"Flower Power" Painting #11

So here is the 11th painting in my 'reincarnation' as a panter (it's like being a painter, but I hold my breath a lot). I'll tell you my 'panter' story below.

I bought a book about 7 acrylic painters and their techniques, and  in it the American Barbara Buer truly amazed me ... hence her influence on the following painting.

                                            "Flower Power"    John Simlett (after Barbara Buer)
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
10 inches x 14inches

Unfortunately I varnished it before I photographed it, so there is a 'bloom' to it.

THE PANTER STORY

Sheerness Dockyard grew over the centuries, and by 1954 it accepted around a hundred new apprentices each year. As the apprenticeship lasted five years, the total number of apprentices at any one time was approximately five hundred young men aged between 15 and 21.

   For the first three years of the apprenticeship, the boys were released from their workplaces to attend the Dockyard College, for one afternoon and two evenings a week. 

***

He looked out of the window in that absent minded way of the writer, as if considering the plot for his next film script. Ranged in front of him was a classroom full of apprentices: their first day.

   ‘Panter?’ he asked nobody in particular, ‘do we have any panters?’

   There being no response, he uncoiled his long-legs and began ‘unfolding’, slowly rising to his full height, rather in the way of an awakening giraffe.

   ‘No panters, eh?’ he muttered, turning to face the rows of boys who sat staring wide-eyed at the incredibly tall and thin man who rose before them. He spoke in riddles that held little meaning, his ‘posh public-school’ accent almost mocking them: he had called them, ‘...an absolute shower’, which meant nothing then, but a phrase that would soon become common parlance following the release of his first film, Private’s Progress.

   When they had first sat down in the classroom, the tall man had written his name and position in chalk, on the blackboard:

              Alan Hackney, Head of English, HM Dockyard College, Sheerness.

   ‘Well that’s who I am. Now I want you to fill out these forms so that we can know a little about you.’

    Ten minutes later we had completed the forms and handed them back. He had rifled through them.

   ‘There is a panter, now come on own up.’

    Silence.

    ‘Simlett?’

   ‘Yes sir,’ I replied, with a gulp.

   ‘Are you a panter, Simlett?’

   ‘No sir.’

   ‘What trade are you hoping to be apprenticed too, Simlett?’

   ‘Shipwright, sir.’

   ‘Wellboarn?’

   ‘Yes, sir.’

   ‘Are you a panter, Wellboarn?’

   ‘No sir.’

   ‘What trade are you hoping to be apprenticed too, Wellboarn?’

   ‘Blacksmith, sir.’

   ‘Lewis?’

   ‘Yes sir.’

   ‘Are you a panter, Lewis?’

   ‘No sir.’

   ‘What trade are you hoping to be apprenticed too, Lewis?’

   ‘Painter, sir.’

   ‘Ah! Thank goodness, Lewis. Be a good chap and put an i into Panter for me.’ He handed Lewis his form back for correction.

   This was our introduction to the man who would teach us English and who went on to work in Hollywood, Canada and Italy where he produced many film and TV scripts, not to mention his novels.