Painting as a Pastime

By Winston S. Churchill

The first volume in a collection essays and journalism from the legendary politician and Nobel Prize–winning author explores his artistic pursuits.
 
Legendary politician and military strategist Winston S. Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role on the global stage. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his skilled writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs.
 
Best known for his political genius and keen eye for military tactics, Churchill was a man of many talents—not the least of which was painting. Throughout his life, Churchill painted to relieve his mind from the demands of leadership and to keep the “black dog” of depression at bay.
 
Included in this volume are Churchill’s meditations on painting as a salve for the spirit and an essential creative pursuit. His love for the craft comes to life in this concise yet impassioned work. This volume includes eighteen reprints of Churchill’s original work in oil, giving the reader a window into the little-known creative and artistic skill of this prominent figure in twentieth century history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9780795329791

Book preview

The first quality that is needed is Audacity. There really is no time for the deliberate approach. Two years of drawing-lessons, three years of copying woodcuts, five years of plaster casts—these are for the young…. We must not be too ambitious. We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paint-box. And for this Audacity is the only ticket.

Painting as a Pastime

Winston S. Churchill

Copyright

Painting as a Pastime

First published 1948. © Estate of Winston S. Churchill

Cover art, special contents, and Electronic Edition © 2014 by RosettaBooks LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Image of Winston Churchill painting at the easel at home at Chartwell reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown, London, on behalf of The Broadwater Collection, an archive of photographs owned by the Churchill family and held at the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.

Cover design by Alexia Garaventa

ISBN ePub edition: 9780795329791

Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Publisher’s Preface

Painting as a Pastime

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Paintings by Winston S. Churchill

A Vase of Flowers

Lakeside Scene, Lake Como

The Tapestries at Blenheim Palace

Olive Grove, La Dragonière

The Goldfish Pool at Chartwell

The Weald of Kent under Snow

The Mill, Saint-Georges-Motel, Normandy

The Mediterranean near Genoa

St. Jean, Cap Ferrat

By Lake Lugano, 1945

Foreword

I am delighted to see this small, but enchanting, book by my father published again, for many people do not fully appreciate the importance of the role painting played in his life.

Winston had already been smitten for about six years by this enthralling—for him—hobby, when he wrote this account of his ‘love affair’ with painting—for indeed, I think that is the only way to describe it—in the two articles he wrote for Strand Magazine in 1921 (which would later in 1948 be published for the first time as Painting as a Pastime). Over forty more years lay ahead of him before he would finally lay aside his brushes and palette in his great old age. ‘Happy are the painters,’ he wrote, ‘for they never shall be lonely: light and colour; peace and hope will keep them company to the end—or almost to the end of the day.’ And these, happily, would

Reviews for Painting as a Pastime

[melannen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is one I rescued from my grandmother's art library, and so can't, in a real way, be separated from my memories of her and her house. But it's a wonderful short read in its own right. The essay, "painting as a pastime", was originally published in "Amid These Storms," the book written in the 1930's while Churchill was taking an involuntary break from politics. It makes a wonderful argument for hobbies in general, and not just painting, and their essential role in both incredibly busy and idle lives. The writing is in that early 20th century style that often feels formal and dry to modern readers, but the beauty of it is worth the difficulty.The second half of the book (in my edition) is prints of some of Churchill's paintings, mostly from the late forties (over a decade after the writing of the essay) and worth the perusal. They're clearly the work of an amauteur, but still unmistakably *good*, and that's probably the best sort of work for a hobbyist to aspire to.

[royhartcentre · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An amusing little book