A central figure in the post-war, avant garde art scene in St Ives has died suddenly at her home in West Cornwall.

Monica Wynter, wife of famous St Ives painter Bryan, was a talented artist in her own right, as well as being a keen naturalist, gardener, singer and poet.

She was a member of the Society of Friends, a Quaker, born in Buckinghamshire 78 years ago.

As a girl, she attended the Quaker school at Sidcot in Somerset, and only the evening before she died, she hosted a successful Quaker planning meeting at her house.

On leaving school, when she was Monica Harman, she went to Bath Academy of Art at Corsham and while there met the man she would later marry, the artist Bryan Wynter, then a member of the academy's teaching staff. Married in 1959, like so many artists of the time, they found their way to Cornwall and for several years lived at the Carn near Zennor where they were close neighbours of Patrick Heron and his wife Delia who lived just across the road in Eagle's Nest, before moving to Treverven near St. Buryan where they were to spend the last decade of their married life and where their two sons, Tom and Billy, both born prior to the move, were to grow up.

A central figure, along with her husband Bryan, in the post-war, avant garde art scene in St Ives, she rubbed shoulders and attended parties with them all.

A rare photograph "All-Night Talk at the Carn", featuring her with her husband together with the painter, Karl Weschke and poet W.S. Graham, in the first full length survey of her husband's career, sums up the whole atmosphere of those adventurous, relatively carefree days.

A very private person, proud grandmother to her son Tom's children, Dominic, Vanessa, Sebastian and Victoria, subsequent to her husband Bryan's untimely death in 1975, she somewhat surprisingly, in a manner of speaking, went public.

One who cared greatly for the disadvantaged in society, for many years her house was a haven for those in distress, she studied at Goldsmith's College in London, and then as well as teaching adult art classes and art therapy groups also taught at Nancealverne School in Penzance.

She also trained and practised as a counsellor and had a close association with the activities at Bosence Farm.

A strong promoter and supporter of the arts, a member of the Borlase Smart Trust responsible for the Porthmeor Studios in St. Ives and the Trewarveneth Studios in Newlyn, she was an accomplished artist in her own right. For a long while she attended classes at Penzance School of Art and was renowned, in particular, for her draughtsmanship and prowess as a printmaker. While her interests centred mainly around the visual arts, she was also a keen and knowledgeable naturalist and gardener.

A member of the Morrab Library in Penzance, she read widely and wrote poetry, and in addition to her literary abilities also had a good singing voice.

A member of Penzance Choral Society, she appeared in concert with the society shortly before she died.

To say that Monica Wynter was a caring person is as large an understatement as saying that she will be sorely missed by all those fortunate enough to have known her. A member of Amnesty International, her concerns for the welfare of people knew no bounds. Donations at her funeral service, for example, 2pm on June 18 in Zennor Church, will go towards assisting the education of Tibetan refugee girls.