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    It is my privilege to be a painter. From an early age I liked to draw and colour giving much pleasure to loved ones with my efforts. At an age now when most have settled into quiet domesticity I have set myself to painting as much as possible. The independence  of will required does not come without cost and the demands of shelter and sustenance have led me to obligations that deprive me of the opportunity to paint, but by turns provide. Through my efforts I provide for myself.

    My education began privately my parents of the mind I should be given the best start in life. I was an unremarkable student excelling at nothing. Creative interests persisted though forays musical proved undistinguished. Eventually I considered there was a living to be made through drawing. Through some travel and great sacrifice by my family I secured a place at a School of Architecture there embarking upon a course of study of the Arts that greatly broadened my mind. Education is the single greatest purpose to which a person can put themselves during what is so brief a time available.

    It was in the second half of my education that I became aware the profession had no place for me. Though I resolved to persist with my studies to their conclusion I turned to painting at this time. When the time came for for me to assume responsibility for my own financial affairs I found the only work I could was as Draughtsman in an Architectural office and it was necessary to set aside my paints.

    By the time of my return to these shores I was sadly embittered by my situation. My attitude to life was not to my credit and the dissolute years that followed I painted still less. It was at this time that fate took a hand as the latest in a succession of unhappy tenancies was signalled for an end. I had taken a room in various boarding houses around London moving my few shabby belongings about with me every few months. The end was not welcome when it came with uncertainty added to unhappiness but I could afford nothing else, but the circumstances of this last tenancy were particularly upsetting and I resolved in future to take rooms of my own. Finding lodgings is one of the greater challenges of living in this city but eventually I found three rooms above a shop quite nearby.

    Despite a lack of secure employment and two periods entirely without I have called these humble rooms my home for more than eight years, though inconsiderate neighbours now make them far less pleasant than in years past. These years have seen much change not least among them two years in the study of Art so I might improve as a painter and learn something of how I might make this creative work the greater part of my occupation. In the course of this study I came to understand my creative work as a part of my nature and not an employment.

    I paint for I am simply compelled to express myself on canvas and give over intentionally even my manner of living as a means of expression.

    In these more settled years I was able to bring my Paternal Grandmother to visit my humble rooms. She has inspired my manner of living for through her I have been able connect to that period in which she was born to evoke my life as it would have been Then in this time Now. The work is independent creative expression, it is the making of my life it is Me Then Now.

The Path Of Life To Me Then Now

The Fields Beneath

Oil on reused Canvas

25x18 1/2”

19o4 Studio Home

Paintings