Louise Courtnell at The Port Eliot Estate
- waughofficeatelier
- May 8
- 2 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
- Louise Courtnell - Project Lydos
The Louse Courtnell Worksop
Port Eliot Estate
St Germans
Cornwall
20th of June 2026
"In art and music I am ever more drawn to the understated, the subtle and the poignant. I want tot be humbled, perhaps reminded of my isolation and mortality" - Louise Courtnell
On the 20th of June Louise Courtnell will be presenting an exploration of creativity and imagery in the gardens of The Port Eliot Estate, at St Germans in Cornwall.
Louise Courtnell has been a regular exhibitor at the National Portrait Gallery, (BP Portrait Award) from 1991 to 2001, commissions have included Dr. Rowan Williams, (2002) and Robert, Earl of Edgcumbe, (2008).
In 2003, she began Project Lydos, a series of 50 oil paintings of two generations born in the twin Cornish fishing villages of Kingsand and Cawsand, between 1910 and 1944. She wanted to make a visual record of her local community. An important part of the project was to include a childhood photograph, a brief personal history and memories of village life spanning half a century. The paintings were done solely from life and required an average of sixteen hours of sittings. Some were painted in Courtnell's studio and the remainder in the residents' own homes.
Louise Courtnell - Project Lydos
©Noel Chanan
The earliest written reference to Port Eliot is in a 9th-century Cornish liturgical fragment kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. It refers to Ecclesia Lnanledensia, which is considered the pre-Christian name of this place.
Port Eliot has an incredible 60 acre Humphry Repton landscaped garden,, encompassing a vast rhododendron maze, bowling green, orangery, arboretum and magnificent view of the estuary – not to mention the river Tiddy and St Germans' viaduct stretching over it.
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