For Jonathan Myles-Lea, painting houses was more than a vocation. It was an obsession that took him to some of the most well-known and coveted private homes around the world. Through this work – and through his exceptional network – he met many influential, interesting and outspoken people from the worlds of the arts, politics, the Church and high society.
Never formally trained, Jonathan was a talented painter from a young age but really came into his own whilst reading history of art and architecture at the University of London. Regarded as the Charles Ryder of his day, he was driven by a love of beauty, something he shared with many of his Catholic counterparts, and that took him frequently to Italy and, of course, Rome. Jonathan intensely disliked the socialist discourse that was popular among his contemporaries at university, so he took an evening job at Channel 4 as a continuity announcer. With his deep, rich RP, he took to the work like a duck to water and often said that he was later asked to “move on” when Channel 4 deemed him “too posh”. Nonetheless, it was during his time at Channel 4 that he became associated with the glittering artistic crowd who graced the Colony Room in Soho. Jonathan often told the story about the day he was first introduced to Maggi Hambling, George Melly and Francis Bacon at that famous celebrity haunt:
