Caroline Cleave summer exhibition at Whitewater Contemporary

Throughout August, Whitewater Contemporary presents a summer collection by Featured Artist Caroline Cleave.

Caroline has lived and worked in Cornwall for over thirty years and is part of a family with a 400-year history in the fishing village of Port Isaac.

She is well known for her contemporary paintings and handmade prints of coastal flora and sea life, which are inspired by her passion for nature, sustainability and the importance of the rural fishing economy.

Caroline Cleave's Hedgerows

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Over the last 18 months, in response to the difficulties and limitations placed on our daily lives, Caroline has spent her time observing nature at close quarters, at a slower pace and on a more intimate level.

The resulting body of work is a celebration of humanity's relationship with nature, and the many ways it has sustained us all through arduous months of lockdown.

In particular, the emotionally uplifting return of spring is detailed in her images of snowdrops, tree blossom, burgeoning hedgerows and bright Cornish gorse, which the artist has created as a metaphor for joy, optimism and our emergence from the dark winter of Covid.

Also included are her much-loved paintings of lobsters, crabs, fish and other sea creatures, packed tightly together and touching to celebrate ideas of togetherness, and reflecting her love for the North Cornwall coast, its wild landscape and its precious rural communities.