The Moody family lived in Kingston and most of his landscape paintings
were inspired by his locality – Chessington for instance, which at the
time was very rural.   He also made several painting trips down to the
South Coast.  His formative 1926 painting tour, which took in both
sides of the Channel, was undertaken at crucial point in his early
career. He was 20 in 1926 and though determined to pursue his passion
as an artist he was financially vulnerable. A letter from a family
friend in December 1926 cautions him on life as an artist: "I am very
interested in seeing that you have taken up lettering and I congratulate
you on your success. I think you have done a wise and practical thing
in taking up commercial art, but it would be a pity if you did nothing
else. At the start I am afraid you can’t live on doing work that will
live, but you may live on doing work that will not live."

By 1930 Jack, as a founder member of the New Kingston Group, was
exhibiting work around the country and in 1931 was teaching Architecture
and Perspective at the Wimbledon School of Art. Facing penury however
he enrolled as a singer at the Webber Douglas School of Singing which
was to draw him inexorably into theatre life – and eventually into the
world of opera, for which he is best remembered. He never lost his love
of painting.

The extraordinary series which resulted from his 1926 painting spree
were motivated by an interest in light – huge skies, seascapes, white
cliffs and rolling sand dunes. Two years later his Knocke series, on
the Belgian coast, retain similar characteristics whilst adopting a
slightly surreal imagery.We are grateful to Richard Thompson for assistance