The Artist - Paintings

A Selection Of Paintings
By Laurie Shepherd

http://martinducker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-artist.html

A Selection Of Paintings & Drawings  By Victor Ducker

The Artist

The definition of an 'Artist' might be loosely described as someone who participates in a creative activity, using an expressive arrangement of elements or movement, such as painting, poetry, dancing, acting, writing, music, etc.

So you might ask where does the "martial artist" fit in with the above description? Well it could be perceived as, someone trying to obtain or perfect a specific level of skill, which focuses on providing techniques for the art of fighting or warfare.

I really feel that a much better description might be; someone who studies, perfects and expresses a range of techniques and creative movement to not only prepare for adversity on many different levels, but also ultimately find peace and harmony within oneself and their environment.

Over the last thirty-five years I have been trying to figure-out what it actually means to be a martial artist? I've recently come to the conclusion and it's my own personal view that it really has nothing to do with fighting. That element of my training disappeared many years ago. Today I now use the martial arts as a Way of life, as well as a journey of self-discovery.

I suppose the ultimate goal of any martial artist is to try and better his or herself on many different levels and that's exactly what I'm still aiming towards. I'm constantly learning, training and improving all the time. I no longer think that I'm better than anyone else, just hopefully better than I used to be.

I'm really lucky that I was brought up from a very early age with an artistic viewpoint. You see, despite my father being employed, as a builder’s labourer for most of his working life, he was also a talented Artist. The majority of his free time he just quietly sketched and painted away, hardly ever displaying or exhibiting any of his work.

My dad developed his special talent to draw during his early childhood years. Later on in his life I think he could have easily have been an accomplished artist. At the age of nineteen however, like thousands of other young men, he was unfortunately called up to serve in the British army to fight in the Second World War.

Even while serving in the forces he would often find time to sketch. He loved drawing battle scenes, landscapes, as well as planes and warships of that era. But without a doubt his favourite subject was drawing portraits of beautiful woman. Many of these wonderful portraits and pictures have now been safely preserved for future generations to see.

  

There were times when my father would just sit me down and encourage me to draw. He would get me to half-close my eyes, hold a pencil up and view objects from an entirely different perspective. He allowed me to visualise beyond the normal point of view, which made me see things in a completely different way.

I just loved the way my dad could grab a pencil and using an odd scrap of paper he could make a picture emerge right before my very eyes. He had fantastic ability where he could bring most subjects to life. I now feel truly blessed to have had many wonderful moments with him just painting away with him by my side and I still really miss him now he is no longer here.

Another huge influence in my life was my Middle School art teacher, a magnificent man called Laurie Shepherd. While I was struggling with the bullying and drudgery of school, this gentleman was the one shining light in my life. While many other teacher’s just taught their specific subjects strictly by the book, Mr. Shepherd had the ability to connect with and inspire the many pupils he came into contact with.

It was during his lessons that my remarkable art teacher was somehow inspirational enough to get the best out of me. He was able to encourage me to express my feelings down on to the paper. I recall once painting this impressive locomotive train hurtling along the tracks. I now realise that this picture reflected a lot of my pent-up anger and frustration. It was a piece of work, which would eventually gain me top marks toward my final exam results.

Sadly I moved on from Middle School to High School and inevitably lost touch with Mr. Shepherd. My artistic ability also declined, the new art-teacher at High School was basically passion-less and just an ordinary technician who was unable to associate with me on any level at all. My ability to draw and paint gradually fell by the wayside.

My story about Mr. Laurie Shepherd didn't end there. Several years after I had finished school I came into contact with him again. By coincidence he’d also started studying martial arts at the same Kuk Sool club as myself. It was really great to be reacquainted with Laurie again and to now have him as a training partner, as opposed to him just being my schoolteacher.

After a couple of years training together, I noticed that Laurie was struggling to keep his attendance consistent. I discovered it was because of his new role as Deputy Headmaster at my old school. It was a position, which created much additional pressure on his shoulders and a job, which I felt that he’d acquired out of loyalty toward the school rather than for his own career advancement.

