My Cornish heritage and love of the land and sea has informed a practice of landscape and coastal paintings.

Paintings inspired by a life lived by the sea...

About

I am a Cornish painter, based in Falmouth. My Cornish heritage and love of the land and sea has informed a practice of landscape and coastal paintings- generating work mainly on site.

I love the transience of time and weather. Revisiting spaces time and time over, but never quite seeing the same- a unique response in paint to how I see and feel on the day.

Inspired by walking and painting around the Cornish Coast; I am interested in paths well-trodden and how the essence of a place is not just in the physical, but in the energy, the spirit of a place, time and weather.

In essence my work is about a life lived by the sea and my deep affinity with the ocean, the Cornish Coast and its history. It is about time spent-from childhood- on the shallow shores of the Carrick roads and the soft estuaries, beaches and woodland of the south coast of Cornwall and the deep seas, rolling tides and immense skies of our Atlantic Coast.

See my gallery CV for a detailed overview of previous exhibitions, academic endeavours and community projects.

Recent work

Here is a selection of my recent work.
Please email for availability and further details.

Coast

Land

Other media

Community and public art

I am passionate about enabling interactions with art and creativity in communities and with individuals.

New workshops available in 2027 at Falmouth Poly and from my my new studio. Message for details. More information coming soon

St Ives school of painting Tutor - workshops available

visit It Ives School of painting for ore details or message me.

PUBLIC & COMMUNITY ART
COMMUNITY AND ART ENGAGEMENT MANAGER 2014- 2022 P/T

Tresillian House Mural, and Bude Courtyard Mural (murals in supported living homes- enabling art/ art for wellbeing
Mayflower 400 Mosaic commission- (Abbeyfield) Mayflower 2021

Online How to workshops for well-being during COVID
Click here to watch a sample

Falmouth Dock Mural

Commissioned by The Falmouth Art Gallery and A& P Group

Art Co-ordinator for the Falmouth school’s Automata project

I worked with the pupils from all the Falmouth schools and the Automaton makers, Paul Spooner, Keith Newstead and Rob Higgs, running workshops to help design Automata for Kimberley Park.

Kimberley Park Mosaics

Designed and installed the mosaics in Kimberley Park's central compass and paths. Ideas were generated through working with children from St Mary’s RC primary school. The designs depict Falmouth’s rich Maritime history and Falmouth’s Packet ships.

Royal Cornwall Show, ‘Talking canvas’

In association with St Mary’s RC school, I designed and coordinated a large artwork made of 35 small canvases celebrating Cornwall’s cultural diversity.

BBC ART COORDINATOR: BHAKTIVDANTA MANOR:’ Lord Krishna Mural & THE CENTRAL MOSQUE, Regents Park: ‘Contemporary Mosaic’:

Working as a freelance artist for the BBC I researched, designed and coordinated the making of these artworks for the Heaven and Earth Show.

LLANDOUGH HOSPITAL MURAL, PENARTH, WALES
As Artist In Residence: Designed and coordinated large-scale mural celebrating the seafront and gardens.

Exhibitions

Exhibition news 2026:

New solo show:

OTTE Gallery, There or there abouts September 18th - October 9th

Exhibition notes:

There or Thereabouts, a solo exhibition by Cornish landscape and seascape

painter Victoria Gillow.

There or Thereabouts is an invitation to wander, to notice, and to find your

own path.

Walking has become an increasingly important part of Victoria’s

practice. With no strict destination, she moves through the landscape on

foot, allowing the journey to shape what she sees and paints.

Her paintings hold familiar trees, headlands and fields, exploring our shared

relationship with the Cornish landscape.

Each painting, a moment among many seen.

Meet us @ottegallery on Friday 18th September, 6 - 8 pm.

Victoria Gillow

There or Thereabouts

18th September - 9th October 2026

Victoria Gillow - First Notes on There or Thereabouts - 2026

“I like the notion of wandering - to go where my feet take me with no agenda and to allow memories to overlap with the here and now. Memories, clear and bright, are often triggered by a colour, a form, a scent, a place or just a feeling in a soft breeze.

Walking has become increasingly important to my art practice. I have a need to traverse a certain space by foot, and I like to walk with no strict destination. ‘Mr Foot’s Horse’, a term my Nan used, gets me to where I want to be.

Recently, I have become more aware of the pronoun ‘we’, not ‘I’, in the landscape. Not ‘those trees I know’, but the ones ‘we know’. A painting is a snapshot, a moment in many seen. Sometimes, the trees, headland and fields have echoes of ones seen before, but these are ever changing.

There or thereabouts will be where I am today, and that suits me very well.”

Past shows:

OTTE Gallery:8th -29th Helford Magic
Firstly, I wanted to invite you all to visit Otte, a beautiful new contemporary gallery situated at the bottom of the Old High Street , Falmouth, an artisan area of Falmouth.
The gallery celebrates Cornwall with
'Art, objects and stories shaped by place,' and i am very happy to be part of a new show called
'Helford Magic', that starts on May 8th- May 29th. For more information on the opening event and visiting the Otte, visit:
https://ottegallery.co.uk/contact/

FORM : Princess pavilion , Falmouth
The second lovely event is Falmouth art festival, FORM, which runs from Friday may 15th 2pm until Sunday 17th. I have a large stand in the theatre ( stand 2). Be sure to pop by. Work from Shore to Shore around our Falmouth Bay ,Carrick roads and Helford. Catch 90 other wonderful artists too.

COS: Cornwall open studios 23rd - 31st May STUDIO 91

https://www.cornwallopenstudios.co.uk/
Park Hill open studio - part of COS-

The third event is a 9 day opening of my new studio on Park hill- open daily from 10 until 5pm. Find me working in the space daily. The studio topping out ceremony will be on the 23rd and so join me for a drink late afternon in the space. New work plus courses for all to find out about.

The POLY: June 9th - 13th
The final show before the summer is my solo show at The Poly called 'Shore to shore' and this will be sharing my contiued journey into retracing places that hold memories. Concentrating on the shores of the Carrick roads, Roseland, and falmouth Bay.
Join me at one or all of these events.
Works on paper up to larger canases available.
See you then!

Solo Shows:

SOLO show OTTE gallery, There or there abouts -September 18th -October 9th

SOLO show THE CRYPT St Ives December 2025

SOLO show THE OLD LIFEBOAT HOUSE October 2024, August 2025

SOLO show TREBAH GARDEN Exhibition space April 2025 (1st - 30th)

SOLO show THE CRYPT St Ives. Solo show 2022

SOLO shows: THE POLY SPRING GALLERY Falmouth-2013-2026 annual

SOLO pop ups at ESPRESSINI and KERNOWINE-4 shows

SOLO showTHE MARITIME ART SPACE, Falmouth- ‘Coast’

SOLO show COAST COLOUR CANVAS- annual

Shared shows:

HELFORD MAGIC May 8th -29th Otte Gallery Falmouth

THE BRICK LANE GALLERY - 15 - 26 February 2023

IVES ART SOCIETY Christmas Open 2022 , 2023, 2024, 2025