When I lived in London back in the second half of the 60's, I met lots of very interesting people. One of the most extraordinary was this man below, Lionel Burleigh.
I was at the opening night of an uninspiring exhibition on Cork Street in about '65, when a man sidled up to me and said "Just say I'm your Uncle". We went round the show together then visited a nearby Pub' for a few pints.
Lionel hardly stopped talking, and gave me an exhausting potted history of his life.
We stayed in touch, and he visited me at my antique shop in Chelsea on several occasions. Eventually he asked me if he could use my premises for a 'Painting Marathon'; he wanted to paint, and sell, as many pictures as possible in one day! I stupidly said 'yes'.
Lionel produced about 100 small paintings, and sold maybe two; for a few shillings. At the end of the day he gave me a handful, but they were such rubbish that I binned them.
We continued to meet for a while after that, then he disappeared and presumably found someone else to abide his eccentricities (or maybe he died).
I'm pleased that I knew him, and that we became good friends; such folk make life interesting.
I have just looked-up Lionel online, and found this (below). I was interested to see if it mentioned his marathon at my premises; but it didn't. (I wouldn't bother looking at it, unless you have masochistic tendencies). He was a dreadful painter.
No comments:
Post a Comment