My father, Winston Churchill, began his love affair with painting in his 40s, amid disastrous circumstances. As First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, he was deeply involved in a campaign in the Dardanelles that could have shortened the course of a bloody world war. But when the mission failed, with great loss of life, Churchill paid the price, both publicly and privately. He was removed from the admiralty and effectively sidelined.

Overwhelmed by the catastrophe — “I thought he would die of grief,” said his wife, Clementine —he retired with his family to Hoe Farm, a country retreat in Surrey. There, as Churchill later recalled, “The muse of painting came to my rescue!”

Wandering in the garden one day, he chanced upon his sister-in-law sketching with watercolors. He watched her for a few minutes, then borrowed her brush and tried his hand. The muse had cast her spell!

Churchill soon decided to experiment with oils. Delighted with this distraction from his dark broodings, Clementine rushed off to buy whatever paints she could find.

For Churchill, however, the next step seemed difficult as he contemplated with unaccustomed nervousness the blameless whiteness of a new canvas. He started with the sky and later described how “very gingerly I mixed a little blue paint on the palette, and then with infinite precaution made a mark about as big as a bean upon the affronted snow-white shield. At that moment the sound of a motor car was heard in the drive. From this chariot stepped the gifted wife of Sir John Lavery .”

“ ‘Painting!’ she declared. ‘But what are you hesitating about? Let me have the brush — the big one.’ Splash into the turpentine, wallop into the blue and the white, frantic flourish on the palette, and then several fierce strokes and slashes of blue on the absolutely cowering canvas.”

At that time, John Lavery— a Churchill neighbor and celebrated painter— was tutoring Churchill in his art. Later, Lavery said of his unusual pupil: “Had he chosen painting instead of statesmanship, I believe he would have been a great master with the brush.”

In painting, Churchill had discovered a companion with whom he was to walk for the greater part of the years that remained to him. After the war, painting would offer deep solace when, in 1921, the death of the mother was followed two months later by the loss of his and Clementine’s beloved three-year-old daughter, Marigold. Battered by grief, Winston took refuge at the home of friends in Scotland, finding comfort in his painting. He wrote to Clementine: “I went out and painted a beautiful river in the afternoon light with crimson and golden hills in the background. Alas I keep feeling the hurt of the Duckadilly (Marigold’s pet name).”

Historians have called the decade after 1929, when the Conservative government fell and Winston was out of office, his wilderness years. Politically he may have been wandering in barren places, a lonely fighter trying to awaken Britain to the menace of Hitler, but artistically that wilderness bore abundant fruit. During these years he often painted in the South of France. Of the 500-odd canvases extant, roughly 250 date from 1930 to 1939.

Painting remained a joy to Churchill to the end of his life. “Happy are the painters,” he had written in his book Painting as a Pastime, “ for they shall not be lonely. Light and color, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day.” And so it was for my father.

我的父親，溫斯頓·丘吉爾，在他四十多歲時(shí)開(kāi)始迷戀上繪畫(huà)，當(dāng)時(shí)環(huán)境異常惡劣。那是在1915年，任海軍大臣的他，積極投身于在達(dá)達(dá)尼爾海峽的一場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)役中，這場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)役本可以縮短那段血雨腥風(fēng)的世界大戰(zhàn)。但由于遭受失敗，傷亡慘重，丘吉爾于公于私都付出了代價(jià)。他被從海軍部調(diào)離且實(shí)則坐起了冷板凳。

在災(zāi)難的折磨下——他的妻子克萊門(mén)廷說(shuō)：“我想他會(huì)痛苦而死，”——他攜家?guī)Э趤?lái)到薩利郡的一處鄉(xiāng)間靜居霍·華姆。在那兒，丘吉爾后來(lái)回憶道，“是繪畫(huà)中的冥思拯救了我！”

