THE BARBER'S BRUSH.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 121, 27 June 1914, Page 3

THE BARBER'S BRUSH.

VILLAGE ARTIST WHO SHAVE© HIS MODELS. It was a precarious moment wl ie ® Frank Cowley, a barber at Gravesend, learned that he had been "hung". ia the Royal Academy, commented a London journal last month. "I was shaving, when the wife .came in with the news," he explained. "I was never nearer cutting myself. • "I can assure you that it was the biggest event in iny life. Not" only am I 'hung,' but I am 'hung on the line'— not even '.skied' or cornered.' " ' * jNlr Cowley took to paint before he began to -shave and shear "the inhabitant!* o'f 'Hadltvw, Kent, "for a living: His Academy picture was.painted in six h Stirs! . ' . ' ' - , ■ ; - "I worked on it about eight ago, arid in two sittings, between five arid: eight iri' the morning, had eoaipl<»te4 it;. lam veiy|quick ,on landscapes," he explained. \ ■ 'The picture, " No. 283," is a greea ai; d grey scheme, showing a smiling countryside, with a girl and two white goats standing, near a tree. Five times previously Mr Cowley has sont pictures'to the Academy. Thrice ■lie has been rejected,- while on the other two occasions he was among the unfortunates whose work was '' crowded out.'' Self-Taught. He is entirely self-taught, and onljr recently took first lessons in technique, at the Gravesend Art School. Bartering is an annoyance, he explains. ''But I can't run the old trade down,", he added, "for it has been a good friend to me. Barbering gave me a splendid opportunity of studying types of faces, which I used in my pictures. Arid, besides, 1 sold a good manjr to customers for a few shillings." The barber's art finds expression both in oils and waters. He confi<led, however that lie has never vet drawn a box of e'"'s. "Eggs," he explained, "are the most, difficult things in the world tor lil U.W. ''

Mr Cowley, who is still in the thirties, say.-, he has painted "thousands" of pictures. On occasions he is his own. model. '

lie recently dressed up as a pirate and worked in front of a large mirror. To paint a sheep's head he obtained the subject from the local butcher. lie prefers to regard himself primarily as an animal painter, and his models are the beasts in Mr Drake's private zoo at Maidstone. ...