A former army Major has been fondly nicknamed ‘Van George’ after picking up a paintbrush for the first time during lockdown thanks to the encouragement of his daughter-in-law.

Pandemic

At 94-year-old George Stephens, a former recruit of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers who attained the rank of Major before his retirement, is a very active gentleman who enjoys attending the gym at the Lakeland Forum and volunteering at the Museum of the Inniskillings at Enniskillen Castle. However, when the coronavirus pandemic struck and these activities came to a halt, he was at a loss for what to do.

“All of a sudden he wasn’t fit to volunteer in the museum, he wasn’t fit to go to the Forum,” said George’s daughter-in-law Pam Stephens, who, as a barber, found herself out of work last year due to lockdown regulations.

“So I thought, ‘what am I going to do to occupy George now?’ so we took out the art and I said, ‘have you ever tried this?’ and he said ‘I’ve never, ever tried it’, and now he absolutely loves it,” she said.

Having dabbled in various forms of art herself, Pam took it upon herself to tutor George in painting with watercolours.

“I owe a lot to Pam, she encourages me. I never did any watercolours or anything like that [before],” said George, adding: “I was a trained draftsman before I joined the army. I studied draftsmanship which is not the same as painting really but I suppose it was similar in some ways.”

Inspiration

Inspired by things that surround him, George starts each piece by sketching in pencil.

“He’s very good at sketching, George needs no help whatsoever there, he knows his perspectives and scale,” said Pam.

As George got more into his painting, Pam decided to set him up a studio next door to her barber shop.

“It’s just somewhere for him to go as well because I felt I’d been 24/7 with George and then all of a sudden I went back to work and George was on his own again so this is what this wee room was built for so if he came in here I could just pop in and say hello,” said Pam.

Nickname

Talking about how he received his nickname of Van George, a play on Van Gogh, Pam explained: “We started to put it on Instagram and then all his friends started to make comment and one of them said, ‘very well done Van George’.”

“So it’s kind of stuck now,” she laughed.

Wearing a jumper embroidered with his new nickname, George proudly presented his artworks as he spoke to this newspaper about the enjoyment he has found in his new hobby.

“I quite enjoyed painting the dog, as a living thing, but I enjoy painting anything really,” said George, who has given many of his paintings away to family members who have requested a piece.

Benefits

Talking about the benefits of art, Pam said: “It gives George a sense of worth, he doesn’t need anyone else around him, he can just come in here and he can paint his pictures.”

“I can’t understand why more people don’t do art because it’s a good pastime,” added George.