St Ives is a picture-postcard-beautiful seaside town, which sits in St Ives Bay, Cornwall. Originally a fishing community, the decline in this industry resulted in its 20th century rebirth as a popular, award winning, tourist attraction, with a huge emphasis on art.
Before 1940 many artists, attracted to the beauty of the area, belonged to the St Ives Society of Artists; but a dispute between the figurative and the abstract sections of the faction resulted in a breakaway group, which became known as the Penwith Society of Artists. This was led by Ben Nicholson and his wife, sculptress Barbara Hepworth. More about the latter later...
During our week-long stay, we resided in Hayle, which is at the other end of St Ives Bay. We popped down on the bus for the day, and it was only a short, fifteen minute incredibly scenic journey.
On leaving the 'bus station' -in reality only a turning circle for one bus- we paused for a moment, high above Porthminster Beach.
This was our dreamy view. After swooning, I decided there and then that I want to leave London one day, and go and live in Cornwall!
St Ives has two piers- to the left of the photo is the West Pier and at the base of this is the lifeboat house. The long arm to the right of the photo is Smeaton's Pier.
This was our dreamy view. After swooning, I decided there and then that I want to leave London one day, and go and live in Cornwall!
St Ives has two piers- to the left of the photo is the West Pier and at the base of this is the lifeboat house. The long arm to the right of the photo is Smeaton's Pier.
The mound in the sea, which you can see just popping up to the left of the headland, is Godrevy Island. The lighthouse on the island inspired Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel To The Lighthouse. This was the view she experienced from the family home in which she spent her childhood summers.
As we were only in St Ives for the day, we had to be selective with regard to what tourist attractions we visited. There is a Tate gallery here, but I wasn't that overawed with what exhibitions they were showing, so we headed off to the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) lived and worked in Trewyn Studios from 1949 until her death. It was her wish to establish her home and studios as a museum dedicated to her work, and she is considered to be one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. Modern for her time and abstract in her approach, she is credited with 'putting the hole into sculpture'- she made her first pierced form in 1931, and the idea was to allow light into the sculpture, therefore allowing the onlooker to interact with the work.
The hill to the museum was steep, and a good workout for the leg muscles! After seeing a small timescale of Barbara Hepworth's life and achievements, you walk up to the first floor, into what was once the studio where she carried out her wood carving, but evolved over the years to become her chief living and sleeping space.
This centrepiece is called Fallen Images, 1974-5.
Here's another view of this space, with the SuperDean getting in the way!😁 For a non-arty person, I think he enjoyed the museum as much as I did.
The corner- where we tourists sat for a very interesting talk about the sculptress, given by one of the museum's attendants.
The other corner, looking towards the garden door...
Group 2 (People Waiting), 1952.
One of the few two-dimensional pieces shown is Two Figures (Heroes), 1954.
A selection of her showcased sculptures...
Landscape Sculpture, 1944.
Seated Figure, 1932-3.
Pierced Form (Epidauros), 1960.
Stringed Figure (Curlew) Version II, 1956.
Oval with Two Forms, 1971.
Single Form (Eikon), 1937-8.
We then ventured out into the garden, perched high up and overlooking the fantastic bay. What a lovely place to live and work!
Four-Square (Walk Through), 1966.
Figure for Landscape, 1960.
Corymb, 1959.
Stone Sculpture (Fugue II), 1956.
Spring, 1966.
Bronze Form (Patmos), 1962-3.
Garden Sculpture (Model for Meridian), 1958.
Conversation with Magic Stones, 1973.
This piece is nicknamed 'Stonehenge'!
Poised Form, 1951-2.
Forms in Movement (Pavan), 1956-9.
Image, 1951-2.
Cantate Domino, 1958.
Six Forms (2 x 3), 1968.
Torso II (Torcello), 1958.
Two Forms (Divide Circle), 1969.
River Form, 1965.
This was possibly my favourite piece, and has water at the bottom (which it's supposed to have- it wasn't the result of a random rainfall!)
Apollo, 1951.
This is where Barbara Hepworth stored the raw materials for the making of her sculptures. I nicknamed this this 'the graveyard', because that's what it reminded me of!
Barbara's studios. As time went by, she was able to acquire more land, and therefore more space in which to create her abstractions.
Barbara's tools of her trade...
Inside Barbara's studio are works in progress. Was the model on the left even finished before her death, in a fire at this very museum? To the right is a painted plaster model for Sea Form (Porthmeor), 1958.
She was very much a 'hands on' artist and didn't just hand a maquette (scale model) over to a stonemason for him to realise, but got on with the hard graft of manual work herself.
She worked both inside and out and often had to create scaffolding platforms; which enabled her to work on her larger scale models.
Of course, we have to have a Vain Old Tart photograph... With a bit o' the SuperDean as well...
At one end of the garden is a rather hermit-like outdoor bedroom and, as it's there, we can assume that she actually used it...
Afterwards, we took a stroll through the quaint town and scoffed our Cornish pasties. I didn't take many photos of the town itself, but found this street sign amusing. I have a dirty mind- I would!😁
We walked down the steep pavements to the harbour, and wandered down onto Smeaton's Pier. It was warm, but quite a windy day. I was very peckish and scoffed another pasty- but a seagull swooped down, pecked a chunk out of it , and then had the audacity to drop the lump of hot potato on the ground! It didn't stop me finishing the rest of the pasty, though...😉
This pier was constructed between 1769-1770, from a design by eminent civil engineer John Smeaton (1724-1792). The original 360 feet (120 metres) long pier was almost doubled in length in the early 1890s...
This lighthouse dates from then...
I've blown up this view, taken from high up on the cliffs. On it, halfway down from the end, you can make out the top of Smeaton's original, elegant lighthouse. I assume that both of these are working lighthouses- from Hayle (at the other side of the bay, where I was staying) you can clearly spot two lights glowing from this area at dusk. St Ives is, after all, a working harbour.
The view from the end, towards the other side of Porthminster beach. The West Pier sits just out of shot to the right of this photo.
Further around the headland and there are many beach coves in this area...
From Smeaton's Pier we had a fairly good view of Godrevy Island. Again, it's the mound to the left of the headland...
Looking in the same direction, but capturing the landing deck of the pier...
Walking down the deck but not too far, as I didn't want to find out if this was, literally, a slippery slope...
This photo was taken looking over the back of this arm, and you can see St Ives Museum (which we didn't visit this time) up on the hill.
This is Bamaluz Beach. There used to be a third pier here and it would have sat somewhere to the foreground of this area. It was constructed in 1864 and made of wood, but it didn't stand the test of time and collapsed. At low tide you can see its skeletal remains, but when we went the tide was well and truly in, and lapping against the harbour wall.
The gorgeous, Mediterranean-hued sea. I totally understand why this whole area of the UK is known as 'The English Riviera'.
We passed the Sloop Inn, right down in the harbour. There has been a public house here as far back as 1312, although the present building is 17th or 18th century.
We then walked back to catch our bus. My only regret is that tours to Godrevy Island- which take in the white, octagonal lighthouse and also a nearby bay where seals live- were advertised but, with no-one around to advise, we had no idea about timings and availability. But next time I'm due in St Ives, I will pre-check and pre-book.
That's my reason to come back to the area sorted!
TTFN
The Miss Elaineous
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