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Painter noted for near-abstract, gestural landscapes in oil inspired by his native Cornwall, to which he returned in 1988 after a period in London. Settled at Plain-an-Gwarry, in the southwest, his ancestors having been miners. Archetypal figures from Kabuki and Noh theatre also featured in his pictures. Studied at Farnham and Winchester Schools of Art, 1964–9, then Slade School of Fine Art until 1971. Exhibitions included City of London Festival, 1971; Arts Council at Hayward Gallery, 1982; Artists from Cornwall, RWA, 1992; and Demarco’s Choice, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1993. Solo shows included Newlyn Art Gallery, 1991, and Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 1996. In 2004, Six Chapel Row Contemporary Art, Bath, showed Knowles’ French Hill Notes – The Gorge Galamus Studies, stemming from a feature the artist had found while travelling in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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