Alan Tunbridge is an English artist, book dust-jacket illustrator and songwriter.

Life and work

Normally painting in

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

, Alan Tunbridge has also designed a great number of book dust-jacket illustrations, mainly in

Scraperboard Scratchboard (North America and Australia) or scraperboard (Great Britain), is a form of direct engraving where the artist scratches off dark ink to reveal a white or colored layer beneath. Scratchboard refers to both a fine-art medium, and ...

. Many of his songs have been recorded by the

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

and

Country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

singer and guitarist

Wizz Jones Raymond Ronald Jones (born 25 April 1939), better-known as Wizz Jones, is an English acoustic guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Thornton Heath, Surrey, England and has been performing since the late 1950s and recording from 19 ...

. With Jones, Tunbridge ran the MOJO

Folk club A folk club is a regular event, permanent venue, or section of a venue devoted to folk music and traditional music. Folk clubs were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain and Ireland, and vital to the second British folk r ...

at the King's Arms

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

, South London in the early 1960s. Often he wrote the words spontaneously to Wizz Jones' chord sequences. His songs are also in the repertoires of

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (19 ...

John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...

, Maggie Holland and others. McTell was inspired by Tunbridge's lyrics of the evocative "National Seven" to tread the road which bears this name down to the south of France. The title of Bert Jansch's biography ''Dazzling Stranger'' originated from the title of a Tunbridge song. Tunbridge spent a number of years studying the teachings of the mystic G. I. Gurdjieff (the

Fourth Way The Fourth Way is an approach to self-development developed by George Gurdjieff over years of travel in the East (c. 1890 – 1912). It combines and harmonizes what he saw as three established traditional "ways" or "schools": those of the body, ...

) with

John G. Bennett John Godolphin Bennett (8 June 1897 – 13 December 1974) was a British academic and author. He is best known for his books on psychology and spirituality, particularly on the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff. Bennett met Gurdjieff in Istanbul in ...

at Coombe Springs, and later spent time with the Sufi teacher

Idries Shah Idries Shah (; hi, इदरीस शाह, ps, ادريس شاه, ur, ; 16 June 1924 – 23 November 1996), also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el- Hashimi (Arabic: سيد إدريس هاشمي) and by the pen name Ark ...

. In 1997 Tunbridge contributed illustrations to Shah's collection of folktales, World Tales, illustrating the story of Mushkil Gusha. He lived in Sydney, Australia, for many years. He no longer writes songs. From 1999 to 2009 he focused on using his writing and design skills to help develop the Schizophrenia Research Institute in Australia, of which he was a founding Director. This commitment was undertaken because his eldest son became affected by the illness. He retired from this role in 2009 to pursue his painting activities and to write his autobiography, ''Noose of Light'', which was published in 2015. He now lives in

Ubud Ubud is a town on the Indonesian island of Bali in Ubud District, located amongst rice paddies and steep ravines in the central foothills of the Gianyar regency. Promoted as an arts and culture centre, it has developed a large tourism indust ...

, Bali.

Recorded songs

Alan Tunbridge's recorded songs include: * Dazzling Stranger * See How the Time is Flying * The Legendary Me * When I Cease to Care * Nobody Told You So * Beggar Man * Slow Down to My Speed * Stick a Little Label on It * Which of Them You Love the Best * City of the Angels * The Raven † * Find a Man for You Girl * Mary Go 'Round * Deep Water † * When You're Gone * National Seven * Second-Hand Mini-Me * The Grapes of Life * Massacre at Béziers * Pictures * Teapot Blues † * Earls Court Breakdown † jointly with Wizz Jones

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tunbridge, Alan 21st-century English painters English male painters English songwriters Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century English male artists