IF the traditional image of a painter's life is of isolation in a garret with only an easel for company, it does not fit with Colin Simmonds, of Kidderminster.

Mr Simmonds is a well-known personality in Wyre Forest and he will not have to rely on posterity for recognition of his talent.

A Kidderminster resident for more than 30 years and art teacher at Harry Cheshire High School for 21 years, Mr Simmonds is very much part of the community and in constant demand.

In summer he was a linchpin of Wyre Forest District Council's outdoors art projects for youngsters. This month he was, so to speak, behind the portraits of Bewdley personalities on display everywhere in town as part of the festival. He organised the painting projects at St Anne's and Wribbenhall middle schools.

After half term, he joins the team organising after-school art workshops in Kidderminster Library.

Mr Simmonds said he never intended to teach when he first took up the profession in Birmingham after graduating in 1960 in lithography and painting from Birmingham Art College.

But he "grew into it". He said: "I enjoy teaching children whether they are talented or not. There are so many facets to art ranging from pottery to computer graphics. There is room for everybody.

"I like the directness of children you see in those portraits in Bewdley. They don't get hung up on imperfections. Even mature artists should aim at this innocence."

Dedication to teaching has been rewarded with good exam results and top awards in county sixth form art competitions.

Mr Simmonds has two sons whom he brought up single-handed for 10 years after his wife Cynthia died in 1980.

Carl, 30, is an interior designer. Gary, 29, is making his name as a painter in a one-man show in Milan. "His paintings are great. Big, colourful, 12 footers like I loved to do at that age."

A product of the prestigious former Moseley Secondary Art School which he entered at the age of 12, Mr Simmonds is, however, a pure painter at heart.

The decision to leave Harry Cheshire in 1991 at 50 was not "brave" because the boys were grown up and he was so excited to be free to just to paint.

His house at Bewdley Hill is now choc-a-bloc with oil paintings, mostly Worcestershire and Herefordshire landscapes with an abstract quality. He reckons he has painted up to 4,000 pictures. Some take months, some half-an-hour.

Success came early. Even before leaving teaching he was invited to exhibit at the Hurlingham Gallery, London. And recognition has snowballed. His paintings are familiar in the West Midlands and are known in America and Europe. His latest "coup" is space in the prestigious John Davies Gallery at Stow-on-the-Wold.

What is the secret of success? He laughs: "It's 99 per cent hard work and one per cent talent."