The Lives Of The Artists

This is the story of how David Bowie became a painter and started collecting art in the mid 70's after living in Los Angeles, burnt out and on the brink of madness he moved to Berlin for a new life with Iggy Pop. Leave your thoughts in the comments and follow for new weekly episodes on THE LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
If you would like to support the channel further please follow the link in the bio to 'Buy Me A Coffee' page and for as little as the price of a coffee you can pledge your support for the arts and allow the channel & podcast to grow and develop 🙏
A huge thank you to all our subscribers and supporters 🙏

When most people think of Winston Churchill, they picture a man standing outside Number 10 Downing Street, cigar in hand, making the famous V for victory sign. They hear the speeches that rallied Britain during the darkest days of the Second World War. They remember the defiant Prime Minister who refused to surrender when much of Europe had fallen under Nazi control. Churchill has become one of history’s greatest political figures, a symbol of courage and determination.
 
Yet behind this public image was another Churchill, one who sought not power, but peace. Away from Parliament, military strategy and political arguments, he would often disappear into his studio or set up an easel in a garden, on a hillside or beside a lake. There, dressed in old clothes splattered with oil paint, he became simply another artist chasing light across a canvas. Over the course of his life, Churchill completed more than 500 paintings. Far from being a casual hobby, painting became one of the defining passions of his life, helping him survive political failure, personal despair and the unimaginable pressures of leading Britain through war.

Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) was born near Minsk, in present-day Belarus, before moving to Paris, where he developed a bold, expressive style of thick paint, vivid colour and distorted forms. His emotionally charged paintings had a profound influence on artists such as Francis Bacon and Willem de Kooning, helping shape the course of modern painting. ** When you get to 12 mins 22 secs forward 90 seconds to hear the second part. 🙏

In conversation with Alison, Nick and Sasha, patrons of Gerry's Pompeii. The most significant work of outsider art in Britain.
Created on a stretch of Canalside and hidden behind topiary hedges Gerry's Pompeii is a strange and surreal sculpture garden created almost entirely in secret by the late Gerry Dalton.
He would spend almost everyday in this garden using crystal doorknobs - salvaged ceramics and curious found objects, including an old iPad that are embedded in the long ornate garden wall guarded by 47 statuettes each representing specific individuals.
Like the first duke of Devonshire.
It was only really after he passed away that the extent of the sculpture garden became known to the neighbourhood and the public.
This garden is so compelling - so powerful and such a testament to one mans vision and what can be achieved by anyone if they just stand up and say l am going to create something. The statues are bejewelled with gems and black cement wigs.Among the statues is a figure of Gerry himself - although noticeably he's not credited as an artist or sculptor but simply as a gardener.

Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) was a French painter, sculptor, and writer who rejected traditional ideas of beauty and believed real creativity came from ordinary people rather than trained artists. After working in his family’s wine business for many years, he returned to art in his forties and developed a rough, raw style inspired by children’s drawings, graffiti, and the work of psychiatric patients. He coined the term Art Brut (“raw art”) to describe art made outside the established art world and became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. His ideas challenged the art establishment and helped shape the development of outsider art, inspiring generations of artists to value originality over technical perfection.

Sylvie Barbier is a passionate ritual artist part of the Second Renaissance art collective, magazine and co-founder of Life Itself organisation. As a storied performance artist her works touch on themes around birth and death, impermanence, mysticism and womanhood. They synthesizes easter and western philosophies and aesthetics.

Born in 1909 in Dublin, rejected by his father, drifting through Berlin and Paris as a young man, Francis Bacon transformed personal chaos into some of the most powerful paintings of the twentieth century. Inspired by Pablo Picasso, he created haunting images of popes, lovers, and screaming figures that captured the violence, loneliness, and intensity of modern life. His rise to fame brought wealth, celebrity, and notoriety, but also tragedy, including the death of his great love, George Dyer. By the time he died in 1992, Bacon had become one of the world’s most influential artists—a gambler, a drinker, a visionary, and a painter who turned raw human emotion into unforgettable art.
 

Jason Greene A.K.A. Freckle (born February 2, 1988) is an American actor and internet personality famously known by the moniker "Freckle." He rose to prominence for originating the breakout, genderfluid character Freckle in the cult-favorite YouTube web series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo (2016).
Greene has built a recognizable career in independent film and digital series. In addition to their viral role as Freckle, they are known for appearing in the Netflix comedy Wine Country (2019) and have contributed voice acting to the gaming industry, notably portraying Burke in the Fallout 76 expansions Steel Dawn and Steel Reign.

Francisco Goya painted the Black Paintings late in his life after years of illness, deafness, war, political violence and personal isolation had left him deeply bitter and disturbed. Between 1819 and 1823, while living in a house outside Madrid called the Quinta del Sordo, he covered the walls with dark, terrifying images filled with madness, witches, violence and despair. Spain had been devastated by war and repression, and Goya seemed to lose faith in both humanity and reason. The paintings were never meant for the public. They feel more like private nightmares poured directly onto the walls by an old man confronting death, fear and the darker side of the human mind.

Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter born around 1450 in the town of ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. Very little is known about his private life, but he became famous for creating strange, detailed paintings filled with demons, sinners, religious visions and bizarre fantasy creatures unlike anything seen before in European art. Working during the late Middle Ages, Bosch used dark humour and symbolism to explore human greed, temptation, fear and morality. His most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights, remains one of the most mysterious paintings in art history. He died in 1516, but his influence can still be seen in surrealism, fantasy art and modern visual culture.