Painting as a Pastime

In 1932 a collection of essays and newspaper articles by  Winston Churchill was published under the title “Thoughts  and Adventures”. Thought provoking, amusing and  prescient, they are worth dipping into but the last two  essays in the book, “Hobbies” and “Painting as a Pastime”,  are miniature classics and after World War II they appeared in their own right as a separate book under the latter title. 

Twenty-one years later in 1953, newly married and soon to  leave with my wife to work in South Africa, I wandered one  lunchtime into a Manchester book shop with a £50 kit allowance in my pocket,  thoughtfully provided by my employers. Attracted by both the title and the author’s  name (Mr Churchill was Prime Minister at the time), I picked up the slender volume,  containing 18 colour reproductions of his paintings, and read through its 32 pages  on the spot. Instantly fired by his own enthusiasm for the subject I walked out of the  shop and spent a sizable part of my kit allowance on a box of Reeves oil paints. 

Such was my introduction to the Muse of Painting. I would guess that anyone  susceptible to he charms could not fail to be tempted to make tentative steps in the  same direction after reading this brilliant essay. 

I cannot claim to be especially gifted but achieving a familiarity with the technique of  making coloured marks on a piece of canvas or painted board, though often ending  in disasters, does ultimately and with increasing frequency, produce results pleasing  to the eye. It is a wholly absorbing and satisfying way of spending leisure hours. Just  to paint is great fun. In time it pays a growing dividend of pleasure. 

There are books galore to teach you about the how, when and where but if you have  a latent spark within you to try to record some if the beauty that surrounds us, you  can make no better start than to read Churchill’s words on the subject of painting to ignite it; preferably before you are 40!

John Evans
First published as a church newsletter article