Winston Churchill & William Nicholson
PAINTING MORE THAN A PASTIME
A talk by Clive McCarthy MA FRSA
In 1915 Churchill was rescued from depression by ‘the muse of painting’ Painting was the mainstay that enabled one of our greatest leaders to achieve what he did. After first meeting Churchill and his wife, Clementine, in the summer of 1933, Nicholson was to become a close family friend and popular feature in Chartwell life during the 1930s. Nicholson was already a successful and established artist of still-life, landscape and portraits. He was to have an important influence over Churchill's artistic development, especially the introduction of a softer brighter, palette. Churchill later recalled "I think the person who taught me most about painting was William Nicholson" The pair often painted together at Chartwell, and in 1935 both produced scenes of the swimming pool there which now hang together in the Studio at Chartwell.
Clive McCarthy spent his childhood in Osnabrück Germany and has lived in various cities across the UK. A former student of Lincoln Art College and also De Montfort University, his subject specialism was lens based digital medias. Clive retired in 2021 as a senior lecturer within the creative arts at the University of Lincoln.
In 2016 he returned to painting as his main creative output via art courses at The St Ives School of Painting, during that time he trained under Gary Long and Hilary Jean Gibson. His main influences are the painters Joseph Mallord William Turner RA, Sir William Nicholson, Samuel John “Lamorna” Birch, RA. Mark Rothko. John Constable RA, Sir John Lavery RA RSA, and many if not all of the French and Spanish impressionists, the artistic myriad is endless. The paintings for this exhibition in Newark Town Hall, has been created mostly in the last two years. The artist has travelled many places in England, Wales, Scotland and the continent, with the textures of impressionism and the palate of the Scottish colourists driving the themes of the work.
Clive has a Masters degree in Art, is a friend of The Royal Academy of Arts) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
In the days leading up to the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020, thousands (Almost 250,000 people) left London and headed elsewhere in the country, before Britain was told to stay at home. Famously A sign reading "Wales Closed, Go Home!" was seen in Snowdonia as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continued. My painting was started on a canvas board using oil pastels, near the Tate Modern looking at Southwark Bridge and the city beyond, there was a distinct lack of people on that day. I also sketched several images of the tube system which was also as eerily deserted and added to a feeling of impending doom. In the first days of lockdown i overworked the oil pastels with oil paint, the final piece has quite a monochromatic feel.
Tribute to Samuel John "Lamorna" Birch, RA, RWS, Samuel John Birch took the additional name of Lamorna in order to distinguish himself. A great deal of his work was carried out in Cornwall, but he did not confine himself to this area as he was a keen fisherman and he made frequent visits to Scotland, Wales, the North West of England and the West Country to indulge his twin passions of painting and fishing.
"Carry farm is a pretty special patch of land. Species-rich grassland dominates the pastures with a rare fragment of ancient woodland bounding the land to the west. Within the woodland, old sessile oak trees, hollies, hazel, and hawthorn provide a canopy for the red squirrels to leap about their business. The open grassland areas with wildflowers provide abundant foraging opportunities for bumblebees and butterflies."
Two paintings of Whitby from different vantage points. Seaside town, Yorkshire, northern England, Gothic Whitby Abbey, Bram Stoker’s inspiration for “Dracula”. Church of St. Mary, reached by 199 steps. The Captain Cook's house, West of town is West Cliff Beach, lined with beach huts.
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Cley Windmill was built in the early 19th century. Missing from William Faden's map of Norfolk published in 1797. The first mention was an advert in the Norfolk Chronicle of 26 June 1819, where the mill was for sale, described as "newly erected" and in the ownership of the Farthing family, but stayed with the Farthing family, until 1875.
Two studies of sky and sea Eryri National Park Tywyn Snowdonia, the warmth of the colours on the day is quite evident.
The Tuileries Gardens take their name from the tile factories which previously stood on the site where Queen Catherine de Medici built the Palais des Tuileries in 1564. André Le Nôtre, the famous gardener of King Louis XIV, re-landscaped the gardens in 1664 to give them their current French formal garden style. The gardens, which separate the Louvre from the Place de la Concorde, are a pleasant place for walking and for culture for Parisians and tourists. During our trip to Paris in 2023, myself and my wife walked 22 miles in 5 days, this was painted during some relaxation inthe gardens, clearly 3 days of looking at the major impressionist art galleries had made its mark.
The tiny hamlet of Ellerburn was formerly an industrial area with paper mills and quarries. There is an ancient church, a Grade II listed building, which can boast some unconventional vicars. One in the 18th century stole stones to restore the church; another in the following century seems to have regularly fallen into the adjacent Thornton Beck and held services dripping wet
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The Fossdyke was originally dug in AD 120 by the Romans to link the River Trent with the River Witham at Lincoln. English landscape painter. Peter De Wint painted Lincoln several times from my approximate position. De Wint was the son of an English physician of Dutch extraction who had come to England from New York. He was born in Stone, Staffordshire. I chose De Wints composition and JMW Turners colour palette from his View of Richmond Hill and Bridge painting exhibited in 1808.
The Pont Neuf (French pronunciation "New Bridge") is the oldest standing bridge across the river Seine in Paris, France. It stands by the western (downstream) point of the Île de la Cité, the island in the middle of the river that was, between 250 and 225 BC, the birthplace of Paris, then known as Lutetia and, during the medieval period, the heart of the city. Both Renoir and Monet painted separate works using the same perspective to depict the Right Bank side of the bridge from the second-floor window of a cafe, Edmond Renoir, Renoir's brother, helped him to set the scene by delaying people walking on the bridge and asking them questions, giving Renoir time to sketch their likeness. Edmond himself appears twice in the painting with a walking stick and straw boater hat. Renoir started his work in the spring and sold it at auction to French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel on March 24, 1875, for only 300 francs.
