An artist in the family
My grandfather was a skilled artist - well in my eyes he was. He also taught art at secondary school.
We have this picture hanging in our house. It was produced using a technique called batique. This involves covering areas with wax and then using a dye to colour the uncovered areas. This is performed for each colour in the image; a very painstaking and precise process.
My dad also recently showed me a load of art that he had found that he had stored in the loft that his dad had also produced.He drew a set of knots - very simple but effective.
And my favourite piece, a pencil sketch of a tree.During the second world war he serviced Wellington Bombers in the desert. We also have a handwritten maintenance manual he produced with lots of pen drawings he did to cover different areas of the plane. We plan to donate this to a museum that is restoring one of the last of these bombers as they may find it useful.He was also an excellent wood carver. One of my most treasured possessions is a carving he made for one of my birthdays of my childhood hero, the cricketer Ian Botham. Apparently he had my grandmother standing in the kitchen with a broom to get the pose right.
He once tried to teach me the skills involved in wood carving. I still remember spending the day in his shed with him carving something that vaguely looked like a penguin - which I still have. Unfortunately his artistic skills have not been passed on to me.