They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching...

 

The artist as a young man sixty years ago. 

They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching,

They have soaked you in convention through and through;

They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching - 

But can't you hear the wild? - it's calling you.

(From "The Call of the Wild" by Robert Service 1874-1958)

The young man in the photograph is me at the age of eighteen. I look contented enough, but looks can be deceptive. Within me a rebellion was brewing. Five years later I gave up a secure job in engineering design, converted a canal barge into a studio and with my wife and two year old daughter, set sail for the French canals. It was on the pavements of France that I declared myself as an artist. 

These beginning's are relevant to questions posed by my daughter Trina and my good friend Verlena. Trina is working in computer programming and Verlena is into her second year at university. Both are creatively inclined and frustrated. They asked: "How ever did you do it." and "Was it easier in those days than it would be now.".  

I did it by grabbing chances, living on a shoe string and adapting my skills to anything that came my way. Importantly, I had the good fortune of a wife who was happy to share my dream regardless of the hardships involved. 

To step out of the normal run of things will never be easy but it is perhaps easier today than what it was for me sixty years ago. I say that because young people now are more conditioned to normality by way of further education. The majority are all after the same thing, thus leaving room for others to find their own space by stepping aside. 

When I left a well paid job in engineering design everyone thought I was mad. Maybe I was, but happy to be so. If there is a God watching over us I believe he takes special care of those who take chances in life. When I live life for all it's worth he never lets me down, but when I try to play safe he puts all kinds of obstacles in my way.

But risk is every present. I have no pension and no security for old age. But no problem. When my work is finished, I will be finished!

Pete Seeger's recording of "Little Boxes" dates from 1963, the very year when I escaped from a life sentence in little boxes. 

The blight of "Little Boxes" has alas reached the Caribbean.

Living above the shop

Like many of the creative artists and craftsmen from the past, I live above the shop. 

I have spent the last two weeks renovating the living room from the ravages of two hurricanes and my numerous offspring. Everything in that space I have designed and made with my own hands, from the walls to the furniture, and the same goes for the kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom. The settee and chairs date back to twenty-five years ago. They were the first of my Caribbean Furniture Designs. The cushion covers date back to last week.

Let this be a lesson for those who think art is all about painting pictures and living in squalor. To survive an artist has to be skilled in all things creative. And the space within which we live is creatively the most important of all.  

Behind the screen

The opening picture shows the sketches I make from all angles in readiness for a sculpture of a standing figure. The finished sculpture of my model Verlena is shown below.

             

What I now have in mind is to use those eight different views to decorate a screen that has been languishing in my workshop for over twenty years. I originally made the screen in the misguided belief that my models might need it to discretely change behind. Front and back the screen has eight 15" x 55" panels, one for each view. Whereas my sculpture was quarter life-size, my screen decorations will be almost life-size. 

In order to retain a rapid sketch effect I'm tempted to try working in pastel, fixed with a spray varnish. In future posts I'll show you the work in progress. 

The screen standing in my workshop.

Verlena

All that is missing is my model. Verlena is now overseas at university. 

Sticking my neck out

In an earlier post I mentioned that our voyage through the Bahamas in 1976 met all the requirements of sailing and painting on the preverbal shoe string. By the time we had reached Green Turtle Cay we were penniless. In desperation I tried my luck with a collection of my sketches at the hotel above the anchorage. My confidence was at a low ebb when I reached the entrance. I was about to turn back when I noticed a sign saying, "A turtle only makes progress by sticking its neck out". 

As luck would have it, one of the guests remembered my work from the BVI and by sticking my neck out I sold four paintings. Confidence restored! 

Today's painting dates from those early days. The scene was a short deserted walk away from my studio which was nothing more than a shack on the shore of an idyllic cove. My boat was anchored in the crystal-clear waters of the reef-fringed cove with a handful of others. The cove is now a crowded marina surrounded by hotels and restaurants and the short walk now leads to the private grounds of palatial residences. My paradise was alas, ripe for development.

We are betrayed by what we love.

"The Painter's Workshop" Watercolour by Jean Jansen (1920-2013)

The act of painting reveals who we are. We are betrayed by what we love. (Jean Jansem)

I might add that an artist is also betrayed by the work of those he admires. Jean Jansem's oeuvre, materials and technique come close to my own attempts to master a similar way of recording what I love. 

Hovhannes Semerdjian, also known as Jean Jansem, was a French/Armenian painter of international renown. He was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 2003 and the President of Armenia awarded him a Medal of Honour for his reinforcement of Armenian/French cultural ties.

Painting by Jean Jansen

My School Report

In 1953, the year of my report card, England was still recovering from World War II and my school was located in the impoverished North of England. Although I came next to the bottom in the class, the fact that I am with you today as a painter and sculptor is thanks to Miss Atack, my primary school teacher. She was the first to recognize my flair for art. 

The fact that I was eventually able to excel in all subjects, is thanks to Miss Shepard, my remarkable "sink" secondary modern school headmistress. She diagnosed dyslexia before the word came into common usage. I was no longer perceived as dumb but different – just as Leonardo da Vinci, Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein were dyslexic and different.

Civilizations are built on creativity and so too is the well-being of society. Twenty years ago a mixed race school on the outskirts of London had all the usual problems of low grades, bullying, truancy and antisocial behaviour.  Then there came on the scene a headmistress who might have been Miss Atack and Miss Shepard reincarnated. With amazing effect she placed art, drama and music at the core of the school’s agenda with amazing effect. It was not long before the school’s steel band played at the Royal Festival Hall and her pupils performed in the “Merchant of Venice” at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Her strategy for embracing the arts had a marked effect on academic achievement. Results for English, mathematics, science and history were above the national average. School inspectors cited pupil confidence, high moral, pride of achievement and exemplary behaviour.

I have witnessed a similar success story here in the Caribbean. In the 1980’s two music teachers from Canada – a husband and wife team – came down to the British Virgin Islands and started a school orchestra from scratch. Students had to save up to buy their own instruments and the orchestra’s repertoire ranged from classics to jazz. The village baker’s son, a boy of enormous girth and by no means academically inclined, became a maestro on the tuba. At the end of the couple’s two year contract, the orchestra made a tour of cities in the United States and received standing ovations.

Caribbean Style

A few days ago my post titled One Skill Leads to Another showed work in progress on a rocking chair. Today's picture shows the end result. The chair is part of a collection Caribbean furniture that I've been working on over the years. The collection includes: chairs, tables, stools, planter's chairs, cabinets, a chaise longue and swing banquette. Each piece is unique in design and decoration. 

A book titled Caribbean Style, first published in 1985, contains a superb photographic collection of Caribbean architecture, interiors and furniture. 

Decoration Detail

While I was working on the chair, Hoagy Carmichael's "Old Rockin' Chair" was running around in my mind. Here is Armstrong and Jack Teagarden's version of the 1929 jazz classic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOxx1-LIAWA