27/11/2025
“A Distant Shore” is Chapel House’s winter exhibition: a playful, atmospheric drift between the shores we can step onto and the ones we can only imagine. Down here at the far edge of Cornwall, already a kind of geographical full stop, a place people reach when they’re seeking something—our coastal setting becomes part of the story.
Cornwall itself has long been a distant shore, whether you’ve travelled from far away or grown up with the sea as your neighbour: a place that feels both remote and reassuring, wild and welcoming. But the exhibition also explores another kind of shoreline—the one we create in our minds. The safe, imagined edge where we can pause, breathe, and reorient ourselves.
Featuring works by acclaimed and emerging artists the show drifts between the real and the imagined shores, between Cornwall’s rugged coastline and the inner landscapes we all carry. Here, in James Johnston’s “Jonah and the Whale”, Jonah might never quite reach the shore. While Catherine Harvey Jefferson’s glacial Svalbard shoreline feels both remote and familiar and Elizabeth “Lillibet” Langley’s dreamlike images tug at something half remembered.
Set throughout the elegant, yet cosy drawing room and communal spaces, the exhibition invites you to settle in by the fire, enjoy cake or an evening drink, and let the artworks wash over you. Whether you’re arriving from afar or you’re a Cornwall native, ‘A Distant Shore’ reminds us that we’re all, in some way, seeking a comforting shoreline—while Chapel House, calm and intimate, offers an island of sanctuary from which to enjoy the view.
A Distant Shore is open daily from 11am-4pm until 22nd December. Reopening on 05/01/26 until the 16/01/26
Artists include:
hamon karen
For more information about any of the work featured DM or email [email protected]