Demelza Roskilly
Translucent Cornish light geometry
Demelza Roskilly is a fictional contemporary Cornish artist imagined as working between Penzance, St Ives and the north coast, translating observed weather and shoreline structure into luminous abstraction. Her practice draws on the disciplined clarity of St Ives modernism and the optical intelligence of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s landscape geometry, while remaining a distinct invented voice. Roskilly treats the coast not as scenery but as a sequence of angles, refractions and pauses: cliff faces become facets, waves become bands, and sky becomes a measured field of light.
Demelza Roskilly reduces the Cornish coast to poised, overlapping planes of light, water, cliff and sky, building images that feel both architectural and tidal. Her work is crisp and geometric, yet softened by translucent colour, so each composition appears lit from within like sea-glass held to the sun.
Inspirations
- Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s abstract light studies
- St Ives modernist geometry
- Cornish cliff paths and Atlantic weather
- Sea-glass, tide pools and harbour reflections
- Constructivist composition and colour balance
- Modernist printmaking and gouache studies
Signature features
- Overlapping translucent geometric planes
- Crisp hard-edged triangles, arcs and trapezoids
- Visible faint graphite construction lines
- White negative space used as active light
- Prismatic bands suggesting water reflection
- Flattened cliff and sky forms without realistic detail
- Subtle matte paper grain beneath glowing colour
- Balanced asymmetrical compositions
5 series · 78 works.
Series by Demelza Roskilly
Fine art editions
Isles of Scilly Poylgons
20 works · Sandy beaches, isles of scilly, low sand dunes and island sheltered coves rendered as nested translucent polygons in green, slate, celadon and tidal blue across the isles of scilly
Glass Tide Lines
19 works · Cornish beaches at low tide translated into horizontal translucent bands of wet sand, shallows and white sky.
Harbour Facets
19 works · St Ives, Mousehole and Newlyn harbour surfaces broken into overlapping rectangles of boat colour, wall reflection and tidal blue.
Facet Cliffs
12 works · Dawn and morning light breaking across the cliff faces of West Cornwall in angular planes and pale mineral colour.
Weather Veils
8 works · Rain fronts, mist and clearing light crossing Mount’s Bay, rendered as layered grey, silver and pearl translucent veils.