Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A portrait painter who painted Sir Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, and Princess Anne in official portraits.
On the island
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08What inspired your decision to become a painter? Did it start at school?
No, really, it was um it's connected really with my older brother, who was an artist and used to do a lot of work for Punch. It was really he who got me doing it. I think it must be attributed to him, because I was no good at school, left school uh as early as I could. Yes. And and my only possible gift was drawing, so I I drifted into that.
Presenter asks
0:50Obviously it takes a long time for a portrait painter to build up his reputation and his clientele. How did you keep yourself in those early days?
I was uh doing all sorts of odd jobs. I was doing a little bit of scene painting, uh apple picking, um a little bit of teaching. It was it was a very difficult one, was it only too grateful if uh if somebody's uh aunt asked you whether they'd paint their portrait for for five pounds or something like that, it it was really uh scratching along that way.
Presenter asks
3:47What's your favorite Churchill story?
Oh, um yes, one particular story stands out in my mind when I had um been invited to Chartwell to have lunch with with him and uh Mary Soames was there. At the time, his daughter, yes. And um uh and sadly Lady Churchill was in hospital at that time, but however, there were we sitting round the dining-room table before the the the big sitting, and Mary Soames uh brought up a story about a friend of hers who was writing about the Loch Ness Monster. And of course Winston didn't uh didn't think too much of this. And uh she was quite convinced there was something there, and she'd seen photographs and so on of them. And I came back with the story of how I'd recently uh read a book about flying saucers, an American book. People had seen these things on radar screens and they'd sign affidavits to say they'd seen them and so on and so on. And I was myself very convinced that there was probably something there. And of course, at which moment Winston Churchill comes in and says, I don't believe in these things. I was much more impressed when I looked through the world's most powerful telescope and see there was a Milky Way beyond our Milky Way. And so I said in reply, I said, well, you speak like that, sir, but surely the the more telescopes we make and the more worlds we discover through them, it's becoming a bit of a presumption to take the attitude that we're the only world with life on it. And he said, yes, I give you that one, I give you that one, but I think we should treat the other planets with a contemporary.
Presenter asks
6:17How do you start on a portrait? Someone you don't know comes into your studio. First of all, I suppose you'll have to get to know him before you can start work.
It's not um absolutely necessary, but I do like to have um lunch or some time with a person. I'm painting because um In a way, you see, it's uh one has to sort of to a certain extent kind of caricature them, taking this angel thing. A little time it does help. I sometimes I have started on the spur of the moment straight away and realized afterwards that there was parts of their face that uh should have been brought out from my point of view.
Presenter asks
6:53You start with a few quick sketches, do you, before you get down to the next one?
Yes, yes, usually in charcoal on the canvas or one or two canvases to get out an idea and then slide into it when you feel a little bit more confident about it, that you've got something of the spirit of the person there.
“I was uh doing all sorts of odd jobs. I was doing a little bit of scene painting, uh apple picking, um a little bit of teaching. It was it was a very difficult one, was it only too grateful if uh if somebody's uh aunt asked you whether they'd paint their portrait for for five pounds or something like that, it it was really uh scratching along that way.”
“I was myself very convinced that there was probably something there. And of course, at which moment Winston Churchill comes in and says, I don't believe in these things. I was much more impressed when I looked through the world's most powerful telescope and see there was a Milky Way beyond our Milky Way. And so I said in reply, I said, well, you speak like that, sir, but surely the the more telescopes we make and the more worlds we discover through them, it's becoming a bit of a presumption to take the attitude that we're the only world with life on it.”
“This was for the 14th, 20th King's Hussars, and it was the first official portrait that she'd sat for, so it was all rather exciting. I'm not quite certain whether she was as frightened with sitting as I was painting her at that moment. Of course there's a strange enigma about royalty which one can't quite come to terms with.”
“Yeah, this is this is true. It's called the castle, really. It's a folly. It might be described as one of the top ten follies in England, actually. It's a shell, it always has been, and I describe it as a factory chimney, the same height as Nelson's Column, which indeed it is, 180 feet. And I describe it as a factory chimney. It's been cleverly disguised as a Gothic cathedral. But it's a fantastic building.”