Penlee House is giving visitors an opportunity to enjoy an exhibition about Tony Giles’ work in West Cornwall for a second time.

Last year, Penlee House staged an exhibition of over 25 works by Tony Giles, however, due to the lockdown closures, it was only open for a short time.

Now there is another opportunity to enjoy the exhibition, which runs until January 8 2022.

Tony Giles (1925 – 1994) was born in one of the railway workers’ terrace cottages near to the extensive railway yards in Taunton, Somerset.

His father was an engine driver for the Great Western Railway, often taking the London train from Taunton down to Penzance and back.

In school holidays Tony would travel free in the leading carriage and he never forgot the thrill of those journeys or the magic of being in Cornwall.

He left school at sixteen and trained as a cartographer at the Admiralty Hydrographic Office near Taunton.

He did his national service in the Royal Marines, charting the seas around Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

Falmouth Packet: Tony Giles – The Stone Boat, Newlyn Harbour, April 1983. Oil on board. Private Collection.Tony Giles – The Stone Boat, Newlyn Harbour, April 1983. Oil on board. Private Collection.

Read Next:

In 1961 he achieved his dream of living in Cornwall, joining the planning department at County Hall, Truro.

With his second wife Hilary he lived in St Agnes, where they created a fantasy garden.

Tony made the rolling stock for the gauge one model railway that ran around the garden, through tunnels and over viaducts.

He painted compulsively all his life, railway lines disappearing into the countryside, the landscapes shaped by the clay and mining industries, viaducts, harbours and chapels.

His favourite harbour was Porthleven and he had a special love for the Penwith peninsula.

John Branfield, co-curator of the exhibition, said: "Tony always enjoyed a day down west.

"He loved and understood its distinctive character, which he expressed in these playful, joyous and idiosyncratic paintings and drawings."

This one-room exhibition of Tony’s West Cornwall works will be on display upstairs in Gallery 5 until 8 January 2022.

The exhibition ‘Discovering Anchor Studio: An Artist’s Haven in Newlyn’ is also on display throughout the ground floor galleries and will end on January 8 2022.

Penlee House is owned and operated by Penzance Council.