Jack Pender 1918-1998

Jack Pender was a British painter born in Mousehole, Cornwall, who trained at the Penzance School of Art and later studied at the Athens School of Art, Exeter College of Art (1946–1949), and the West of England College of Art in Bristol (1949–1950). He painted energetically from the late 1930s, focusing on fishing boats and harbours around Mounts Bay. His style ranged from representational to nearly abstract, with a lively depiction of coastal forms.

Pender exhibited widely across Cornwall and beyond—as a member of both the Newlyn Society of Artists and the Penwith Society of Arts, he showed regularly in St Ives (including at the Sail Loft Gallery), Newlyn, Plymouth, London, and even a solo show at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol in 1963. His connections linked him to key figures of the St Ives circle; he was remembered in the obituary of Margo Maeckelberghe alongside Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, and Tony O’Malley. His work was featured in the influential 1985 Tate exhibition St Ives 1939–64.

Pender’s work is held in several public collections—and Art UK lists paintings such as 'Boats in the Gap', 'Windblown 5', and 'Boats at Newlyn Harbour' at institutions including The Box (Plymouth), Royal Cornwall Museum, New County Hall, and Penlee House Gallery & Museum. His lifelong relationship with the maritime landscape of Mousehole, combined with his links to the broader modernist movements of his time, make his work a distinct and valuable strand of Cornish modernism.