1997 ill health forced Thistlethwaite to leave St Ives for Surrey, where she died in December 2000.

Morwenna was an artist who was incredibly well received, as a student and later in life. Her work feels cosy and familiar at first glance, the story of every-day life, but the more we look, the more cryptic it becomes. Part of what makes Morwenna’s work so engaging is the ordinary, domestic world, with her melancholic muted palette, we see in her paintings, providing a feeling of comfort. However, alongside that is a slightly skewed look into these lives. Whilst providing comfort, she often under cuts this with the inclusion of figures with their backs to the viewer, giving a sense that this security and comfort can be taken away at any moment.

Morwenna thought through the arrangement of her compositions very carefully. Shifting perspectives and her use of vantage points, draws the eye through the painting, with regular use of windows and doors, or pathways, collapsing the divide between inside and outside. There is often a feeling of something being unspoken or unheard in her paintings, something just round the corner of the landscape, giving a feeling of being introduced to a story but not quite having the full picture.

Morwenna’s palette is very particular to her. A very accomplished painter, she leans into the naïve style she’s known for. Almost child-like in its subject but executed with proficiency as seen in the layering of colours on top of each brush stroke. This, when moving around the painting, makes the light bounce and reflect, producing a beautiful and dream-like quality.