‘Where is it?’ I asked Mr Word Loft when we were looking for Barbara Hepworth’s Museum and Garden in the heart of St Ives. Then we noticed a sign welcoming visitors beside a plain door in a stone wall. Trewyn Studio, the sculptor’s home and workplace from 1949 until 1975, radiates charm and tranquillity.
The first room on admission now displays artefacts, photographs and papers spanning her lifetime, January 1903 – May 1975, but originally, it was the kitchen, dining room and bathroom.
In one corner, natural light illuminates quaint wooden stairs leading up to her studio. Here she began creating art in 1949 after buying the property. It is wonderful to see her abstract smooth forms in stone and wood, alongside furniture that originally adorned the space when it was a bedroom and sitting room.
A door leads out to a secluded garden. It isn’t immense, but considering it’s in the thick of a tangle of narrow cobbled lanes, the location is amazingly spacious. A peaceful, botanical oasis with an abundance of sculptures by Barbara Hepworth. The majority are bronze. Their sheen gleaming in the daylight, they are displayed in quiet settings amid shrubs around a central and gargantuan form. Four Square is her largest piece and can be walked through. Its circular apertures frame different segments of the garden and views beyond the walls. A small pond is nearby, edged with rocks. Smaller carvings are established around it, their reflections wavering beside aquatic herbs floating in the water.
A little white garden house is along a pathway, where inside there is a bed. I imagine it was used to take in the essence of the surroundings. How lovely, especially as flowers’ sweet perfumes drift in the breeze.
Nostalgia abounds in the conservatory’s higgledy-piggledy interior, where cacti and ferns grow in harmony, and the chairs are modern and bold. Overlooking it is the workroom. I would have loved to go inside, but through large windows, it appears compact and is full of sculptors’ paraphernalia; so precious.
Seeing Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures has brought joy to many, so thank goodness her house and garden were opened to the public as she requested in her will.
Until next time,
Sue. X