My final RHS Bursary research trip was to Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture Garden in St Ives, Cornwall. By chance, I caught a fortuitous talk on the relationship between music and her work, which has opened up a whole new area of exploration for my own work, particularly the relationship between Barbara Hepworth and the advant-garde composer Priaulx Rainier who were friends.

Rainier was also a passionate gardener and ecologist who helped design and plant the exotic plants in Barbara Hepworth’s Sculpture Garden.   They again collaborated on a film about Hepworth’s work, directed by Dudley Shaw Ashton, Barbara Hepworth: Figures in a Landscape with soundtrack composed by Rainier.

[A report to be written at a later date.]