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JL Can you tell me
when you started painting? - At what age?
RA. Yes, when I was twelve, the person that really inspired me to paint, was my father. My mother had been shopping and had brought back some oranges in a paper bag. On this particular evening I was painting in a sketch book at the table, he picked up the empty paper bag and said "come and look at this paper bag", he pointed out the colours in the white of the bag and it was such a revelation - like a cave full of jewels, then from that day I was hooked on painting.
JL. You painted a lot
after that?
RA. After that it was
non - stop.
JL. You were twelve
when you started (the earliest drawing reproduced 1950 aged twelve
called "Camp Fire in the Wood") of trees. Do you know why it was of
trees?
Camp Fire
RA Yes - I was born
in the country and yet lived most of my life in the town.
JL. How rural was it?
RA. Not too far way
from the house where I was born was Charnwood Forest which is an ancient
granite outcrop. Geologically there is nothing like it anywhere in
England. It is less a forest than a range of rugged granite hills, and
has been described as a piece of Wales, which has been taken up and set
down in the green heart of Leicestershire. Certainly this is not a bad
description, for though none of its summits reach a thousand feet it has
all the characteristics of a mountain range in miniature; here you will
find rocky gorges, hills crowned by spectacular crags, dark lakes and
woods. Also a few miles away from where I was born was Coleorton Hall,
whose owners are one of the few English families who can really trace
their family history back to the Norman Conquest. The present building
is a handsome nineteenth-century house in the classical style. It is
rich in literary and artistic associations, for Sir George Beaumont (who
was one of the founders of the National Gallery) delighted in the
society of writers and artists. There came Byron, Constable, Scott, and
Southey while to Wordsworth it was almost a second home.
JL. Did you go
walking on this ancient granite outcrop?
RA. Yes.
JL. Did you observe
any specific visual influences at that time, like comics?
RA. Yes - comics I
enjoyed reading. As a child I was very much impressed by a book of Fairy
Tales, published by Hutchinson's and illustrated in colour by W.H. Cobb,
and "The Old Fairy Tales" illustrated by Lillian A.Govey, published by
Nelson.
JL. What was the
teaching like at school?
RA At Loughborough
College of Art?
JL. No I meant before
that, prior to that you left school at sixteen. Up to the age of
sixteen what was the art teaching like, was that significant?
RA. No.
JL. You were really
self-taught?
RA. I was more taught
by my father than the actual schools. He went to the Leicester College
of Art in the twenties and did mainly watercolours.
JL. But I thought he
was a grainer.
RA No not at that
time - later he went to the commercial side of art and became a
brilliant grainer, marbler, signwriter and glass guilder. Which may
sound rather prosaic - but if one remembers that artists like Hogarth
and Sir John Millais P.R.A.also painted signs: This gives it a new
ambiance.
JL. He was serious,
but what you might call an amateur painter.
RA. Not amateur -
simply not recognised at the right time, the 1920/30s were not the best
time for anyone in the arts; dole queues do not exactly inspire a career
in art.
JL. What sort of
pictures?
RA. Landscapes and
still-life. (See his Watercolour 'Prince').
Prince
JL. Landscapes in a
sort of twenties style. How interesting. So that was probably the
prominent influence.
RA. Indeed it was -
though his vision was more academic he considered becoming an R.A. The
ultimate accolade - that is the Royal Academy of the thirties - not
today.
JL. And did he
encourage you or discourage you?
RA. I wouldn't say he
encouraged me at all. My mother did the encouraging. He inspired me to
see and paint but not to take it up as a career.
JL. Do you feel that
at that time you had anything that could be described as a personal
vision? Or do you think you were influenced by the prevailing ideas at
the time?
RA. Probably the
first and strongest influence in my early years at Loughborough College
of Art was Samuel Palmer's "Bright Cloud" (a reproduction was hanging in
the studio at Loughborough) also Renoir, Cézanne, Degas and Ben
Nicholson's father, Sir William Nicholson. This Nicholson influence is
evident in my still-life painting "Mushrooms, Onion and Knife". I think
by the late fifties an early personal vision was forming.
Mushrooms, Onion and Knife
JL. What was that
then - can you put it into words?
RA. Yes as regard
line - graining and the lettering side of my fathers influence was
gradually coming through.
JL. Could you show me
one of these? Would it be on this page?
RA. Yes its in
"Garden Allotments"!
JL. Oh I see.
RA. That's the
beginning of line, you see the grasses forming. Almost like graining.
JL. It might be
helpful RA. Can we go right back to something - you were born in the
countryside, what age were you when you left?
RA. Two years of age.
RA. At two I went to
Loughborough to actually live in the town for most of the year, but for
the summer holidays I returned for six weeks to the country.
JL. So those six weeks were
very important.
RA. Vital, yes
absolutely, like a root.
JL. Why was it so
important?
RA. It's difficult to
explain - I think the peace of the country compared with the town was so
refreshing that I came back filled with a sense of wonder, after living
for nine months in the town.
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