Art history

Published: 26 November, 2010

• I WRITE in response to the article on the St John’s Wood Art School (Review, November 12).

I am 91 but, at the age of 16, I was a student at the school in Elm Tree Road. One of the students was John Minton; we spent many hours drinking Camp Coffee. Minton resembled one of the people painted by El Greco.

Two of the people mentioned were my teachers, Pat Millard and Ernest Perry. 

I was at the art school for two years, until war broke out – when it closed.

Once a week a groom brought over a horse from the nearby cavalry and stood in the school’s forecourt while we painted the horse.

I was involved in fashion drawings; all the fashion adverts at the time were hand-drawn, as photography was in its infancy.

Once a year my teacher took me to Paris for the fashion shows, which were like theatrical productions.

PHILLIS WARSHAW
Finchley Road, NW3