Live the bohemian life

The Penzance Arts Club is a beautiful miniature. It has just four bedrooms - this being an artists' hangout, they are distinguished by colour rather than numbers. Off the suitably creaky landing there's the cool blue of the largest room, a rose room with the best sea views, the head-clearing austerity of the tiny white room, and a yellow room as bright as a Van Gogh sunflower.

It's a club, so the raffish can hang out minus the riff-raff. Its walls are covered with eclectic, affordable art; the vibe is laid-back bohemian; and the bar does tabs. Plus the barman has an engaging taste in music and the chef, having cooked for the Fords and Gettys, is a dab hand at engaging tastes.

Founded by textile designer Belinda Rushworth-Lund in the early 1990s, the club is a relaxed end-of-England take on its Chelsea namesake. Set in one of Penzance's finest examples of Georgian architecture, its unassuming entrance is off a quiet lane beside the town church on a hill above the harbour, surrounded by seagulls and antique shops.

The bar is the heart, in daylight doubling as the lounge, and the way to the terrace and walled garden, from where you can watch boats bob below. At night, it's a magnet for artists, including barflies revelling in their own eccentricities. Tuesdays involve nudity - a life-drawing session at one end of the bar. I gave it a go, but even a G&T failed to help my pencil flow.

Though at the heart of the highest concentration of working artists in Europe outside the East End, Penzance isn't that good-looking (Newyln, a short walk around the bay, provides a more handsome home to one of the area's two major galleries; the other being the Penlee in Penzance). But there are plenty of inspiring alternatives down twisting Cornish lanes.

The moorland village of Zennor captivated DH Lawrence; St Michael's Mount vies with Mousehole as a subject for artists; while the Minack Theatre, set down the side of a cliff above crashing waves near Porthcurno, is as striking as any Mediterranean amphitheatre.

On the way back from the Minack, the bus driver suggested I walk the coastal path from Lamorna Cove to Mousehole, and then on to Newlyn via various boozers. "But watch out for the fishermen's pubs," he warned. "They don't like emmets (non-Cornish folk)."

When I stumbled into the Ship in Mousehole, after a few too many gorgeous headlands, I'd have thumped any trawlerman who tried to stop me having a pint. Not behaviour I'd get away with at the Arts Club - there, even being a piss artist involves a sense of style.

Joining the Penzance Art Club (01736 363761; £75 a year) gives you membership of other arts clubs with beds.

The United Arts Club Dublin (00 353 1 661 1411). Founded by WB Yeats, this Georgian house has a bar, restaurant and art spaces to go with its six bedrooms. e42 single, e84 double, room only.

Sussex Arts Club Brighton (01273 727371). The club attracts arts and media people to a beautiful Georgian building just off the seafront. There's a theatre, two bars plus seven bedrooms in contrasting styles. From £50 single, £80 double, room only.

Arts Club of Washington (00 1 202 331 7282). This 19th century former home of President James Monroe has two bedrooms, galleries, bar, restaurants and walled garden. $63 single, $74 double (book at least two weeks in advance).