Sam Dodwell

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Sam Dodwell, self portrait

Sam Dodwell RI was born in London as Samuel William Charles Dodwell in 1909. Painting, which he discovered as a small child, at once became the driving force in his life. At age 18 he travelled by train to Cornwall for a holiday and, arriving in Polperro, decided that the county would one day be his home.

Prevented by his father and the depression of 1926 from making painting his career he went into banking, but studied in evening classes at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London. He rose to the top of a US bank in London and also served through World War II as an RAF Squadron Leader. Every spare moment was filled with painting and drawing: the Surrey countryside in which he was living, pilots at rest between sorties, portraits of his family, figures drawn from London and life and much more.

In his late fifties disaster struck his health: three major heart attacks were followed by then experimental open-heart surgery, predicted to give him four more years of life. In the 23 years that actually followed, his two major dreams swiftly became reality: he and his wife Pat, who smoothed every path of his life, moved to Cornwall and he was finally able to paint daily and prodigiously for the rest of his life.

The flow never stopped: rocky, rugged Cornish landscapes; the simple flowing lines of fishing boats at rest; the lunar claypit scenes; unconventional flocks of flowers; portraits that reached into souls; hilarious canvases peopled by Londoners, barrow boys, lovers - just ordinary folk; a cascade of jazz paintings and always, every week, his charcoal nudes.

Onion Seller

Bathurst Basin

Hastings Fishing Boats

Charcoal Nude

His process of painting always extracted the heart and core of his subject matter. Trivia were left aside. Structure, drawing and tones were his mantras. Then into the balance came colour and substance to create his own abstracted and always vital image.

For labels you could look mostly to the Impressionists, especially Cezanne, then later Cubism and back amongst his roots, the Euston Road School.

He painted what he wanted to paint - almost never to order - and forever explored and experimented in styles, materials, treatment and techniques. Recognition came. His work was shown widely: at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, who elected him a Member, added the coveted RI to his name and through whom he was even asked to advise Prince Charles on his painting.

Much of his work has been purchased for private collections in the UK, the USA and the Middle East. The Nuffield Foundation bought three works and murals were commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce in London and the Imperial Hotel, Torquay. The major study of British self-portraits in the 20th century - Face to Face by Philip Vann - includes a striking early portrayal of Sam and much narrative.

He had many one-man shows in London and the home counties, in Athens and Amsterdam. He was the artist featured by Westward Television for their Portrait Painting in Oils programme and he also performed another portrait painting demonstration on Beirut television. He taught frequently in Cornwall - in schools, to art societies and to groups in his own studio. In fact, on arrival in Lostwithiel he bought a pretty Victorian house from which he removed virtually all internal walls, to make a fabulous upstairs studio for large groups and another studio downstairs.

He was closely associated with the Mid Cornwall Galleries at St Blazey Gate from their creation in 1980, often exhibiting and selling there and frequently advising - a contribution kindly remembered today in the Sam Dodwell Gallery at the Mid Cornwall, since his death in 1990. A major retrospective exhibition, including some 50 of Sam's works, was staged at the Mid Cornwall Galleries in February 2007.

Paintings by Sam Dodwell have been exhibited in a number of exhibitions at Falmouth Art Gallery.

The overwhelming impression of Sam's work is of search, exploration, trial and change, all of which produced stimulating variety throughout his work, keeping it as fresh and young today as ever it was.

Jazz	Marguerites