A Picture of Port Isaac: Artist Stacey Sibley

“Whether it's seascapes, fish, sea birds or boats, my work is almost always inspired by the environment where I live.”

From her studio-gallery in a former fisherman’s cellar looking out over Port Isaac harbour towards Roscarrock Hill, artist Stacey Sibley enjoys an enviable, and much-painted view. Step inside, though, and it is clear that whilst the scene outside inspires Stacey, her output varies enormously in medium and style. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who clearly enjoys the creative process, and loves where she lives.

We paid Stacey a visit just before the Easter holidays began, to learn more about her work, her influences, and what it’s like being an artist in Port Isaac.

Can you tell us a bit about your practice, please. There's a whole mix of different mediums, and crafts and techniques on display in here. You work in a tactile, 3d way, as well as in a 2D way, and don’t stick to one track.

I really enjoy creative endeavours, and I love trying new things. I didn't go to art college, and where I went to school my art teacher didn't do any teaching, he just sat there betting on the horses, so anything that I did I had to learn for myself. Now that I can experiment more, there're so many different things that I get excited about trying. I had a long career as a creative director at a large interior design company before we made the permanent move to Port Isaac, and whilst I still do some interior design work I now get to exercise my creativity through my art, so I make the most of that and am always experimenting with new techniques and trying to develop myself as an artist.

Looking around there's such an amazing variety on display in here. Is there a common thread that runs through all of your work?

It's definitely coastal, sea life, and Cornwall inspired. It's all got Cornish coastal themes running through it. I do a lot of aerial paintings, using drone photography to work from. I love that because you can see so many different colours and textures in the sea from that different perspective. Boats too, I love painting boats from above, although I couldn’t really tell you why!

They are a very recognisable shape, but it's not the way that most of us see them, is it?

I’ve done a lot of swimmer paintings, too. They've been really popular. Whatever it is, whether it's seascapes, fish, sea birds or boats, my work is almost always inspired by the environment where I live.

I don’t paint a lot of people, though. I think because I try to capture reality in a painting I can paint people from far off, but I think if I was asked to do a portrait of somebody, I wouldn’t be very happy with the result.

Your puffins look remarkably life-like!

Animals I think come a bit easier!

When you've got such an incredible view right out the door looking across to Roscarrock Hill, do you have to make an effort to not just paint the view out of the door?

I do try to get out a bit, yes! I do a lot of photography, so I'll go out with my camera, take lots of photos, and I'll paint from that. I have painted en-plein air a few times in the past, but I'm not very comfortable painting out in public. If you're painting outside people tend to come up to you loads to watch or ask questions about what you’re doing. This is a working studio and gallery, so lots of people do come in, but they tend to hold back a bit if I'm working. And outside the lighting can change so quickly.

Having that view is very distracting, though! I've got Lyndsey [artist Lyndsey Bradbury] next-door too, so we'll often sit outside on the bench and have a natter and get distracted together!

It would be amazing if all of these old fish cellars were artists’ studios. It'd be lovely, because it would be so supportive. With Lyndsey and I, even if we're both painting a lobster, they'll be completely different. There's no competition there, but having two artist’s studios here draws more people up off the beach to come and look at our work.

As well as your own art works on your walls here, the space around your work area is decorated with lots of vintage prints and found objects. Are these all pages that have been cut out of guidebooks?

Yes, I got them from books that had fallen apart – some vintage King Penguin guides. That's my inspiration wall, with all of my little finds.

You mentioned that you did a Doc Martin-inspired series, with "Port Wenn" cottages from around the village, which sold far and wide. Where now does a lot of your work end up?

Yes, those paintings of the cottages were really popular with fans of the TV show, and lots of international fans who have visited the village from America, Australia and New Zealand have taken them home as souvenirs. I have my website, so I get a lot of online orders. A lot of it is holidaymakers, and I do get a lot of people messaging to say they're coming back down and they'll be coming in to see me.

When people are taking home a momento or keepsake from their visit, are they taking a print, a painting, a decoupage shell or a piece of your jewellery?

