St Ives

Here's the view from where I am staying in just now in St Ives, Cornwall, in the UK. The light is really amazing. The Atlantic roars all night long. We rented this flat from holidaylets.net and it has worked out well. My mother Sarah Meyer took the photo of me below, being blown by the wind.

I spent a morning at the St Ives School of Painting, attending a life drawing session. It was a step back in time, the model standing by an old electric heater so as to stay warm, worn benches, floor splattered with years of paint.

St Ives is an ideal place for artists to visit for a winter holiday. Summer is too noisy and hectic here, you can hardly move down the streets. In January, the weather is dramatic but not too cold, the tourists are away, you can get better off-season prices, and the locals are friendly and relaxed.

There is a Tate St Ives museum here, in what is a small town, because St Ives was home to many important British abstract artists. Barbara Hepworth lived here, and her home studio is now a museum, well worth visiting. We went to the Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin show at the Tate, and I learnt more about Constructed Abstraction, a movement that started in the 1940s that resonates with my own art practice. I don't share these artists's admiration for the "beauty" of mathematics, but appreciate how they allowed systems to enter into their art making.