Artist helps actor David Bradley fall in love with painting

When a Hollywood actor wandered into her studio and asked for lessons, artist Lynne Gougeon was a bit taken aback.

David Bradley, perhaps best known for his roles in Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, had recently moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, and decided to find a new way to express his creativity.

"I was just very impressed with her as a person and clearly she was passionate about what she did," Bradley explained. "I said, 'do you teach?'"

"And she said yes. I said, 'can I have a go?'

Having never painted, not even in school, the 84-year-old had to begin with the basics.

"He couldn't manage the paintbrush on the first lesson, I don't think," Gougeon said, although "he took to it straight away".

"I think, if you've never painted before, then you learn very quickly."

Still working as an actor, with a Channel 4 thriller and new films in the pipeline, he acknowledged sometimes calls from Hollywood took precedence.

"I did have to miss one art lesson to go to the Oscars," Bradley smiled, adding the production he starred in, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, won.

"It was the best excuse I've ever heard for missing a lesson," Gougeon said.

The lifelong Aston Villa fan came upon his new teacher in Jephson Gardens Gallery, which is run by Leamington Studio Artists.

He began two-hour weekly lessons with her there, and soon found a love for abstract, "slightly off-the-wall pieces".

Gougeon, who also runs the Kitchen Table Art Club, which offers lessons to children in her home, described his artwork as "bonkers" and "brilliant".

"[He's] very creative, very confident to try different techniques," she said. "Keen to learn completely different things, inspired by different artists, different things he sees, different things he feels, and purely by the materials themselves as well."

Encouraged to "use his imagination", Bradley said one of his favourite pieces was comprised of plants picked from the park, stuck on a board and painted "wacky colours".

Another favourite melds the mountains of the Dolomites with a memory of a Derbyshire dry stone wall.

He believes art is for everyone. "It's not about how good you are or what you can achieve and get exhibitions and whatever it is — everybody can paint."

The thespian likens his teacher's encouragement to that of the best directors.

"They're not there to teach me how to act. They're the same as what Lynne does.

"They're there to... see what you bring to the table and bring out the best in you and show you how to make the most of the possibilities that are there."

He showed his paintings in public for the first time earlier this year, as part of an exhibition of Gougeon's students' work.

"We had hundreds and hundreds of people come over the month and everybody smiled," she said, adding her famous student even had a couple of offers.

"Several people were very interested in buying, I think the stone wall one, and then there was a lovely abstract piece."

"I don't really want to do that, because you get quite attached to stuff," Bradley said, but added he was "so chuffed" to be part of it.

While Gougeon said she would "love to get David's work back on the wall" at some point, for now the actor is happy for his children to hang his art in their homes, and shares a gallery wall in his conservatory with his 10-year-old granddaughter.

"It's just brought something that I've found I love doing and it stretches me," he said.

"Anybody who takes up painting or anything, sculpture or whatever, you can never claim to be bored.

"Sometimes I've got up at three o'clock in the morning, and I'll go downstairs and just add some touches, and look at it next morning, now, 'I shouldn't have had that second, third glass of wine', rub it out, do something else.

"But it's a constantly evolving thing. And I think the hardest thing for me to do is to know when to let go and say that's finished."

The pair have now become firm friends, with Gougeon describing their lessons as "highly entertaining" as she is regaled with behind-the-scenes tales.

"He'll refer to Judy or Charles or Tom Hanks but that's his life... the stories are absolutely brilliant and the voices are brilliant as well."

His real-life persona could not be further from some of the unpleasant characters he has portrayed on screen, she adds.

"He's just so full of life and full of stories, and the most genuine, lovely person you could ever meet," she said.

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