Inspired by Worth Art Master

Having learnt to paint by watching art master Anthony Renouf at Worth many years ago, Sinclair Webster R'67 is opening his first exhibition 'Little White Lines' in Chichester this week.

In advance of the exhibition Sinclair was interviewed by Sussex World where he talked about his art as well as his time at Worth. Of his time growing up, Sinclair says, 'My parents met in Belgium when my father was recuperating from wounds received during the advance to relieve the paratroops at Arnhem. My mother is a Fleming. According to family lore I started painting by daubing the wall beside my cot. I never looked back. There were a couple of painters in my mother’s family and I was always given paints and pencils when visiting family or friends so I could be seen but not heard. Now I use canvases.”

His father had grown up on the RAF base at Ismailia in Egypt and found post-war Britain too cold so took a job in Khartoum. Sinclair went to a Catholic Mission School which taught kids from all backgrounds and races. He recalls, 'I learned English from an Italian nun and talked a mixture of English Flemish gibberish at home but when I started writing right to left my father decided I needed a proper education in England.'

Sinclair says, 'At Worth I did Art O and A levels along with academic subjects. The art master, Anthony Renouf, who had studied under Stanley Spencer, painted alongside us and I learned by watching what he did. I did not go to art school but read Architecture and Fine Art at Cambridge. Despite a couple of shows in my gap year and at university, Architecture took over as I had married and had to earn a living. I found a niche which took me all over the world as a designer, and only in 2016 did I manage to return to painting full time.”

Talking of his work Sinclair explains,“Sometimes I have an Instagram Moment when I see something and afterwards, I try to reconstruct what it was that made me react. This could feature people, animals or landscapes. I am always drawing or doodling, so my pictures lie somewhere between graphic art and abstraction. I like to leave little white lines (hence the exhibition's title) between the areas of colour which make up the shapes.

The exhibition is on from Tuesday 29 September to Sunday 11 October at Oxmarket Contemporary Gallery, St Andrew's Court, off East Street, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1YH.