Despite his overwhelming work commitments, he returned back to his Kuk Sool practice. This time however an interesting situation had developed - due to the time that he had taken out, our roles had actually reversed. I was now teaching, inspiring and encouraging him, just like he had done previously for me in his classroom.  It was a strange feeling, teaching your own teacher, but on another level it did feel somewhat rewarding.

After a lot of hard practice, commitment and dedication on Laurie’s behalf, he finally achieved his first degree Black Belt in Kuk Sool Won. I knew that it wasn't easy and had taken him nearly ten years to reach this level. Laurie being a proud Welshman, had to truly feel that he was worthy wearing that prestigious black belt around his waist.

With the ever-increasing strain form his work duties, including dealing with the persistent Ofstead school inspections. My dear friend Laurie, over a continued period of time, sadly became further and further overworked and eventually became sick and unwell. It was only a matter of time before he was forced to retire from his duties at school due to extremely poor health.

It soon became apparent that Laurie’s illness was far more serious than anyone first thought. Despite having a major operation to try and treat the initial problems, there was very little hope of a full recovery. My dear friend, teacher and fellow martial artist, was diagnosed as being terminally ill.

I think Laurie knew beforehand that his time was limited and therefore made a concentrated effort to paint everyday. Early in the morning he would go down to his art studio in his garden and allow the paint and the brushes to flow. In a short period of time he had produced literally dozens and dozens of wonderful abstract pictures, something that he hadn’t done for many years since he attended Art College.

During the later stage of his illness, I remember visiting Laurie on several occasions. On one particular afternoon we sat, drank tea, laughed and chattered. We also talked about a specific book, which I knew that he really liked. The book was called Sword and Brush, written by David Lowry. This book obviously had great meaning for Laurie and I believe that he truly recognised the distinct connection between the Artist and the Warrior.

Sadly, Laurie Shepherd passed away in March 2000. His funeral at the local church was absolutely packed-out with hundreds of old school pupils, ex-teachers, family and friends. Laurie had obviously made an immense impact not just on my own life, but on many other people’s lives as well. Everyone that turned up did so to pay their last respects to a very caring individual.

For me, Laurie Shepherd was more than just a teacher or a friend; he was an extraordinary human-being. Both he and my Father had the gift to see things from an entirely different perspective and both also had the vision to see the ‘good’ in other people as well.

I would like to finish this post by dedicating the following paragraph to;  Victor Ducker & Laurie Shepherd.  

The Introduction - Sword and the Brush; Spirit Of The Martial Arts, by David Lowry

The Way of the sword, the Way of the brush: one an encounter of harmony between brush and paper, the other a meeting of conflict between swords. The results are inevitable and immutable. For the calligrapher as for the warrior, reality is reduced to a single unique encounter of perfect clarity.

View Paintings & Drawings buy visiting the link below

http://martinducker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-artists-pictures.html

Not Just A Pretty Face

As you might have guessed it wasn't long before my girlfriend Alison had taken the natural progression from her self-defence classes into the World of Kuk Sool Won.   www.kuksoolwon.com

Alison as a Yellow Belt 1981

It soon became apparent that Alison wasn’t your regular run-of-the-mill  practitioner. She was a 'natural', meaning she had specific qualities that made practising look very easy. For example, being only 5ft 4" she had a very low centre of gravity, which made her posture look strong and her movement smooth and fluid, which is an essential part of Kuk Sool training.

Alongside these attributes she also had tremendous flexibility and agility needed for kicking. In addition to really cap it all she possessed a photographic memory, which meant she only needed to be shown a specific technique once and could recall anything at the drop of hat.

On the other hand I was the complete opposite – tall, inflexible and rigid. My memory was not that great either and I usually had trouble picking up new moves straight away. Despite this, for myself it wasn't all bad. On the plus side I discovered that I was quite strong minded and not easily deterred; a quality that would serve me well over the years.

As far as our martial art training was concerned, everything was going extremely well for the both of us. We practiced hard during most of our lessons together, as well as enjoying each other's company outside of the class. Alison had just obtained her first grade as a yellow belt and I was progressing steadily toward red belt, which was an intermediate level in our martial art system. 

