Western Morning News (Saturday)
Studio the ‘hidden heart’ of Newlyn
Exhibition and book about artists’ workplace are not to be missed, says FRANK RUHRMUND
Many moons ago I had the privilege of interviewing the Newlyn-based artist John Wells in his studio. At the time, gaining entry to it was as difficult as getting into Fort Knox, but once inside it was equally rewarding, for it was a treasure chest of artistic associations.
At the time, I felt that this was where Stanhope Forbes once painted and wondered what his reaction would have been to the work of John Wells, an artist whom Naum Gabo once described as being the “Paul Klee of the Constructivist movement”.
I remember, too, that amidst all the canvases, paints and brushes were two signposts to the main roads he walked in life. One, a brass plate inscribed J.C.S. Wells MB BS (Lond) MRCS LRCP; the other, a painted black and white street sign, ‘Rue Des Beaux Arts’, which once adorned the street opposite his studio.
In 1936, he came to the Isles of Scilly as its GP, and was to spend the war years there as medical officer to the Royal Navy. When the war ended, he realised he had reached a career crossroads, and he plumped for the palette rather than the prescription pad and came to Newlyn, where he was to live and work until he died in 2000.
An erudite man, in a much-quoted letter to Sven Berlin in 1948 he wrote an argument for abstraction art that could hardly be better: “How can one paint the warmth of the sun, the sound of the sea, the journey of a beetle across a rock, or thoughts of one’s own whence or whither?”
Several years later, he was to sum it up for me, with a wicked laugh and a knowing look, saying, “Art – it’s a rum old business, boy.”
I can’t help wondering what he would say, were he here now, of all that has happened and is still happening in Penwith’s art world. Of the establishment of the Borlase Smart John Wells Trust, of the major renovation of the studio that was built especially for Stanhope Forbes and wherein he worked for some 60 years, of the exhibition Discovering Anchor Studio: An artist’s haven in Newlyn, being held in Penlee House Gallery & Museum until January 8, 2022, and of the accompanying publication The Story of Anchor Studio, edited by Elizabeth Knowles and published by the Borlase Smart John Wells Trust at £10.
To quote Chris Hibbert, manager of the trust, “This book marks the completion of the renovation project to make Anchor Studio a viable live-work space for new generations of artists who want to work in Newlyn. The village had been home and inspiration to artists since the 19th century and Anchor Studio, built especially for Stanhope Forbes , has been its hidden heart.”
Comprised of a foreword by Nicholas Serota, plus essays A Place Called Newlyn by Joanna Mattingly; The Meadow Studios: Stanhope Forbes and the Newlyn School Legacy by Catherine Wallace; John Wells by Anne Barlow; Anchor Studio: an Architectural Perspective by Rolfe Kentish; and Finding the Anchor by Barry West, generously illustrated it is excellent value.
So, too, is the exhibition in Penlee House Gallery & Museum which, from Stanhope Forbes’ Gala Day at Newlyn to John Wells’ Sea Bird Forms, together with works by such as Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon, Christopher Wood and Bryan Wynter, plus considerable archival material, outlines the changing art movements during the 120 years or so that the Anchor Studio was the workplace of Stanhope Forbes and John Wells.
Not to be missed, Discovering Anchor Studio: An artist’s haven in Newlyn, can be seen in Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Penzance, where The Story of Anchor Studio is also available, until January 8, 2022.