Andrew White looks at the fascinating past of an artist who drew his inspiration from New Forest.... Sven Berlin.

"I REALISED of a sudden what it meant to be one of these people. Behind the faade of false glamour imposed upon them, was the screaming mouth of hunger, the spiked fist of persecution and the haunting ghosts of the dead, all accepted in tranquility. Those who pretended to be gypsies could never know what a gypsy was."

No one, as this extract from his book Dromengro makes clear, knew the gypsies of the New Forest better than Sven Berlin - the former St Ives artist who embraced their way of life and captured the final years of their ancient community in a series of vivid paintings produced over more than ten years.

Affectionately dubbed the "beardy man" by the beleaguered but spirited community he came to know and love, Berlin was an influential figure in the St Ives art scene - a hotbed of artistic talent in the post-war years.

A founder member of the Penwith Society with Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, the sculptor grew increasingly disillusioned with the then-current obsession with abstract art, and eventually decided to abandon St Ives for a more bohemian lifestyle.

Together with his children Paul and Janet, new wife Juanita and the couple's baby son Jasper, he set off in a colourful horse-drawn caravan to go in search of the New Forest gypsies, with whom he felt a natural affinity.

Life in the New Forest couldn't have been more different from St Ives. For two years, the family camped in the Forest in their caravan, before taking up more permanent residence in a field and extending their plot by building a shed.

Despite being so far from cultured society, Berlin had many famous visitors during this time, including writer Robert Graves and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who would drink tea with the family out of jam jars.

"Gradually we began to make some money, wheeling and dealing, 'totting' with the gypsies and like them dressing ourselves in other people's cast-offs," wrote Juanita.

"Jasper played with toys scavenged off rubbish dumps, brought to him by doting travellers. We drank with them, danced with them, went to the Derby with them on the back of a lorry and mourned with them."

Gypsies had been camping in the New Forest for more than 500 years, living in relative peace with indigenous Foresters.

By the time Berlin arrived in 1953, their ancient way of life was in mortal danger. In 1927, the Forestry Commission had established seven compounds where gypsies were ordered to live, including one at Shave Green near Minstead.

It was here that Berlin swapped his sculptor's chisel for a paintbrush and set about capturing the characters and lifestyle of the gypsies, just as the newly-formed welfare state had begun moving them into council housing.

By the time of the final gypsy eviction in 1963, the gentle giant had produced dozens of vibrantly coloured and richly detailed canvases which seemed to distil the essence of those final years, when 20th century officialdom finally caught up with those "born on the straw".

Berlin died in 1999, but the bewitching legacy of his most creative period remains - a powerful testament to both the artist and his most inspiring subject.

Sven Berlin - Paintings from Shave Green 1953-1970 is at the St Barbe Gallery, Lymington until November 29. For more information call 01590 676969.