SIR — I wonder if the name of a local artist John Arthur Mease Lomas rings any bells with your readers?
Or if, by any chance, anyone in the neighbourhood has one of his paintings hanging on their walls?
I am researching the life of J A Mease Lomas for publication later this year and would be grateful for any information anyone may have on this long-neglected local artist.
He painted some wonderful landscapes in West Somerset in the early 1900s - many of his oil paintings depict scenes around Porlock, Minehead and up on North Hill.
I'm particularly keen for any information about his time in Porlock; it appears that he lived in the village, in some seclusion, between the 1890s and 1910s.
An exhibition of his work was held in London in 1906 and was given enthusiastic reviews in the national press. But after exhibiting for another dozen years or so, Mease Lomas disappears from view after about 1920.
He ended his days in Timberscombe, where he died in 1950.
His family are perhaps better-known. His father was Thomas Lomas, who built the first villa on North Hill - Clevelands - and in the 1870s, Thomas Lomas established the Bristol Channel Chemical works at the Quay.
His younger brother, Harold Lomas, was a local photographer, specialising in hunting scenes, and he went on to work in the early days of the British cinema.
If any reader has any information on J A Mease Lomas, I would be so grateful if they could contact me, by email, [email protected]">[email protected], or by phone 01494 862918.
Jeff Cox