A life in oils

Keith Pask’s lifelong passion for painting burns as brightly today as it did during the Second World War, thanks, in part, to the pages of COUNTRY LIFE. Nick Hammond meets this remarkable nonagenarian

- Nick Hammond

KEITH PASK remains spritely and there’s a twinkle in his eye. Almost every room in the 91 year old’s comfortable Kettering home in Northamptonshire is graced by a piece of his lifetime’s artwork, but it’s impossible for the eye not to be drawn to one in particular. The huge mural, too big for any wall space, currently resides on the living-room carpet.

‘That one’s for sale,’ declares Mr Pask. ‘I’ve sold a smaller version of it, but I’ve no idea what the big one’s worth.’ He winks, adding: ‘Whatever I get will go to the grandchildren.’

It was a school assembly 80-odd years ago that acted as the catalyst for this affable man’s love affair with the paintbrush. ‘I was 11 years old and called up by the headmaster,’ he recalls, proudly showing me a framed certificate handed to him that very day, back in 1941. It’s a ‘Working For Victory’ war savings national poster campaign and the pupil’s drawing earned him a prize. It was the first tentative step on a journey that he says has greatly enriched his life. ‘I can see the headmaster now, coming into the hall carrying that certificate. I’d never felt prouder.’