One evening during a particular practice session, I was training on one side of the Sports Hall, while Alison was practising on the other side of the room. Everything seemed normal until I heard a bit of a commotion going on. I looked across to see a group of students gathering around looking at someone lying on the ground.

I halted what I was doing and walked over and realised that it was Alison laying on the floor. Everyone turned and looked at me with concern. When I peered down to view the situation I noticed Alison's left leg was sticking out at a right angle. It was unpleasant to view and I felt  sick just looking at the horrific injury.

What actually happened, while Alison was performing a certain self-defence technique. (Ki Bon Soo No. 2) her partner had lost his balance and fell back onto her leg, fully dislocating her knee joint. When she actually tried to stand up, she had no support and collapsed back down to the ground in agony.

Soon after the accident had occurred the paramedics were called and Alison was whisked-off to hospital. I remember sitting with her in the ambulance stroking her hand and giving her the gas and air, in combination with telling her some of my bizarre jokes, just to take her mind off the pain.

1st Degree Black Belt 1991

Arriving at the hospital and after close examination the doctor's    decided to anaesthetise Alison to get her knee set back into place. At the same time they decided to plaster her whole leg from ankle to thigh. It was a decision that was later to be reversed after a couple of days; the swelling on her leg became too much, which increased the amount of pain.

It was an exceptionally serious injury to say the least, enough to finish any sports persons career. Because Alison was really flexible as well as having hyper-extended knee ligaments it meant that her knee joints could be susceptible to problems.

After six months of continuous physiotherapy and rehabilitation, Alison made a marvelous recovery and then made the brave decision to return back to Kuk Sool. With her leg heavily strapped, she was strictly advised by her consultant to train very lightly to start off with. Despite many people advising Alison that she was crazy to return, she vowed that she was never going to stop practising martial arts.

Another noticeable fact, which I like to recall from our early days of going-out together, was Alison's ability to stand-up for herself. When I first met her I really thought I was dating this relatively shy, unassuming, attractive young girl. However during one evening out, I was to discover another side to Alison, which I and many other people never knew existed.

We were at a local dance hall and for some unknown reason there was this girl who had been taunting Alison for most of the evening. She'd discovered that Alison had recently started martial arts and was trying to test her resolve. We both knew that this girl had a reputation for causing trouble and tried to stay out of her way for the remainder of the night.

Master level - 2007

After the dance had finished, the girl continued with her threatening actions outside on the pavement, pushing and shoving Alison about. It soon became apparent that it was going to get physical, so I decided to step in to prevent this dreadful girl from getting too close. If nothing else I thought that I would at least try and calm the situation down, instead it only seemed to make matters worse.

The girl targeted more verbal abuse toward Alison, shouting out... "you're only tough when you're standing behind him," (meaning me.) That was it…. out of the blue my generally good-natured young girlfriend, had tolerated enough; she leapt forward and subsequently whacked this girl right in the head.

I was absolutely stunned, but not as much as the girl, who was literally knocked off her feet onto the ground. I stood there in amazement with my mouth open wide looking at Alison, I remember thinking to myself - where the heck did that come from? Alison calmly walked away from the scene as if nothing had happened, while everyone else just looked on in astonishment.

Alison Ducker
6th Degree Black Belt
2014

This was just one of the many examples of Alison standing her ground. I later found out that she was the "tom-boy" of her family; playing football as well as the regular play-fighting with her Dad. He'd also trained his ‘girl’ to develop exceptionally strong wrists, which again was down to the regular grappling competitions, which often took place in their house.

Over the years I came to recognise that Alison was not just a 'pretty face.' In due course she has developed into an extremely  calm, determined and respectful young lady. 

It was these attributes that would not only help Alison to one-day become a National Grand Champion, winning many Gold medals, but also the highest graded female Kuk Sool Won practitioner here in the UK.

Lean, Mean, Fighting Machine

My First Half Marathon - 1980

After discovering the girl of my dreams, my relationship with Alison was steadily progressing very nicely, if anything she totally distracted me away from the pub.