Saltburn-by-the-Sea, commonly referred to as Saltburn, is a seaside town in North Yorkshire, England, 12 miles (19 km) south-east of Hartlepool and 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Redcar. It lies within the historic boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire. I chose an unhindered view of its beautiful beach. Saltburn Beach in Yorkshire was crowned the UK's best beach for 2021, beating over 400 other hotspots.
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STILL LIFE POT & CUP, painted with Paul Cezanne in mind, my lines are quite crude, but this was a good exercise for me, each part of the composition was important: the foreground, the background, the objects, and the spaces between them. Line, color, form, and space.
Wells-next-the-Sea An oil sketch/study made in oil paint and beeswax impasto in preparation for a larger work. The name is Guella in the Domesday Book of 1086 (half gallicised, half Latinised from Anglian Wella, a spring). This derives from spring wells, of which Wells used to have many, rising through the chalk of the area. The town became Wells-next-the-Sea from juxta mare in the 14th century to distinguish it from other places of the same name.
The town Maryport was established around 122 as one of several Roman localities called Alauna. It was a command and supply base for the coastal defences at the western extremity of Hadrian's Wall. The town contains substantial remains of the Roman fort, which was the last in a series that stretched southwards along the coast from the wall to prevent it being avoided by crossing the Solway Firth.
Ennerdale Water is the most westerly lake in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It is a glacial lake, with a maximum depth of 150 feet (46 metres), and is 1⁄2 to 1 mile (800 to 1,600 m) wide and 2+1⁄2 miles (4.0 kilometres) long. The lake lies in the eponymous valley of Ennerdale, surrounded by some of the highest and best-known fells in Cumbria including: Great Gable (899 m), Green Gable, Brandreth, High Crag, Steeple and Pillar. To the west of the lake lies the hamlet of Ennerdale Bridge, consisting of two pubs and a few houses.
The sea was rough on this day, so Whitby or Sandsend Beach were barely visible, but in better weather (good painting weather) it is a popular haunt with fossil collectors and fishing enthusiasts.
“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.” Bram Stoker, Dracula
A FIELD IN NAVENBY LINCOLNSHIRE LOOKING OUT OVER THE CLIFF, OIL AND IMPASTO ON BOARD, 2021
One of my favourite Lincolnshire Villages, From ancient Roman times there are parts of shops and houses that would have fronted onto Ermine Street, down which Roman armies marched to and from the Legionary Fortress at Lincoln. The Vikings exerted great influence over Lincolnshire in the 9th and 10th centuries, as can be seen in the many local place names ending in by, such as Navenby. Names ending with by meant homestead or village.
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Tighnabruaich, Kyles of Bute, Scotland, 2020
Oil on board
Tighnabruaich, Taigh na Bruaich. Argyll's Secret Coast, a narrow sea channel that separates the northern end of the Isle of Bute from the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, on the Scottish mainland. The surrounding hillsides are roughly wooded, and overlooked by rocky tops and areas of moorland
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Tighnabruaich, Kyles of Bute, Scotland, 2020
Oil on board, triptych
On the shore of the beautiful Kyles of Bute, Tighnabruaich is a pretty little village on the west coast of Scotland.
Roughton Heath, NORFOLK
Oil and impasto on board
In September 1933, Albert Einstein was brought to live in a small hut on Roughton Heath after fleeing Nazi regime in Germany. Commander Oliver Locker-Lampson MP offered Einstein a refuge in Norfolk before he travelled to the United States. While here, he was sculpted by Jacob Epstein.
A blue plaque commemorating Einstein's stay can be found at the entrance of the New Inn public house in the village. On 7 October 1933, he set sail from Southampton for a new life in the United States and never returned to Europe.
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Isle of Arran, Scotland, 2020
Oil Impasto on board,
This canvas is in memory of my father. He loved the sea and when I was a boy he would take me sea fishing at various spots along the East Coast of England (South Shields was favourite), where we used to catch sea dabs and give them away to the locals, then he would buy me a penny cone of chips (pre decimal old money).
This is a view from the Isle of Arran and this is looking out to sea from Blackwaterfoot towards the Scottish mainland. It’s a depiction of the sea, land and heavens where I know my father is now.
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Lincoln, from a field near Saxilby, 2021
Oil on board
Inspired by the work of Peter De Wint (21 January 1784 – 30 January 1849). In 1806 he visited Lincoln for the first time, with the painter of historical subjects William Hilton, R.A., whose sister Harriet he married in 1810. De Wint and Hilton lived together in Broad Street, Golden Square, where John Varley lived. Varley gave De Wint lessons and introduced him to Dr Monro, who ran an informal academy for young artists.
De Wint's life was devoted to art; he painted admirably in oils, and he ranks as one of the chief English watercolorists. "No artist", asserted Alfred William Rich, "ever came nearer painting a perfect picture than did Peter de Wint." He frequently visited his wife's home city of Lincoln, and many of his panoramic landscapes and haymaking scenes are set in Lincolnshire.
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Filey Bay, Yorkshire 2020
Oil on board
Filey is at the eastern end of the Cleveland Way, a long-distance footpath; it starts at Helmsley and skirts the North Yorkshire Moors. The town is at the northern end of the Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail which starts at Hessle and crosses the Yorkshire Wolds.
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