Winston Megoran THE MAN BEHIND THE BOOK COVER

For more than 30 years, illustrator Winston Megoran produced countless paintings and etchings of the sea and boats. This brilliant and diverse self-taught artist also created a wealth of book jackets that have made his work, if not his name, famous

- LAURENT CHARPENTIER

One of my earliest memories as a small child was going to sleep in my bedroom next to his studio and being lulled by the comforting ‘ping’ as he tapped his watercolour brush against his water pot when washing one of his brushes.”

To conjure up the memories of his father, painter and illustrator Winston Megoran, John tilts his head slightly and closes his eyes. “Dad wasn’t much interested in clothes and generally wore day-in, day-out, grey flannel trousers and a cream, v-necked jumper. He pretty much always wore collar and tie even when sailing.” In the early 1950s, Winston, a married man in his 40s with two boys, sported the uniform of an office clerk. In reality, he was one of the most highly rated marine artists of the day. “He was totally unbohemian. He lived to paint.”

On the first floor of the family home, at 39, Old Castle Road in Weymouth, his studio overlooked the sprawling Portland harbour. Pipe in mouth and glasses perched on his nose, Winston spent his days on this motionless ship’s bridge, multitasking on a book cover in gouache, a painting in oil and half a dozen watercolours. His favourite themes? Sailing boats (old and modern) on every point of sail, in any type of weather and from every angle, cargo ships, military vessels and even the flights of wild ducks, which the Warwick Gallery that represented him sold like hot cakes in his native UK as well as the USA and Canada. “He loved working and was never happier than when he had a lot of different things on the go at once.”