- The Child Fishing, 1916.
Ink and water colour on paper. 38 x 28 cm.
Executed by Arnold Machin at the age of 5 or 6, his earliest known work.
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Arnold Machin (continued)
1911-1999
Stamps Paintings etc.
Arnold Machin was born in the year the Titanic was launched, three years before the beginning of the First World War, and lived to the last year of the 20th century.
His personal experience and its influence on his work is self-evident and he never wavered from his profound sense of truth and human values in his time of massive material and social changes.
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"I must have been born with a pencil in my hand,
for I was drawing from the very earliest days, and I used to sit on a
little stool, made by my father, using his armchair as a work table.
The whole family would stint themselves to provide me with books,
pencils, water colours, scraps of paper and wrapping paper which which
to work".
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"During my last few weeks at school I was allowed
to draw and paint the whole time, much to my delight. The teacher
who had a special interest in art gave me help and encouragement, one
day bringing in a bunch of flowers from his garden for me to paint.
He took a great deal of trouble to make a suitable arrangement, placing
the flowers in a green vase on a ledge in front of the blackboard, then
draping a blue duster behind and securing it with a drawing pin".
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In 1925, aged 14, Arnold Machin began his apprenticeship with Monton. His career there came to a halt with the Wall Street crash of 1929. This did provide Machin with the opportunity to spend time at Burslem Art School and turn his hand to modelling. From here he moved to Derby.
Out of work, Machin answered an advertisement and found employment as a painter at The Old Derby China Works and while he was there attended Derby School of Art.
From Derby Machin won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Art. These pre-war years in London were very influential, and the time at the RCA culminated in winning the top award, the silver medal, and a travelling scholarship.
The outbreak of war prevented Machin from taking up his
travelling scholarship, and he returned to the Potteries where he taught
part-time at the School of Art and was employed by Wedgwood. It
was whilst at the Royal College of Art that Arnold Machin first came to
the notice of Josiah Wedgwood V. It was a time of experimentation as
Wedgwood strove to find the formula for success on the home market, but
above all in the United States.
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Arnold Machin was known as a religious man, and his
religious works are numerous, both sculptures and drawings.
It is evident from the volume of Machin's religious works, produced from the earliest period at the Royal Adacemy of Art to the end of his life and from his Memoirs, that he never wavered from his religious beliefs.
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Arnold Machin was a skilled painter, particularly in water colours, and his scenic views of the British landscape are second to none.
Arnold Machin: Sunset View in Staffordshire, late 1950s. Water colour. 33 x 43 cm.
Other than the various fields of arts shown here, Machin was a skilled designer of coins and medals, a garden- and architecture designer, and sculptor. As late as 1998, one year before he died in March, he was invited by the Royal Mint to enter designs for the Millennium medal competition.
The exhibition catalogue which is the source for these pages contains a large number of colour photographs of his works in various fields, many more than it would ever be possible to show here without "copying" the catalogue.
We, the stamp collectors, will always remember Arnold Machin by his exquisite stamp design, commonly known as "Machins", which are collected world wide, and for which a special catalogue has been issued by Douglas Myall (Deegam). .
Source:
Stamps Paintings etc.
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| Revised 15-jul-2007. All Rights Reserved Copyright © 1999-2007 Ann Mette Heindorff |
