Last of Seven : Reflections on a Life in Art

This book is a history of my life in art. It also includes my gratitude to the many friends and other influences that have shaped and enriched my days. About three years ago my wife and I were forced, because of declining health, to sell the early sixteenth-century Hall House in which we had lived for forty-five years. From my studio window I had a clear view across our paddock, with grazing sheep, towards a gently rising hill covered with woodland providing splendid habitat for wildlife. Behind the house, on the North Downs lived the fox, badger, the sloping meadows, then unploughed, and many wild flowers, including orchids. My pictures of this period were mostly large watercolours which are not by any means conventional topographical ''views''. They were not painted on location but were designed from relevant drawings. It was the loss of this motivating environment which unexpectedly influenced my creative energy for new paintings. However, age and circumstances have robbed me of my ability to paint and so, after a few attempts at combating this inactivity, I began jotting down notes about our past lives, which eventually needed to be put down in chronological order. It was then that I saw the possibility, by concentrating on the idea of a book, of compensating; for painting with writing. My life in the arts has occupied my time, energy and thoughts for almost ninety years. From about the age of eight my often expressed wish was to be an artist. long before I knew the meaning of the word but, by the age of fourteen, my interests had broadened to include poetry, music, history and philosophy. I grew hungry for books, started to collect and read into the early hours, as is recorded in these memoirs. These interests coupled with a love of nature, have not only enriched my days, but have had a subconscious influence upon my paintings, with a secret relationship with the Haywain!