Alison had obviously realised that my martial art training was important and asked if she could come along one night to see me in action. At first I was very reluctant to let her watch, mainly because I was embarrassed by my own ability.

At my local club there were plenty of practitioners far better than me and I didn't want to look inferior, especially in front of my new girlfriend. Despite my inhibitions, I eventually invited Alison to come along and view her very first class.

After this session she expressed that she really enjoyed watching and was really impressed with all the variety of different moves. I then apologised for my lack of talent and was hoping for some sympathy from her. It didn't come; instead she very simply replied, "If you want to improve, you should practice more." …Wow!

So that's exactly what I did. I increased my attendance from one night to two nights per week. Alison promised to support me and said that for every class that I attended she would come along to watch, viewing from the Sports Centre public balcony.

She kept her word and very rarely missed a session, which helped me to keep my attendance consistent. At the same time Alison became good friends with a fellow practitioners girlfriend and together they would sit and pass the time of day while we practised below.

The knowledge that Alison was behind me every step of the way was an enormous boost and probably the single most important factor, which helped my martial art ability to improve. Alongside this I also wanted to impress her by training hard and taking greater care of myself.

My obsession to improve my level of skill continued. I completely stopped drinking alcohol and paid particular attention to what I was eating. I also started running several times each week, which progressively increased over a period of time. Alison used to cycle alongside me, motivating me like she was my own personal trainer. Eventually with her encouragement I was able to complete my first ever half-marathon, which I thought was an absolute achievement on it's own.

In addition, I also followed a weight-training programme to support my martial art practice. I studied nutrition and began to take additional health supplements, such as Korean Ginseng, as well using multi-vitamins and minerals. I even performed the old 'Rocky' routine; just like Sylvester Stallone, drinking raw eggs before going out for a run.

Most of my 'pub' friends thought I'd gone crazy, transforming myself from a beer-swilling slob, into a lean, mean, fighting machine. My weight had reduced from 16 stone (224lbs) to 12 stone (168lbs). I remember one of my mates asking me if I was feeling alright or was I suffering from some incurable disease, because I'd lost so much weight? My reply was... I'd never felt better in my entire life.

The intensity of my training steadily increased from two to three nights per week and running in between. At this point there was definitely no holding me back. I discovered after losing so much weight I was able to jump fairly high, which was an essential ingredient for anyone wanting to participate in the more advanced kicking routines specific to Korean martial arts.

As I trained more and more my overall speed and agility improved. I became reasonably proficient at sparring, which is a method of training used to test out your fighting skills without actually or intentionally hurting your partner.  During this type of practise I was more than capable of holding my own against most opponents out on the mat.

I don’t think I was really regarded as an aggressive person, but for some strange reason I'd developed this intensity when sparring and just loved to get stuck-in. I had no fear of getting hurt or being knocked about. In fact I’d gained a reputation at our club as being rather difficult to contest against.

While I continued to train hard, Alison remained watching from the sidelines and carried on doing so for a further six months. She seemed quite happy to just sit and watch me sweat my guts out from the comfort of the viewing balcony. Although she enjoyed seeing me perform, at that particular time she had no intention of joining in whatsoever.

One day that all changed. My instructor had a great idea to try and introduce more females into our martial art club. He did this by organising a special women's self-defence session. At this point in time (1980) very few women were involved in martial art training; those few that did practice were fairly tough, masculine characters.

Our Sabumnim (Instructor) had apparently noticed Alison watching from the viewing balcony. At the end of each lesson he often made a particular point of talking with her. After several months of badgering her to have a go at Kuk Sool, he eventually persuaded her to try out his new women's self-defence course. 

Eventually Alison enrolled onto the course, which was conveniently held at the exact same time as my own class. The Sports Centre hall was divided into two sections. My own martial art lesson carried on as normal under the watchful eye of an assistant instructor, while the class of about a dozen ladies enthusiastically practised on the other side of the room.

