LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Seven of Winston Churchill’s paintings and one of his sculptures are on view through March 21 at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The paintings range from a garden walkway edged by trees, some in flower, to distant bathers at a beach with a big black cannon in the foreground.
As prime minister of Great Britain, Churchill helped the Allies win World War II. He once told a friend, “If it weren’t for painting, I couldn’t live. I couldn’t bear the strain of things,” Dr. Keith Huxen, senior director of research and history at the National WWII Museum told a symposium at the exhibit’s opening Jan. 17.
Churchill took up painting in his 40s and created more than 500 paintings, mostly landscapes and seascapes. The Royal Academy of Arts named him an Honorary Academician Extraordinary in 1948.
“The Art of Sir Winston Churchill” runs through March 21 at the university’s Hilliard University Art Museum.
It was organized by the U.S. National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and also includes work lent by other collections.
In addition to Churchill’s own work it includes two sculptures by other people and a lithograph made by one of his granddaughters, university spokesman Charlie Bier said.