In Place: Trevor and Harriet Bell at 67 Morrab Road

In Place: Trevor and Harriet Bell at 67 Morrab Road

In Place; a series that explores the rotating curation of artwork and objects in our home, Morrab Road.

Harriet Bell's 'Seesaw', 1988.

Our gallery and studio space brings together a changing selection of works from Emily’s collection, alongside exhibitions, borrowed works and pieces by artists connected to the studio.

Since moving into the building, each floor has provided the opportunity to experience works in an everyday setting, alongside the materials, furniture, and rhythms of the studio. In this series, we’ll look more closely at some of the works that make up the walls and rooms of the gallery, and at the stories and connections between them.

The showroom, on the ground floor of 67 Morrab Road, currently holds three substantial works: two sculptures by Harriet Bell (b.1950) and a painting by her husband, Trevor Bell (1930-2017). It is an encounter with a remarkable shared history.

From their time spent in America to their home in West Penwith, the Bells forged a quietly symbiotic artistic partnership over 42 years of marriage. Trevor was a central figure in the St Ives modernist movement, alongside luminaries such as Barbara Hepworth and Peter Lanyon. His monumental abstract paintings now reside in collections at the Tate and other major institutions. Harriet, by contrast, has pursued a more private path, focusing on sculptural arrangements crafted from found and natural objects, while sculpting powerful, large-scale works shaped through a gentle and considered application of colour and texture.

We reach Harriet Bell’s Seesaw, 1988, first. Perched upon a simple pew beneath the generous windows, the sculpture seems poised between movement and repose. At 233 by 61cm, its elongated wooden, mixed-media form feels almost kinetic, despite being perfectly still.

Bell’s palette is pared back yet richly tactile; chalky white set against deep earth red and ink black. Linear elements give way to curves that recall the irregularities of the natural world, though the work remains resolutely abstract. Something about the composition feels balanced, almost precarious – a sense of weight and counterweight that gives Seesaw its energy.

Beyond the room’s central archway, Trevor Bell’s Desert, 1993, comes into view.

The painting has the quality of a portal, amplified by the artist’s distinctive shaped canvas, and rises almost architectural in scale at 220 by 256cm. Pinks, ochres, greys and black drift across its surface in layers of acrylic applied with the delicacy of watercolour.

In the showroom, Desert feels less like a painting hung on a wall than an opening within it: an expanse of colour and atmosphere that speaks to life's metaphysical reality and creative inspiration.

Grounding Desert is Harriet’s Standard, 1987, positioned by the painting. 125cm tall with an upright stance and a strong sense of weight, it takes a form suggestive of an arrow, pulling the eye downward. Rich in Bell’s earth red and black, it carries something of the presence of an ancient, worldly artefact.

Standard sits on a large antique trunk of Emily’s, its surface marked by a beautifully worn patina, enhanced by Emily’s past application of graphite, complementing its heavy brass locks and fittings, all varying subtly in shape and scale.

Two further paintings by Trevor Bell appear as we climb the original Edwardian staircase, passing the first on our way to Emily’s first-floor studio – Hardalee, 2008, another impressive work at 197 by 212 cm. Soft pinks serve as the backdrop for energetic marks in black and shocking cobalt blue, softened by the canvas’s gently curved edges.

Harriet Bell’s 'Turk', 1988.
Harriet Bell's 'The Archbishop's Hat', 1987.

Just before the doors to Emily’s studio, we see Harriet Bell’s Turk, 1988, and The Archbishop's Hat, 1987.

Turk stands tall at 188 cm, directly on the floorboards between Emily’s studio and the workshop. Its chalk-white, crescent-shaped base holds a wooden staff that reaches toward the high ceiling.

The Archbishop’s Hat is the smallest in scale of Emily’s collection of Bell’s work at 95 cm in height, and has been placed on an Art Deco cabinet of Emily's, in front of the large sash windows. Despite its name, the sculpture remains as abstract as the others, sharing the chalk-white wash with Turk and the arrow-like form of Standard.

Inside Emily’s studio, Trevor Bell's Trias, 2012, fills the wall behind her workbench. Chosen by Emily for its energetic palette of ochres and its vast stroke of red, it conjures an atmosphere of momentum and considered creative action. Here, the work sits amongst the tools, materials and found objects of the studio, becoming part of the working environment rather than simply an object on the wall.

Glancing up the staircase towards the final, third floor of the building, we see Blue Prop, 2016. Another of Trevor Bell’s signature shaped canvases, this painting might also be considered an assemblage, with a brilliant blue wooden structure seemingly ‘propping’ the canvas up into existence. One of Bell’s final works before his passing in 2017, the curve of Blue Prop’s canvas and its strokes of black on white draw the eyes onwards, directing us into the room beyond – one that offers visitors sweeping views of the vast, blue Mounts Bay.

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Words by Kyra Harris
Photography by Alexandra House Studio

Trevor Bell's 'Trias', 2012.
Trevor Bell's 'Hardalee', 2008.
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