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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
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 onthe 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
