I was staying with my friend, Guy Taplin, a few months ago and happened to comment on an extraordinary painting which was hanging in his home. It was by John Charlesworth, he told me, who had studied Fine Art at Reading with Guy's wife, Robina, in the late 60s/early 70s. By coincidence, Guy had photos of other Charlesworth paintings and within 10 minutes I was hooked.

Why hadn't Charlesworth been snapped up by London galleries, I asked Guy. He explained that for much of the last 25 years John had suffered ill-health but was now, thankfully, fit and well. He also lives in Cumbria -- which may as well be Siberia to many London dealers -- so this shy, retiring man had never pushed his work in the way in which it deserved. Guy felt the time was right for a gallery to approach him with a view to forming a serious relationship.

Shortly afterwards, I telephoned John. I was at his cottage in Cumbria at ten o'clock the next morning. I wandered through his home, viewing his work and in awe of the talent of this rather humble man -- he was amazed that I had driven all that way just to see him -- who clearly didn't fully appreciate how good he is. But, then, how do you know this when you live a relatively isolated life?

We talked about him, his family, his work and the trials and tribulations of his life. We talked about the gallery, although he already knew about that from Guy -- oh yes, and a little about football, but then I'll talk to anyone about football....! John lives in an RAF low flying area and aircraft flew at low level over us while we chatted. As planes often come into his paintings, he was fascinated to learn that I had been a fighter pilot in an earlier life and had probably 'beaten up' his home in years gone by. I think we easily warmed to each other and I left a few hours later having offered him a show if he would let me have the 25 paintings which I had selected.

Charlesworth's paintings are truly fascinating -- a hint of Dali in some, Spencer in others -- but I have never seen work quite like it. When I look at one of his paintings, my immediate thought is, "How in heaven's name could John think of such subject material?" But each painting has a short narrative with it which goes some way -- just some way -- towards an explanation of what was going through the artist's mind at the time. I mean, really, how do you come up with a title such as 'The Carlisle-Seattle Railway Looking Towards Vancouver'?

Born in Manchester in 1947, John Charlesworth has, when in better health, shown in London, Tokyo and Vancouver as well as numerous regional British shows. He has never painted more than 10 paintings in a year and most of the work in this show has remained unseen, although dating from 1990 to the present.

I find it hard to believe that such talent has, for the most part, lain dormant for so long. I am sure that this is the start of a long and successful relationship and we shall do our best to ensure that dormancy is a thing of the past for John Charlesworth.

Ian Courcoux

back