Ronald Glendening Artist

Ronald Glendening, known as Glen, followed in the footsteps of his great grandfather Alfred Augustus Glendening (1840-1921) and his grandfather Alfred Illman Glendening (1861-1907) in becoming an artist.

His education at the Lyulph Stanley Central School in Camden Town was interrupted when he was evacuated to East Haddon, Northamptonshire during the Second World War, where he attended the village school.

On returning to London he worked as a messenger boy at an advertising agency where his talent for drawing was recognised by Reg Forster, who encouraged him to attend evening classes at St Martin’s School of Art.

In 1949 Glen became a full-time student at St Martin’s, and was one of only three students who were accepted at the Royal College of Art, where he studied painting, etching and lithography from 1951-1955. Among his tutors were Edward Bawden, John Nash, Ruskin Spear and Edwin La Dell.

After graduating he taught print making at Maidstone, Croydon and Bromley Art Schools. Later he became a tutor at Camberwell School of Art.

Before becoming a full-time artist he worked at an advertising agency, and later started his own production company. Among his successful commercials were ones for Dairylea, Stork margarine and Rothmans cigarettes.

His commercial work included book covers for Penguin, Collins and Longmans. For CNN television he did the court drawings for the Mountbatten and Yorkshire Ripper trials. He also produced graphic work for London Weekend World television, a programme chaired by Brian Walden.

His etchings and lithographs stopped when he no longer had access to a printing press. This enabled him to concentrate on linocuts.

When he returned to full-time painting, his oil and watercolours were mainly of the countryside. There are also self portraits as well as portraits of his wife, Yvonne and his son Marc.

He loved France and spoke French fluently – he was very pleased when a taxi driver in Paris once thought he was Belgian. One of his favourite authors was George Simenon and he loved the songs of Jaques Brel and Charles Aznavour. He had a love of poetry, especially the works of Milton and Hardy. His great artistic influences were Matisse, Cezanne and Picasso.

When he met up with his friends, among them Francis Bacon and Jeffrey Bernard, at the Colony Room or the French pub, the talk was not of art, but of The Times crossword puzzle, books, gossip and life.