Douglas Fanthome
Douglas Fanthome was born in Lucknow, India in 1937. He immigrated to the UK in 1967 with his wife Anjali and three small children. After working for various employers, he joined London Transport first, as a junior draughtsman, at their Design Office in Acton. After many years on the drawing board he moved up to working as a coordinator for the Jubilee Line Extension, Main Depot in Stratford.
He had always been interested in art and was a member of
the London Transport Art Group till they disbanded in the '70s.
In order to enhance his knowledge of art he joined the West Wickham Art Society in the '80s where he came under the influence of Keith Burtenshaw, Duncan Russell, and Dennis Dellow.
He then jointly founded the Addington Arts Association with Richard Purr and Paolo Francis.
In 1995 he took early retirement to do a foundation diploma in Fine Art from Croydon College and was accepted onto a Fine Art degree course at Wimbledon School of Art. As a mature student he was not entitled to support from his local council and he was forced to drop out after eighteen months on the course.
Douglas appeared on Watercolour Challenge circa 1995
He has held many solo exhibitions in London and Croydon , including eight in the Sun Lounge at the Fairfield Hall in the '80s and '90s. Due to health and other personal reasons Doug gave up painting nearly 15 years ago.
Early in 2017 he returned to painting, in order to raise funds for his daughter's charity Food2Think. To this end he exhibited his work at the Click Clock Art Gallery. This charity helps provide a midday meal for the impoverished children of the Sri Gyatri Devi Basic School, Dhading Besi in Nepal.
All proceeds of this exhibition (£1400.00) went to this charity. His aim is to continue producing work that will support his daughter's charity.
Douglas became a member of the Croydon Art Society in September 2017.
Memberships
London Transport Art Group. (1971-76 )
West Wickham Art Society. (1980-82 )
Joint founder member of the Addington Art Society (1982-85)
Appeared on Watercolour Challenge circa 1995
Stopped painting about ten years ago for personal reasons.
Re-started painting early in 2017 mainly in watercolour but with occasional forays into oils and mixed media.
