Memoir & Diary extracts for January 1922 to January 1925

Memoir • 1922:

When the snow came I decided to paint on the moors. I selected a spot high up as I wanted a spacious view. I took a camp stool and painted for a couple of hours, quite engrossed in the effort of recording the bleak landscape under these conditions. When I came to pack up I found I couldn’t move. My legs were quite numb and my hands blue.

I did not often go out like that again without giving some idea of where I was going and it also brought home the impossibility of really constructive work under such conditions, so I made drawings and small oil sketches and embarked on a reconstruction of them in the studio.

The painting that emerged which I called “The Torrent” was exhibited at the local Arts Club exhibition and brought me my first press notice.

Memoir • [unknown date]:

Accepted at the Slade.

It was a great day for me when I was accepted by the Slade School in London and was awarded a special grant by the Drummond Foundation for the further education of Bradford Grammar School boys. I had never stayed in London before or seen any of the galleries and museums. So in the summer before I was due to join the Slade I went with Mother and some of the family to stay in a flat belonging to some friends who exchanged it for a holiday in our cottage in Ilkley. My lodgings had to be arranged and, after that, I was free to ramble round the galleries.

1st Jan 1925:

Began a small painting (16x10) of hills in snow. Memory of the ride in the car with Father last Sunday up to Windermere and Ambleside, through snow and hail storms.

3rd Jan 1925:

Began a small oil painting of sea and downs etc. (16x10) memory of Weymouth Downs. Experimenting with the contrasts of different kinds of grey, to produce movement of light.

6th Jan 1925:

Went to see Mr Butler and Miss Bolton at the Bradford School of Art. Mr Butler thought I should be slow in developing but that I must go ahead, not to be too keen on exhibiting, and he thought I should go a long way.

Some fine drawings up in the Life Room; Gaudier Breszka, W. Lewis, Kennington, P.& J. Nash etc.