Jim Tinley

Time to celebrate another British artist. And this one is very personal to me because Jim was one of my art teachers at school.

My art teachers believed in me even if the education system didn't. I grew up in Cornwall during the 1960s and 70s. Back then we passed or failed our art 'O' Levels and 'A' levels based upon our knowledge of art history and the portfolio of work we produced. Unfortunately for me, that portfolio was expected to consist of pencil or charcoal drawings and oil paintings ... and I couldn't master any of those. Pen and ink, yes. Sculpture, yes. But they weren't on the curriculum. 

However, my art teachers, Arthur Andrews, Phil Howells and Jim Tinley, saw something in me that went beyond the limitations of the examination system. They saw that I was naturally creative and had an irrepressible desire to make art. They therefore did all that they could to encourage me, even opening the art department at evenings and weekends to allow me and a handful of like-minded friends to explore our ideas and passions. I eventually scraped a good enough pass to go on to 'A' level where I got a B grade. But I got so much more from my teachers than qualifications. 

Arthur Andrews (left) in 1978 and Phil Howells (right) in 2010

What they gave me and my peers was an untarnished, unfettered, childlike love and enthusiasm for art and creativity that we never lost. If I look at that group of teenagers now, they're all in creative professions: one is an advertising director, one owns a graphic design company, one is a fine artist who has regular exhibitions in London art galleries, one is an art conservator for clients like the Royal Academy, one is a saddler and master leather worker etc. And it's all down to our teachers. They also showed me that the qualifications don't matter, that art is an expression of self and no one person's art is any more or less valid than anyone else's. Art isn't like a sport where the aim is to score more goals than your opponent. If anything it is more like a hobby or pastime where the only targets to be set are your own - to get better at doing what you love doing. 

I owe a lot to my art teachers and I stayed in touch with all three, right into their final years. Jim Tinley, in particular, was someone who was always worth visiting as he nearly always had a new painting on the go. Jim lived in the small fishing village of Porthleven and was a well-known local 'character'. And what he loved to paint was his fellow 'characters'.

I was very sad to hear the news in 2018 that Jim had died. The last time I'd seen him was in 2012 when he'd been in fine fettle and we got these photos (after a few too many in one of his beloved harbourside pubs).

Then I discovered that his widow, Sue, was organising a crowdfunded retrospective book of his work. I became one of the first subscribers. 

The book is wonderful. Jim was never interested in the picture postcard prettiness of Porthleven - he wanted to record the people, especially the older people such as the retired fishermen who he regularly drank and played cards with.

In capturing these marvellous portraits, Jim was recording a moment in Cornish history - just as the Newlyn School painters like Walter Langley, Stanhope Forbes, Laura Knight and Edwin Harris did.

Jim and my other art teachers made me who I am by encouraging me and educating me and by showing me that my art was as valid as anyone else's. 

And if, through this blog, I can help other people - just as my teachers helped me = I will be a happy fellow.