JG: Could you tell us about your times with Ken Spencer?

BW: Ken and I were about the same age, he may have been a few months older. We were boys together. The thing is he was always sketching. I used to tease him about controlling the corner of Harbour Street and King Street where he sold his sketches.

JG: Was that in the days when the cruise ships used to come into Kingston Harbour?

BW: Yes. I was working at the post office on Barry and King Street. That was my territory. I did Jamaican motifs, like ackees, you know - the usual fruit. He was more of a figurative painter with images of a handcart man or a market woman - that sort of thing. He did very well, and I didn't do too badly myself. We made a little pocket money, but I was a little more serious about art as a profession. Or rather, not more serious, but I had a totally different approach to it. In 1952, I went to England and Ken came shortly after. At that time I was enrolled in the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts. I took Ken there to improve his technique but he didn't go to art school.

JG: Was Ken a self-taught artist?

BW: Yes. But in a different sort of way from the usual. He travelled around looking at different museums and works of art so he literally taught himself. He had a tremendous talent. But because of his philosophy towards life he didn't want to spend the time studying the foundations. Anyway, while he was in England he travelled around and he sold stuff - usually quick works for quick funds. When we came back from London, Ken found that paintings were marketable items. He never learned to drive but he would go around the island in a car, and sell his work in Montego Bay and Negril. He would put a bunch of works into a car and his idea was to come back with none.

The thing is he was building a house up in Portland, it was started in 1968, I believe. It was a tremendous sort of house which he had no intention of finishing. It was more a monument to himself. It was about four or five stories high with arches and staircases. He said to me, "These fluted arches that I've built are comparable to St. Paul's Cathedral in London."

I knew Ken very well. I knew him for over 25 years. When I first met Ken I was working at the Jamaica High Commission in London. He went around wearing a beret - that was his style. He was everywhere, up and down every street, as far as it is
possible in a city as big as London. He was a very active individual indeed. He would come to the High Commission and ask me to buy his works, but I'd tell him: "I don't have much money Ken." You see, I was working in the civil service. "Oh, just keep the painting." He'd say: "Pay me at the end of the month. I need the money to buy canvas." And that's how I ended up getting my first Ken Spencer.

At that time he was living in a flat and one day he fell behind with his rent. The landlord gave him notice and he came to me for legal advice. I told him what he should plead. Well, when he had finished with that court he was given a year's extension. An unbelievable character!

He knew everyone in London. He had a very engaging personality. One evening he invited me with him to visit Soho. He showed me around and took me to a bistro downstairs in a basement. It was early in the morning, about 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Downstairs there were jazz musicians having a jam session, playing freestyle. Very bohemian. When we were trying to enter someone shouted up at us: "You musicians?" and Ken replied, "Yeah, we're musicians." And so they let us in. That night I heard some of the most celestial music I have ever heard.

A wonderful character and people don't really realise how good an artist he was. I would say he was an artist, not a painter. Ken created a lot of things in his art; some people create nothing. It was the way he was: he was an artist.

I met Ken 30 years ago. I stocked his work and sold it for many years. He was a very talented individual with a great character. He would make some great works. One example stands out: he could paint what we call 'Old Time Jamaica' beautifully. They were like negatives in pink and black and blue and black. Nobody has ever portrayed it half as well as he did. I found him to be a very generous man; a generous, big-hearted man who was super-gifted. He lived an artist life.

We saw lots of Ken Spencer. He was a fabulous man.

I have this photo of him and Albert Huie taken at staff lunch one year. That day, Albert Huie came to the gallery. He told me: "I'm painting outside the gallery today." We invited him for Christmas lunch. Then, along came Ken Spencer and he too was invited to lunch. So that day we had two great artists in our midst. Of course, the two of them regaled everyone with amazing stories of their life and career. It was the first time they had got together in 20 years and they kept talking until everyone else had left. It must have been 6pm before they left, but not before we took a picture of them.

First of all, when I think of Ken I laugh. He was an excellent artist but because of the way he marketed his work people seem to think he treated it in a light way. I remember in the 1970s he started a new thing with caricatures. They were fun statements and dealt with social issues and daily life. Before that he only did his oil paintings and watercolours. There was a show of his new work at the Frame Centre. I said to him: "Ken, but these are so different, they don't look like yours." He replied: "This is what they want and this is what I'm going to give them!"

I'll tell you a story that highlights his qualities. When I first started my jazz sessions in the 1980s at the Wyndham Hotel, now the Hilton, people said to me: "Pat, you won't get more than 300 persons." But then on the night there were thousands; we weren't prepared for the rush. We didn't even have security. The people tore the doors off the hotel. The Governor-General, Florizel Glasspole, was forced to walk through the kitchen. I was so embarrassed and worried. And there was dear old Ken looking at me. "What's wrong with you?" he said. "What are you lamenting and apologising for? You should be rejoicing!" That was Ken Spencer.

We will miss Ken. Being graced by his company ever so often in the gallery simply brightened everyone's day and enriched our souls. In the past few visits to the gallery, Ken met some new and upcoming artists and they have told me how the few changes he made to their art have helped to make their work more appealing. Ken was also a master salesman and knew the magic of persuasion. He knew nothing of idle chat. His passion led him to galleries and cafés and verandahs where he would reflect on his own life and the world of art. How could one man acquire such a rich array of experiences in one lifetime?!

I can tell you a story that highlights some of Ken's marketing strategies. A year ago a man came into the shop and put a Ken Spencer on the desk. He wanted to have it framed. I asked him: "You bought a Ken Spencer?" And he replied: "No, I won it!"

Apparently, he had come to Kingston for a builder's conference and a group of them had gone out for a drink. They ended up in the Hilton at 2:00 a.m. Suddenly a gentleman approached their table and asked if they wanted to play a game. He told them he had a number in his pocket and then he marked out cards 1 to 5. Everyone took a number and the customer in my shop was the winner. Then Ken Spencer introduced himself. By the end of the night, all the people at the table had bought paintings!

At a certain point, we were showing private collections and one year we had the collection of Raymond Wright, the director of PetroJam.

I went to PetroJam to select works for the show. He showed me around and I saw an absolutely lovely painting. It was a very, very lovely painting of a cityscape. I asked Raymond who painted it and he said it was Ken Spencer's. I told him: "We have to have this painting in the show so that people will know what kind of work he can do."