Memoir extracts for October 1920 to November 1921
Memoir • [unknown date]:
Richard became disappointed with the art school.
I had looked forward to mixing with other students having heard stories of their doings from the Pearsons when they talked about their student days. So I was puzzled when I found that there was no other student who wanted to be an artist, i.e. one who paints pictures. They were all studying “commercial art".
Memoir • [unknown date]:
I was most sorry to leave Bradford, I loved it, and when I was told that Big Ben would not be able to come to Ilkley I was furious. One of the very few times, if not the only one, when I nearly lost my reason with fury (and what is more expressed it) was on this occasion. So when the removal took place I took Big Ben in a hamper by train to Ilkley myself.
Memoir • [unknown date]:
The smallness of the house persuaded Father to purchase a second-hand hut to stand in the garden. This he allowed me to use as a studio and bedroom combined. I soon had it fitted up and decided I would almost live in it as far as possible. I may have regretted leaving Bradford but the change had one overwhelming influence on my future.
Richard is referring to the paintings he did of the local moorland landscapes, including a particular tree in their garden, and the bearing they had on his career as an artist.
When it came time in late summer of 1921 for his father to decide if Richard could carry on at the art school, Richard's instructor at first suggested that Richard should really think about becoming a teacher rather than an artist.
Disappointed, Richard took his instructor to his studio and showed him the pictures he had done throughout the summer.
. . . There was a stunted oak tree in our garden at Ilkley. I bought a canvas and laboured in the open air during that summer on a painting of it. I painted several smaller pictures on the moors and made pastel and pencil drawings of the quarries . . .
On seeing this latest set of pictures, the instructor said to Richard's father:
. . . Well, that knocks teaching on the head."
Twenty years later, after I had been elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Arts, Father wrote to my old teacher and reminded him of his decision on that fateful afternoon and thanked him for it.
Memoir • [unknown date]:
An art club that Richard attended visited Farnley Hall near Otley which had about 250 Turners.
It was then that I discovered the presence of Farnley Hall which I could see from the moors above our house. I went to see the wonderful collection of Turner watercolours, which had been purchased from the painter, many of them depicting Farnley itself and the surrounding country. Turner became my hero and I bought an old bicycle and explored Wharfedale trying, in many cases, to locate the exact spot where he must have sat to make his drawings.
Memoir • 1921:
I made a visit to Liverpool to see some old relatives at Birkenhead for a day or two. I had never seen docks under winter conditions and when I arrived home I painted a sunset over the docks with a steamer churning up water all emerald green and orange. I must have used many dangerous colours on this work but to-day it still looks as fresh as when it was painted over thirty years ago.