I lay in a hospital bed blinded by a freak accident. I was a few months short of my fifteenth birthday. My prospects were not good. I was a war baby just five years old when the bombs fell on London and then Bristol. I remember the red night skies and the noise and the searchlights. It was modern times. I knew no different. I went to seven or eight different schools and for a while ran free on the gentle hills of Teesdale. I failed the 11+.
But as I lay huddled in that dark hospital bed, bewildered and fearful, I was unaware that all was not lost. The headmaster of my last school, Walter Bradley, of grateful memory, was already assembling a portfolio of my school art works and in due course they were presented to the Principal of The West of England College of Art. He gave them the nod and in early January 1950, my eyesight in one eye restored and a little confidence regained, I entered a new world. A world that I still belong to. A world that changed my life for ever.
Mr Bradley’s optimism and belief in me has, I hope, been rewarded in some way for I owe him so much.
And so I became an artist. And sometime later a photographer. And later still an art critic with a weekly column in the local newspaper. It is hard to believe that such good fortune fell upon me. Doors opened and I hurried through.
Photography certainly helped pay the bills. Industrial and advertising, theatre and fashion, architecture and documentary. I worked home and away and met many interesting people from all walks of life. And the art critic episode certainly sharpened one’s mind and indeed led to an introduction to the Editor of the Daily Express in Fleet Street - an offer I politely declined.
But from those early days until now it is art that has embraced me - held me in its tantalising grip. I have wandered through many galleries in the Western World, discovered the light, colour and texture of the South, exhibited far and wide and met and made friends with both the celebrated and retiring. And there is always the unexpected that gives one pleasure like the lady who got in touch with me to say that she had recently bought one of my paintings at a London Auction House and that it 'filled her room with light and joy ‘. What more can one ask?
I dedicate this exhibition to my darling wife Elizabeth; Eliza; Liz who has supported and encouraged me through our long and happy marriage. And also to our children Camilla and Crispian my heartfelt thanks.
