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Posts Tagged ‘Winston Churchill’

President Bush Paints Veterans

Posted in Books, Serendipity, tagged George Bush, veterans, Winston Churchill, Wounded Warriors on February 28, 2017| Leave a Comment »

bush-portraits_final George W. Bush didn’t start painting until after he left the White House when he read Winston Churchill’s Painting as a Pastime. (Here’s a blog post we wrote about that book a few years ago.) He found that he loved painting and jumped in with both feet the way many of us do once we discover painting. He has spent the last year painting portraits of veterans in an attempt to bring attention to wounded veterans and profits from this book will be donated to the Military Service Initiative at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Great idea! His book is released today. Read and see more about it here.

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More on Churchill’s Art

Posted in Little Known Facts, Trivia, tagged Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill's art on April 21, 2014| 1 Comment »

Painting kept in an attic for 30 years because the owner did not like it has turned out to be the work of Sir Winston Churchill.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054563/Unloved-Winston-Churchill-painting-dumped-attic-30-years-sell-150-000-auction.html#ixzz2zTM9aPJM

I love to read stories about people who came to painting late in life or people who are known for one thing and then become painters. Winston Churchill was such a person. I have read several books about his work as an artist and how he felt about painting.

In his essay, Painting as a Pastime, published in The Strand Magazine in December 1921 and January 1922, he says, ” I do not presume to explain how to paint, but only how to get enjoyment. Do not turn the superior eye of critical passivity upon these efforts. Buy a paint-box and have a try. If you need something to occupy your leisure, to divert your mind from your daily round, to illuminate your holidays, do not be too ready to believe that you cannot find what you want here.”

Woodland Scene Near Mimizan by Winston Churchill

Churchill was an avid painter and encouraged others to try. He often said it was a hobby that kept the “Black Dog”, what he called depression, away.

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“Painting as a Pastime” by Winston Churchill

Posted in Little Known Facts, Trivia, tagged Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill's art on April 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Winston Churchill Painting

The Marlborough Tapestries at Blenheim by Winston Churchill

Flowers by Winston Churchill

If you watched the video interview from yesterday’s blog you heard Bush mention that he gathered some inspiration from the essay by Winston Churchill, “Painting as a Pastime”. First published in The Strand Magazine in 1921/22 Churchill writes about coming to painting later in life and the enjoyment of it. Here is one of my favorite excerpts from it:

“Just to paint is great fun. The colours are lovely to look at and delicious to squeeze out. Matching them, however crudely, with what you see is fascinating and absolutely absorbing. Try it if you have not done so – before you die. As one slowly begins to escape from the difficulties of choosing the right colours and laying them on in the right places and in the right way, wider considerations come into view.”

More about Churchill tomorrow.

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