New Book On Oldest ROI Member

A new book on the artist Cavendish Morton - 101 not out - is to be published on July 29. Written by Bella Janson it is an account of many converstaion she has had with the great man who was made a Senior Honoray Member  of the ROI. Here's some more imformation from ther author:

Conversations with CAVENDISH MORTON offers a rare opportunity to glimpse into the changing

cultural life of Britain over the last century through the eyes and lively recollections of an artist whose life

spans those one hundred years.

Born in 1911, Cavendish Morton has been well known as a painter, designer, teacher and tireless

 

promoter of twentieth-century art. This book about his life and work is based on conversations between

the artist and Bella Janson, with dialogue exploring Morton’s early years, his work in East Anglia, along

with his subtle and atmospheric scenes of the Solent familiar to so many on the Isle of Wight, where he

now lives. Morton’s conversations are peppered with fascinating anecdotes, his keen mind and

wonderful memory never failing to enchant.

Also included is a selection of over 170 colour images illustrating his life and representing some of his

best work in all genres.

Snapshots from his remarkable life

His parents provided a scientific and creative home education. His father, Cavendish Morton,

was a photographer who specialised in theatrical and society portraits (many of which are held at

the National Portrait Gallery), while his mother Joan was a novelist who wrote under the name

 

of Concordia Merrel. She was immortalised in 1910 as the Kodak Girl, when the poster was

basrd on one of these photographs

Being taught the drums by Buddy Gilmore of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra which came

over from America in the early 1920s.

 At the age of fifteen, along with his twin brother, being hired out to help build a fishing boat on
the sands of St Ives during the year of the Great Strike;

At eighteen having his picture of Sir Thomas Lipton’s J Class yacht Shamrock V accepted by the

Royal Academy for its Summer Exhibition

Documenting the race for speed in the skies and becoming friends with those airmen who went

on to win the Schneider Trophy over the Solent in 1931;

Producing illustrations of ships at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard and planes for aircraft

manufacturing companies before World War II;

Involvement with the Norwich Twenty Group with Jeffery Camp and Mary Newcomb among

others to promote the appreciation of contemporary art in East Anglia;

Working for Sphere magazine as an industrial artist;

Chairing of Gainsborough’s House Society during a crucial phase of its development;

Painting the construction of Benjamin Britten’s brainchild, the concert hall at Snape Maltings

near Aldeburgh , painstakingly recording its destruction by fire in 1969 as well as its rebirth from

the ashes.

At the usual age of retirement kindling another painting career on the Isle of Wight until

blindness settled over him at the age of ninety-two.

Morton’s work as an artist never stood still and the pictures in this book form the backdrop to a life well

lived. Bella Janson was drawn in by his stories and zest for life when still a teenager. Her career as an

independent film-maker, photographer and writer has centred on telling the stories of people and places.

Over the years she has produced shows for the National Trust, the Natural History Museum, English

Heritage, Zoological Society of London and the Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre. In 2008 she started

recording her conversations with Cavendish Morton and working with his family to produce this enjoyable

record of one man’s journey through life as an artist.

More information here: •  bella@bellajanson.co.uk  •  http://www.bellajanson.co.uk