My prints are cards are really popular, I think because people can frame the cards, and they're easy to take home in a suitcase. Jewellery, too. I makes casts of shells and bits of seaweed and then make jewellery from silver metal clay - I do a pressing and make a mould in silicon resin and then use silver that comes in a clay format, so I press it into the mould and then after it has air dried I fire it, either in a kiln or by torch firing it, and the clay burns off and leaves the silver. It's amazing. You can mould with it too. It can be tricky, because it shrinks and if you're hand torching it you can melt the silver.

In the past I've had people who have found lovely pieces of sea glass on the beach below, and have come up to the studio and asked me to make a ring or a bracelet with the seaglass in it.

Can you do that during the duration of their stay?

Yes, I've done that before. There was one occasion when a family was visiting on holiday, and the grandfather was really poorly. He found a piece of seaglass and his daughter gave it to me to use in a piece of jewellery so that she could keep it and wear it as a special memory of her dad. That was really lovely.

I once did a piece within 3 hours, for somebody who was just here for the day, but it was a pretty intense few hours to get it finished in time!

Port Isaac is a village with a community of artists within. Is that something that you're all very aware of, or does it just feel normal?

We all know each other, because it is a small village. We don't have an association or society or anything where we meet up regularly as a group, but we're all friendly. And we've all got really different styles, so there's not really any competition. You've got Katie Childs at the top of the village, Lyndsey and I here in the Pentus Wall Studios, Caroline Cleave up the valley a bit, although her studio isn't open all of the time, Barbara Hawkins in the old chapel, Martin Dempsey on Fore Street, and a few others who work from home.

Every year a lot of us take part in the Open Studios event, in May, which has always been great. Although there're lots of artists here in Port Isaac, we're all ready spread out. Caroline does the Art Talks, which are great - trips out to shows or galleries, or speakers will come to Port Isaac to deliver a talk, and lots of us go to those. Most of us now have done the charity Christmas card for the RNLI. I did last year's one, which was really rewarding.

Looking around at all of the different styles and themes within your work, do you go into a season with a focus or particular series in mind, or do you jump between what you're working on?

I try to do a series, but I’ll always be working on other projects alongside or in-between the pieces that make up a series. At the beginning of the year I was doing these little watercolours. I wanted to do little ones because I painted some last year, and people liked them because they were easy to pack and take home with them. I've done a series of those, and then I’ll go on to something else. Or if I've got a commission I'll jump between things. This painting here is a commission it's completely different to what I'd normally do, but I move in and out from one style to the next.

I think that a lot of people don't realise that I do commissions. If a piece has sold, I can paint a similar one for somebody based upon the subject or view that they love, making sure to capture the details that make it so special to them. I like to help people to hold on to their memories of Port Isaac.

Do you ever go back to a style or technique after you've done a series?

Sometimes I do, and other times I decide that I've done that and don't want to do it any more. I have favourites that I like doing, though

Are you directed by the commercial success of any of your series of paintings, or do you purely follow your heart and your creative instincts?

I think that sometimes I'm influenced by what people like or what sells. Like the aerial swimmers, every time I do one of those they sell straight away. So I'll do some of those, but then at other times I'll just do whatever I feel like doing. It might not be commercial, but it's what I feel inspired to do.

As spring is arriving in earnest, can you let us in on what you might be working on through spring and into summer?

I'll really enjoying painting landscapes at the moment. I like to do detail, lots of detail, but I would like to experiment with being a bit more abstract and subconscious because I find it difficult to tear myself away from the fine details. I always keep adding to things. I do love doing those detailed paintings like the patterns in the water, but I'd like to try and embrace being more abstract and not getting so drawn into the minutiae. I love artists who work quickly and through feeling and emotion, but I struggle to do it myself because I'm drawn to paint what I see and trying to get the textures and the details exactly right.

You've got potential for stimulus overload here. Today it's quite noisy with the waves and the wind, you’ve got the smell of the sea and the seaweed on the rocks. Do you embrace that sensory element, and is it part of your practice, or when you're painting or silversmithing do you put headphones on and listen to music?

I do take in the environment that I'm in. I'll often sit here with no music or radio on, just listening to the sounds of the harbour from outside the door. I like to get up and watch the birds. I need that stimulus in its entirety.

You can visit Stacey’s studio and gallery at the Pilchard Press Studio, just above the beach on the right hand side (when looking out to sea from The Platt), or check out her work on her website or on Instagram @staceysibleyartist.