Connecting with Barbara Hepworth

On a wet weekend in Cornwall we booked ourselves into the 'Trevose Harbour House' and set about exploring galleries that luxuriously scatter around the coastal streets of St. Ives. You don't have to walk far before you stumble upon both iconic and quaint lesser known studios belonging to artists who have found a place in history and plenty of up-rising talent too.

The Light

As anyone who has ever visited St. Ives you will most likely noted there is something quite captivating about the light. This of which has lured Artist's and Writers for decades. With a view of the sea and buildings that often appear illuminated and crisper even on a dull day. There is almost a sense of creative energy just waiting to be unlocked, perhaps even more-so now with artists flocking to the town for exhibitions or simply just to capture the magic in some art form or another.

The view from 'Trevose Harbour House'

This is a town steeped in art history, and you can feel it in the bones of the walls. From the very buildings where hugely influential artists took residencies to studios which forged extraordinary sculptures and paintings to now be admired from all around the world. St.Ives is one of those places that every time I visit, I wonder why I don't spend more time here soaking up the creative essence.

Personal Connections

I moved to Cornwall in my late teens when I gained a place at the Falmouth School of Arts on the Illustration degree course, I fell in love with the county; never looking back. However this was a very long way from family apart from one Great Aunt who I discovered lived here too. She was charming, unforgettable and I could almost go as far as saying she was eccentric, but in the most endearing way. On my in-frequent visits she would often show me around different parts of her house and tell me all kinds of wonderful stories of a life certainly very much lived. 

I suppose being an art student there were particular stories I locked onto, and that was the connection to the 'Abstract' Artists of St. Ives. Barbara Hepworth in particular who was a friend of my Great Aunt and moved to Cornwall also captivated like myself seeking artistic opportunity and inspiration from the wild and inspiring landscape. Of course Barbara Hepworth's move to the St. Ives in 1939 was for reasons much more serious than my own, travelling to escape dangers in London at the beginning of the war. However this move took her on a creative journey and through connecting with other artists and her own tenacious spirit her work flourished.

'Epidaurus' - Inside the Barbara Hepworth Museum.

I would have loved an invitation to the famous 'Artist's Ball' where some of the greatest and most influential people in the area gathered for a raucous evening dressed in wild and bizarre fancy dress costumes. Without photographs to visualise, I could only imagine a party back then full of creatives, must have been curiously intriguing and obscure. An aspiration to some of the art student parties we were relishing in at the time. - I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall!

I somehow wonder if having the slightest link to an artist albeit very small somehow gives you a connection and curiosity for the artists life and how it shaped the work. Just knowing how in my own practice how conversations can spark an idea that transfer into a painting. It is more obvious in some pieces of Barbara Hepworth's work how the influence that surrounded her occasionally seeps into her work, perhaps even subconsciously and also how this is reciprocated back again amongst the art scene.

A Love of the Landscape

 It is clear in many of Barbara Hepworths sculptures held in the Museum and Sculpture Garden in St. Ives in the middle part of her career that she has strong influence from the landscape around her, much as my coastal surroundings seep into my works and paintings. Many of Hepworth’s which are soft yet powerful organic forms exploring reflection and space, working with wood and stone. You can almost imagine how the landscape around Cornwall carved deep marks into into her work. Barbara not only took inspiration from the geographical landscape, but also the growing landscape of Artists surrounding her where by in 1949 the Penwith Society of Arts was founded by Barbara Hepworth and her Husband Ben Nicholson and their contemporaries, Bernard Leach, Peter Lanyon, Sven Berlin and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham to name a few. Later on as the society grew many other progressive artists became members including Henry Moore (honorary member), Terry Frost and Patrick Heron. It is no wonder in the company of such fine and inspiring artists that Barbara Hepworth's talent and passion for art was able to gain exposure and ultimately the recognition it deserved. 

Today, many of those artists play an instrumental role, firmly placing Penwith Gallery as not only a thriving community of artists but also holding a space within art history. Personally I greatly value my five years spent in Art Schools around the country and deeply value the connections and progressions many of my contemporaries have made. I think I speak for a small group of us from the Falmouth School of Arts that when we catch up and talk art we all leave feeling inspired and revived. There is something to be said for the osmosis of art in conversation or even taking the time to visit a gallery to allow other thoughts and ideas provoke progression in your work. - that's my view anyway!

You can visit the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Gardens here in Cornwall, and whilst you are there it is well worth exploring St.Ives.