Bronze Buddha and Scarlet Hippeastrum
By Winston Spencer Churchill
1948
Oil on canvas, 101.5 x 76 cm
Collection: National Trust
© The Churchill Heritage Ltd


Churchill as Artist
Half Passion, Half Philosophy

By Ron Cynewulf Robbins

Churchill was forty before he discovered the pleasures of painting. The compositional challenge of depicting a landscape gave the heroic rebel in him temporary repose. He possessed the heightened perception of the genuine artist to whom no scene is commonplace. Over a period of forty-eight years his creativity yielded more than 500 pictures. His art quickly became half passion, half philosophy. He enjoyed holding forth in speech and print on the aesthetic rewards for amateur devotees. To him it was the greatest of hobbies. He had found his other world—a respite from crowding events and pulsating politics.

His initiation was simplistic. As he put it: "...experiments with a child’s paint-box led me the next morning to produce a complete outfit in oils." Unfamiliarity with technique could not lessen his determination; discipline—and lessons—would have to wait. Yet a sense of awe seemed to impose restraint. The novitiate was caught by the wife of Sir John Lavery (distinguished leader of the Glasgow school of painting) tentatively handling a small brush." Painting!" she exclaimed. "But what are you hesitating about? Let me have a brush—the big one." She showed him that a brush was a weapon to subdue a blank, intimidating canvas by firing paint at it to dazzling effect. Never again did he feel the slightest inhibition.

Characteristically, Churchill’s first word of advice to budding artists was "audacity." He was a strong proponent of oils. Without intending any insult, he put "la peinture ‘a l’eau" in second place.

Read more:

http://bit.ly/11jLtAQ