Click
here for the script of an article about Royston Hopson that appeared
in the July 2003 edition of Pembrokeshire Life, written by Sybil Edwards.
|
Although he
was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, Royston Hopson spent most of his life
in Fishguard. His was a colourful and idiosyncratic life, filled
not only with more than its fair share of tragedy and horror, but also
with joy, laughter and drama. Painting was for him an integral part of
his being. He ate, he drank, he painted, he slept, he painted - he painted
right up to the moment the ambulance came to take him to the hospital,
where he died a day later.
At the age
of 16 Royston enlisted with the Royal Navy, and as a consequence, was on
the first boat that arrived at Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been
dropped. The horrors that he experinced there stayed with him all of his
life, and were a major contributory factor to the mental breakdowns that
he battled with, off and on, for most of his life.
After three
years stationed in Japan and other distant lands he was stationed near
Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire where he discovered both Fishguard and his
beloved wife Daisy, its carnival queen. He studied with Professor Giogio
Preca at the British Academy of Rome and joined the Malta Art Group whilst
still serving in the Navy. On his return to Wales, by now having a young
family to support, he became a full time painter - although occasionally
doing other jobs to pay for his paints if money was short; even, for a
short time, becoming a policeman!
Royston opened
the first commercial art gallery in West Wales in Fishguard in 1965 - Gallery
Un - where he exhibited not only his own work but also work by other Pembrokeshire
artists such as John Cleal, John Knapp-Fisher, Frederick Konenkamp and
Vik Hayton. It was at this time that Royston predicted in an article in
the Daily Telegraph that this area of Pembrokeshire was destined to become
another St Ives. In later years he was delighted to find that this prediction
had become realised.
Illness dogged
him off and on throughout his life. Painting would exorcise some of the
nightmares, but sometimes the horrors engulfed him and during one
of these episodes started to destroy all of his work, but was finally prevented
from completing the job by his wife, Daisy.
With the trauma
of Daisy's death in 1996, Royston renamed himself Aidys Roysan - he wanted
to disassociate himself from his previous identity - it was too hard
to be Royston Hopson. Most of his work was signed with his new name. In
recent years he managed to achieve a state of mental stability and found
that he did not need Aidys any more, and his paintings again bore the signature
Royston Hopson. |
