Phill Puryer

Since the age of around eight, it was quite apparent to my parents, school and me that art would probably play a big part in my life and everyone was proved to be right.

When I was nine, I was invited, with other children from the area, to attend the ‘painting enclosure’ at the Oxfordshire County Agricultural Show. There I was able, even in the glare of ‘the public’ who, I remember, asked many questions of us, to paint one of my favourite subjects.

That day I painted a white Fantail Pigeon, something I had painted many times before at the infants’ school in Upper Heyford.

St Mary’s, was a C of E school and was more of a family situation than a school one. We were encouraged to be good at what we were good at, in my case, anything ‘nature’ or painting and drawing, I was not very good at much else. I couldn’t read until I was probably eight or nine, which was actually very frustrating for me as I remember, because I wanted  to read about all of the animals, birds and fish etc., that I was enthralled by.

This state of affairs stayed with me pretty much all through my school career, until I went to Oxford C F E  to study for a career in hairdressing.

The course was basically a three year one but in the second year I sat and passed my ‘o’ level art which spurred me on to study the subject (at the expense of my hairdressing).

Along with a fellow student, I would attend, on a casual basis, the Ruskin Art School in the town, which opened my eyes to the wider world of art and painters from around the world.

Oxford, you may well know, is very rich in sources of inspiration, from libraries to museums, pubs and parks, colleges, universities, girls and so much more to ‘educate’ a young, malleable mind!

I was particularly enthralled by the folk art and customs of the native Amazonian Indians and Eastern European artists.

That was to be very advantageous, as I would later find in life, because I would go on to work for a while, in Siberia and Russia.

These adventures would be just the tip of the ice-burg, as far as traveling and working in far-flung places, from which I gained much valuable experience of cultures, other than the one in which I grew up.

As the years passed, my attempts at ‘academia’ were speckled to say-the-least and although I gained all of the qualifications I set out to achieve, none gave me the prize of M.A. which I felt, was what I really wanted.

In 1969 I married my sweetheart and settled down to become the typical sub-urban husband, going out to work in whatever job was available at the time and in those days there were indeed plenty of jobs to choose from. Well paid, at the time, which, as my family grew, seemed the only criteria!!

All the while, at the back of one’s mind, was the need to express ones-self artistically, whether in fashion, visual arts, or just to appear ‘arty’ to ones friends.

A little facile, granted, but I was young!

The list of artistic achievement is quite a long one. Not a  prestigious one but I have exhibited and taught, worked and played art, for a very long time.

My portfolio has dwindled and has been very much depleted over the years, as pieces have been given away, sold or lost in house-moves. Notwithstanding all of that, I now have an on-line shop on Etsy, and have shown some of my pieces locally over the years, in exhibitions, seminars, schools, shops and the like, which when all is said and done, is why I picked up a pencil in the far off days of childhood, to show off a bit really. Sounds very self-indulgent but as an artist, whether musical or visual, that is what we are about, showing off, what we feel we do best.