In the moment

As a distinguished figurative painter, Anthony Eyton’s subject matter ranges from still life and studies of his back garden in London to extensive travels across the continent, particularly to India, Israel and Sudan. Among his many commissions he has observed and painted the Gurkha regiment in Hong Kong and the New Territories, and recorded the centenary of the British Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He was invited by Tate Gallery to work in the Bankside Power Station prior to it becoming Tate Modern, where one of his paintings now hangs.

The intensity in Anthony’s painting comes from the fusion of direct observation coupled with the vibration of the process. Painting for him is an adventure where he enjoys being faced with dilemmas along the way. It becomes a method to justify his existence, to express spirit and soul and tell stories. Anthony loves to get words or thoughts into paint. Throughout his life his enthusiasm has never faded. Now in his hundredth year he maintains a zest for life and a love of learning. Anthony strongly relates to these words by English painter Patrick George, ‘The artist drawing what he is looking at finds that his idea about what he is looking at, changes. So in a way he does not know what he is drawing until he has drawn it.’

Both the tragic death of Anthony’s mother in 1929, when he was just six years old, and the loss of his sister when she was just 21, changed Anthony’s life fundamentally, in a myriad ways. ‘Both were caused by accidents, my mother out hunting, and my sister, Anne, in a car. Anne was a wonderful sister, kind and very beautiful. She died when I was a young adult; it was a profound loss that fed into my life and work, on many levels.’

Art is in the blood and most definitely in the genes. ‘On both my parents’ side, art has been an influence, but also in the environment I was brought up in. I was drawn to art immediately and immensely throughout my childhood and teenage years. I used to paint, aged about t