An art exhibition has been organised to celebrate the life and work of a Cornwall-based tarot artist.
Pamela Colman Smith lived in Bude and the Lizard Peninsula for several decades until her death in 1951 and was best known for creating the illustrations of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.
As part of the celebrations, a free exhibition called Resonances of Being takes place this weekend at Helston Old Chapel in Helston, featuring work from seven other artists influenced by and responding to Colman Smith’s archives.
Sarah-Joy Ford, one of the artists, said although “people might not be familiar with her name”, many might know her illustrations.
“She was a fabulous illustrator and she wrote and illustrated many, many books in her life, including Jamaican folklore,” said Dr Ford.
Colman Smith was born in London in 1878, though her travels took her as far as North America and Jamaica before she settled in Helston, where she remained for about 30 years.
She was buried in an unmarked grave in Bude following her death in 1951.
Dr Ford said the artist’s time in Cornwall “did mark a shift from her kind of bigger public life in terms of publishing and also being a part of those occult movements as she actually converted to Catholicism later in her life”.
The exhibition features contemporary art and performances and runs from 10:00 to 16:00 BST Saturday and Sunday.
Follow My Newspaper Cornwall onX,FacebookandInstagram. Send your story ideas tospotlight@my newspaper.co.uk.
