The English Garden

Life is Art

There is no part of the world that Lou Tonkin knows better than Cornwall. Having grown up near Land’s End, she now lives near Falmouth with her children: Ned, Billy and Celia Rose. “Tonkin is an old family name: very much working-class Cornish. Lots of my family didn’t write; those who lived inland near Camborne were miners, those who lived by the sea were fishermen and those who lived where the land is pastoral were farm labourers. Their occupations were absolutely what the Earth dictated. And I’m doing the exact same thing. My work is completely inspired by the land and what the land dictates in that season on that day.”

Lou’s artwork involves evocative depictions of the Cornish

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