The world of painting and decorating was last night mourning the loss of one of the country's most distinguished and highly regarded painters and decorators by some distance, according to reports.
Luke Freud, head of a firm of painters and decorators based in Basingstoke, passed away at a nursing home in Haslemere in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Dave Sutton , director of rival firm DCS Painters, said:
"The vitality of Luke Freud’s walls, the intensity of his skirting boards and the way he could paint his way around a radiator without getting splashes of paint on it guarantee Luke a unique place in the pantheon of late 20th Century painters and decorators.”
"His early emulsions and undercoats redefined British home decoration and his later works stand comparison with the great interior house painters of any period."
Freud started out as a student at London’s Central School of Art but thought ‘fuck this for a game of soldiers’ after deciding there was no money to be made from portraiture .
Former Observer DIY critic William Feaver, who knew Freud for more than 40 years, said the painter was someone who could turn his hand to anything including tricky outside paintwork such as guttering and drain pipes.
“In that sense, he was very much an all-weather painter”, Feaver observed.
“It’s so rare in this day and age that you will encounter a decorator who brings his own dust sheets and cleans up after himself, but bringing his own dust sheets and cleaning up after himself was Freud’s forte.”
Paula Stafford, a housewife, who reckons Freud did an excellent job on her bungalow, said,
“Freud would express himself by turning up two hours late, extremely hungover and stinking of BO, with his paint-spattered radio ironically tuned to Chris Moyles. He then had the sheer nerve to ask if he could use my toilet. “
“It was an absolute masterpiece.”
Freud will be remembered for his ‘very competitive rates’ , though, in spite of this, some of Freud’s recent paint jobs had fetched up to £2000 for the upstairs of a three bedroom semi-detached house, often with the bathroom thrown in for free.
Mrs Stafford added,
“He had this most endearing habit of always demanding the money up front and wearing his trousers very loosely.”
“The thought that I’ll never clap eyes on that sweaty arse-crack again is almost too much to bear. ”
