Last week my wife and I were in London for the weekend. I had to deliver two different keynote speeches one on Saturday and one on Sunday so my wife joined me,as we thought it might be a opportunity time to spend some time together (away from the children !)

On Sunday morning we went for a walk along Bayswater Road to look at the beautiful Art exhibition which has taken place there every Sunday since 1963.

For at least half a mile the railings on the north side of Hyde Park are sectioned into approximately 10 foot pictures and artists are allowed to license these pitches from the local council.

As we were walking along admiring the huge amount of different art and styles we came to a large pitch actually a triple size one and we were both struck by how beautiful the paintings were.

We all must say to each other at the same time ,” you know, this looks just like the work of David James”

Now David James is an artist that we have both admired for many years. We first came across David James over 25 years ago when I was a Royal Marine grain-based in Poole.we would sometimes go into Poole Art Gallery based on Poole Quay and admire the paintings.they used to display some of the work of David James and we liked it very much however we just could never afford to buy any even a small one of his paintings 12″ x 12″ was in the region of £400 and that was back then.

As we were having this conversation I leaned closer to look at the paintings on the railings and was astonished to see the signature of ” David James” just at that moment a voice from behind and said ” can help you” and we turned around to find the man himself !!!!!

He is very distinctive in his late 60s with a long flowing white beard.

We were so delighted we ended up talking with David for quite some time we told him how many years ago we had come across his work but could never have afforded it back then. He told us where he was living and we spoke about many things.he talked about how the galleries make a lot of money out of Artists and take by far the bulk of all the purchase price.

He gave me his e-mail address and we agreed to keep in touch.

It was quite a coincidence, because he very rarely displays his work now on Bayswater Road, being so internationally acclaimed, and having such little time.

 Gail and I then continued our walk through Hyde Park, stopping for lunch etc. About three hours later as we were heading back to our hotel I said “let’s make a quick detour and see if those paintings are still there”. We got to his pitch just as he was getting ready to pack up and go home.

 He smiled when he saw us and we spoke again for some time. As we were looking at his paintings and he was explaining to us what lay behind some of them he asked ” are there any that you like” we both admitted that there were a couple that really took our fancy. Two beautiful Winter landscape scenes in light brown.

He put them side by side and we admired them and he explained about his use of light etc. Then he said “would you like to buy them” I replied that actually I would love to buy them but I didn’t think that we could probably afford his prices. He paused, and smiled, and thought for a while and then he said ” I tell you what” I will let you have them both for £90. I couldn’t believe it !!!!!!!! I was so incredibly pleased and surprised. Obviously I said yes.

I am now the proud owner of two beautiful paintings done by an artist that I have now come to know.

If you go to this website you’ll see the two that I purchased

http://www.davidjamesart.com/content.php?page=new_work

 Isn’t life wonderful the way it brings you these great joys and surprises