Serious illness helped David
F irmstone to become top artist
By Peter White
I
f David Firmstone had not been
struck down by a serious illness as a
youngster, his career might have taken a
completely different direction.
But when he was just eight years old,
David suffered rheumatic fever, a disease
that kept him off school for four years.
It was during his long recovery period
that he began to develop the skills that
subsequently saw him rise to become one
of this country’s most revered artists.
David, who lives with his wife Jean in St
Lawrence, has won numerous awards for
his imaginative and captivating landscape
works in watercolours, oils and egg
tempera, a process in which he uses egg
yolks to bind the pigments with water.
Surprisingly however, he did not paint full
time until he was 55, following years as an
art teacher and then art adviser in several
different areas of the country, organising
courses for students and teachers. But
despite carrying out his demanding and
time-consuming work, David has certainly
not lost his sharp sense of humour, as he
underlined when recalling his childhood
days that set him on the path to a career
that he still loves as much as ever as a
sprightly 70-year-old.
David, who reached the prestigious
position of Vice President of the Royal
'The subject matter
here is endless, and I
just want time to do
more. When you get
to 70 you begin to
wonder how many
more paintings you
will do, and you always
strive to do something
better than before.'
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www.visitilife.com
Watercolour Society explained: “I was born
in South Bank near Middlesbrough, which
is probably one of the grimmest places in
England. It is surrounded on three sides by
iron and steel works, ship building and the
biggest chemical works in Europe. On the
other side of the river agricultural manure
was made, so the smell was unbelievable.
“Fortunately my father was a gamekeeper
for 38 years, and we lived on an estate in
the countryside nearby. But recently I went
back to Middlesbrough and it was amazing!
It has one of the most prestigious art
galleries in the country and the whole town
is now benefiting from this revitalisation; it
was extraordinary to see the change art can
make to people's environment.”
He continued: “Because of rheumatic
fever I didn’t go to school for four years,
and at the time my mother had a business
making wedding dresses and accessories.
She also made doilies for wedding cakes,
and I used to sit and colour them in with
a very small brush. So from an early age I
could almost write with a brush and that
was a major influence when I went back to
school. Four years of painting doilies had
taught me to paint really well, and being off
school so long, and doing so much drawing
and painting fashioned my career.”
At Secondary School, David was 15
when he won the National Exhibition of
Children’s Art, receiving a £500 first prize.
He said: “That prompted my dad to say
I should go to art college - he could see I
must have been not too bad to win what
was a lot of money in those days.”
After graduating from college, David
worked in schools in Middlesbrough,
Wolverhampton and Hartlepool. He
laughed: “Someone once asked me where I
had taught and when I told them they said
‘Oh, I see you specialise in Spa towns’!
“But I also taught in a famous school in
Shropshire where art, music and drama
were at the centre of the curriculum. It
was there that I met an art adviser; quite
fancied the job and successfully applied for
one of the biggest positions in the country,
in Cheshire. I was only 30, and thought I