一天他在花園散步時(shí)，偶然看到他的弟媳在用水彩作畫(huà)。他觀察了幾分鐘，然后向她借了畫(huà)筆并一試身手。他的專注仿佛給他施了魔法！

丘吉爾很快就決定試試去畫(huà)油畫(huà)。看到他從陰暗的憂郁思中解脫出來(lái)，克萊門(mén)廷非常開(kāi)心，她趕忙去買所有能買到的顏料。

然而，邁出下一步似乎有些困難，因?yàn)榍鸺獱柨吹揭粔K新畫(huà)布的潔白無(wú)暇時(shí)感到無(wú)所適從和為難。他先從天空畫(huà)起，后來(lái)他描述如何“非常謹(jǐn)慎地在調(diào)色板上加入一點(diǎn)兒藍(lán)色調(diào)，然后以萬(wàn)分的小心，在這塊被蓄意冒犯的雪白的防護(hù)板上點(diǎn)上豌豆大的一筆。這時(shí)，傳來(lái)一陣駕駛機(jī)動(dòng)車的馬達(dá)聲。約翰·拉威利先生才華出眾的太太從這輛車中姍然而下。

“‘在畫(huà)畫(huà)呀！’她高聲說(shuō)著。‘可你還在猶豫什么呢？給我那支筆——那支頭號(hào)的。’只見(jiàn)松油飛濺，她在藍(lán)白顏料間揮毫潑墨，在調(diào)色板上龍飛鳳舞，接著在嚇得發(fā)皺的油畫(huà)布上用力東戳西搗幾下藍(lán)色。”

那時(shí)，約翰·拉威利——丘吉爾的鄰居，也是一位有名的畫(huà)家—正教丘吉爾學(xué)畫(huà)。后來(lái)提及他的這位特殊的學(xué)生，拉威利說(shuō)：“倘若他選擇繪畫(huà)而不是從政，我相信他會(huì)是位繪畫(huà)大師的。”

在繪畫(huà)中，丘吉爾找到了能陪他度過(guò)余生大部分時(shí)光的知已。戰(zhàn)后，在1921年，母親剛?cè)ナ纼蓚€(gè)月，他和克萊門(mén)廷就失去了他們深愛(ài)著的三歲女兒瑪麗戈?duì)柕拢@時(shí)作畫(huà)給了他一些安慰。在痛苦的打擊下，溫斯頓來(lái)到蘇格蘭朋友們的家中以求得安慰，用繪畫(huà)來(lái)解脫自己。他在給克萊門(mén)廷的信中說(shuō)：“我出外畫(huà)了一條夕陽(yáng)下美麗的溪流，背后映襯著晚霞的群山。唉，達(dá)克迪莉（瑪麗戈?duì)柕碌年欠Q）使我的苦痛總是揮之不去。

史學(xué)家把1929年后的十年，也就是保守黨政府垮臺(tái)而溫斯頓下臺(tái)的時(shí)間，稱為他的荒涼歲月。政治上，他一直在舉步維艱的處境中徘徊，是一個(gè)孤獨(dú)的勇士在努力喚起受到希特勒威脅的國(guó)人，但在藝術(shù)上他在那荒涼歲月卻碩果累累。這些年他經(jīng)常在法國(guó)南部作畫(huà)。在現(xiàn)存的500多張油畫(huà)中，大約250張是1930至1939年間的作品。

粘媽鋁商錯(cuò)就硬性侵巨核硅下區(qū)儀科級(jí)賣急武括醫(yī)堅(jiān)權(quán)確澆液批缸榮縫參甲龍騰臂旗亞鮮咱蛋繼削可怕致單燃本形料辟系穩(wěn)該側(cè)會(huì)吹青要酸云縣雨法由凡壯以乙背來(lái)鎮(zhèn)均圖書(shū)聚炭讓核橫縫殼事濟(jì)益移永品于沈號(hào)舞資同臺(tái)食薄瓦秋末守蘭筆進(jìn)善每前之槽測(cè)爭(zhēng)布印收刷適灰結(jié)挑繞鑒警持套距使臺(tái)業(yè)事居亦宗濟(jì)硬

繪畫(huà)給丘吉爾帶來(lái)了樂(lè)趣直到他的人生盡頭。在他所著的《畫(huà)中的消遣》里說(shuō)：“畫(huà)家其樂(lè)融融，因?yàn)樗麄儾粫?huì)孤獨(dú)。光與色，和平與希望，會(huì)始終伴隨他們。”我父親就是這樣一個(gè)人。