  

Straight away Alison looked like she was enjoying herself, performing those basic self-defence moves. Although she wasn't practising Kuk Sool as such, she did look particularly proficient when doing her basic kicks and hand strikes. In addition I also noticed that she already had superb flexibility, which was a complete asset in itself.

I don't think Alison or I had any idea at the time where this might be heading. We both just thought that her taking part in the self-defence class was an additional way of passing time, while waiting for me to complete my own lesson.

Little did either of us know that it was a choice that would literally shape our whole future together.

Girl Of My Dreams

If you managed to read my last post, you'll know that I left you hanging on in suspense concerning a significant event that would literally change my entire life.

This came about because I made a conscious decision to alter my ways. I'd had enough of the drudgery and drunkenness and I understood that following that particular path would basically take me nowhere. I therefore decided to step out of my comfort zone and create change.

I accomplished this by one Friday night moving away from my regular friends, smarting myself up and visiting another area of town. It was there that I tried out some new pubs and bars. I met and talked with a variety of different people, which made me realise that there was so much more to life.

Having already been through a few fruitless relationships, I already knew how I wanted my perfect girl to look like. In my minds eye I visualised her as having short blonde hair, a petite but curvaceous figure and of course very attractive features. Also in addition she’d have to have a good sense of humour, at least to put up with me.

This might have seemed a tall order, especially when I was a bloke that wore scruffy clothes, had a drink issue and suffered with certain anxiety problems. Despite this I firmly held that vision of my perfect girl encapsulated in my mind. All I had to do from then on was hope for the best and patiently wait.

During my 'evening-out' I managed to end up at the local dance hall. After a few more drinks I somehow got talking to this rather attractive young girl and her best friend. After some small talk I sensed that she was rather down in the mouth and feeling dejected.

Further into our conversation, I discovered that she was sad because the relationship with her current boyfriend had just ended. After listening to her story I then made a concerted effort to try and cheer her up with some of my poor pathetic jokes. It seemed to have worked as she giggled away, momentarily forgetting her problems.

I spent the remainder of night trying to lift her mood, I even promised to try and help her get back with her boyfriend, which funny enough cheered her up even more. When it eventually came to the last song of evening I managed to pluck up enough courage to ask her to dance.

For me dancing was an act of courage and was an extremely rare thing for me to become involved in unless of course I was extremely drunk. Any previous excursions onto the dance floor had revealed, not only was I the proud owner of two left feet, but I'd also displayed the rhythm of a drunken butterfly.

  

She excepted my invitation and I muddled my way through. As our slow dance eventually came to an end, I leant over and kissed her on the cheek. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, just enough to acknowledge my interest. I then asked her if there was a chance of us meeting again in the future. At that point I was really expecting her to give some excuse and say sorry but…. however surprisingly enough she agreed upon a date for the following week at exactly the same venue.

Our second meeting was again an enjoyable experience for me, as I slowly began to like this girl more and more. There was still no sign of her boyfriend, which was a definite bonus. I continued making her laugh for most of the evening, with an array of my terrible jokes. Once again, just like our initial meeting, the night finished with a slow dance and the promise of us meeting up again the following week.

In those early days of seeing each other I was never really sure if our relationship would ever last. Lets face it; she was a quietly spoken, gorgeous petite young woman. I on the other hand was a scruffy, overweight, boisterous, beer-drinking bloke - how was that ever going to work out?

To start with I just took each day as it came, with the concern that at anytime she might end it. But to my astonishment it just didn't happen. As the weeks and months progressed we gradually spent more and more time together, mainly as good friends. If nothing else I certainly knew how to make her smile and laugh, which was probably my saving grace.

My pub-mates were becoming less important to me, as my relationship with my new girlfriend continued to blossom. Although there were still regular trips to my local pub, these were becoming less and less frequent. I had other things on my mind and it certainly wasn’t drinking with my buddies.

I guess it must have been six months down the road when something interesting suddenly occurred to me. It was like a light bulb being switched on in my head. I stopped  and paused for a moment and realised....I was actually dating the 'girl of my dreams'.

To bring you up to-date; just in case you hadn't realised or you don't know me - this young woman was Alison, who was later to become my wife and the mother of our two children.