John Halkes on John Wells, Denis Mitchell, Tony Foster and artist's collections

John Halkes was director and curator of Newlyn Art Gallery between 1974 and 1990. Interview Rupert White.

Did you ever own any Ithell Colquhoun works?

No I didn’t. They were pretty expensive. The most expensive thing I ever bought from my own exhibitions was a John Wells. £500. Later I had to sell it because we were retiring.

You made a few quid on that I expect...

But possibly not enough! Dear old John. I was on the verge of giving him an exhibition in 1990 but he pulled out at the last minute.

In about 1991 I was working at West Cornwall Hospital, and I met Denis Mitchell because he was going up there for surgery. And I sat with him on the ward for a couple of hours, and went to his house afterwards.

What were you doing there?

I was a surgical house officer - a very junior surgeon.

Denis I looked after after I left Newlyn Art Gallery. I’d been friends with him and his family, so I sorted out his studio and pricing, and catalogued it all. Got some big sales. Then Ella and I worked on his 80^th birthday exhibition in 1992 at the Penwith.

I remember him being a lovely man. I went to his house.

He had a brilliant collection.

He had some lovely drawings. Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis as I recall. He took me down to his studio to meet John Wells and we all went off in my car, a little Renault 5, and drove up to Paul and had a pint in the pub there.

I was still working as a freelance in the arts and was driving down to Denis. I’d arrive in the morning and we’d do some work and we’d have a cup of coffee and the whiskey bottle would come out. We called it a ‘Mitchell’: some instant coffee with a topping of Teacher’s whisky! He’d say: ‘any minute now the old bugger will come in because he’ll know you’re here’. Then John would arrive and ask ‘are you coming over afterwards?’. He was fascinating.

John Wells, sitting to the right of Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham's elbow

He was quite a reserved chap as I remember, John Wells. Sensitive. You can see that in his work. It’s so delicate.

His Dad dying, becoming a medic during war time, and having the art bug. Seemingly part of the game.

All the time he was in the Scillies, as the medical officer he would flit back on his leave to St Ives to worship at the shrine of Ben and Barbara and Naum Gabo. He lived a very sad batchelor life. The kitchen table was piled high with stuff. And there’d be a circular patch and you’d think ‘that’s where his plate goes’ but no, that’s where his frying pan went, because he’d cook his meal and eat off his frying pan!

On a Wednesday the fish and chip shop would cook at lunchtime. He’d go down at one minute past one. 'Oh Dr Wells, do you want your usual? I've got a bit of extra fish left over'. He’d come back as if he’d got the world. Denis would say to me ‘the mean old bugger - he’s worth a mint’.

John had got into this parsimonious way of living. He was slightly scared of life. He bought a log burner, and he’d rejoice in making one log last through the night!

John owned the Anchor studio there...

Yes. He said ‘what shall I do with it when I die?’ I said ‘well you could leave it to Newlyn Orion, who were a registered charity’. He asked ‘what would you do with it?’ I said ‘we’d make a foundation and let it to artists’, but it was far better that it went to Borlase Smart.

But he could never commit to anything. Commitment was a big issue. He had these shows in New York but it frightened him. Cork Street too. He said ‘that’s not me boy, I can’t do that’.

He was scared off by these shows?

Yes. He was scared by life. He used to go up to the Catholic Church in Penzance on Saturdays. ‘They do the Tridentine Mass, the Latin Mass which they’re not supposed to do, but I love it’. I said ‘do you take communion?’ ‘Oh no boy that’s not me. I sit on the fence’. I said ‘it’s like having a bar of chocolate and only eating the wrapper’.

These were interesting people. I loved Johnny. On Boxing Day we’d have him at the cottage over at the fields and feed him because otherwise he’d be on his own. And Denis and his lovely wife would have him on Christmas Day.

Crystal from the Earth (1946) John Wells

In a sense he and Ithell Colquhoun were both private, reclusive people, but they were well-liked.

I don’t know that Ithell was liked. I think she was a bit frightening. I think she was thought by the locals as that ‘odd person’. Whereas Johnny was seen as an eccentric.

He’d got Stanhope Forbes’ Meadow and Anchor Studio. If only you could be with me walking into Anchor Studio with the cobwebs and the dirt. Johnny’s house was squalid but fascinating. He had a lovely stringed Naum Gabo, and Barbara Hepworth sculptures. He was quite well off. I think the Tate got the lot. I think I saw the Naum Gabo in the recent exhibition.

Do you think some of John’s collection ended up with Denis?

Remember he (Denis) worked with Ben and Barbara and they all collected and they exchanged works, and they were very generous with one another. And they’d give Christmas cards and do swaps.

I’ve seen interior shots of Eagle’s Nest (Patrick Heron’s house) and it seemed to have been a lot of his own art that was up.

It was all about Patrick! But with Denis it was about all his friends, like Willie Barnes-Graham and John Wells.

Do you remember Terry Frost’s house? Did he have a personal collection as well?

No. Not that I’m aware of. Terry was hand-to-mouth. When his gallery, Theo Waddington ditched him in the late 80's another dealer bought stacks of work, but Terry gave it all the money to his kids.

Bryan Wynter died in the mid-70s. he would come into the Orion, and was very supportive and friendly but I didn’t get to know him particularly.

In 1976 I started the associates of Newlyn Orion to encourage Amateur painting. Out of the blue I saw some Pop Art. It was by Tony Foster…

Hugh Stoddart handed over to Tony as the SWA visual arts officer. So we became colleagues. He (Tony) was in that post for about ten years. He lived in Tywardreath and commuted to Exeter… I said to him in about 1987, 'Tony why don’t you take over the Penwith Gallery?'. He said 'I’m going to do my own thing. I think I’m going to fly to America'.

And he has since shown in the USA on many occasions, and now, as we speak, he has a big exhibition in the museum in Truro...

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30.7.25