'Time to call it a draw' Horbury art teacher, 81, retires after tutoring pensioners for 30 years

Keith Oldroyd, 81, has been teaching art classes since he took early redundancy from working as an installation maintenance manager at BT in 1992.

He teaches painting to other retirees twice a week at the Scout Hut on Manor Road in Horbury every Wednesday and Thursday morning.

After dedicating the past three decades to art, Mr Oldroyd, of Horbury, will take his final class on Thursday, March 30.

Mr Oldroyd said: “I’ve got to that point in time that I knew that I was a time to call it a draw. I’m 81 now, 82 in April, and I feel like I want to do a little bit more for myself other than teaching.”

The painter also used to teach a class on a Monday evening, as well as previously giving regular demonstrations to art clubs and groups across Yorkshire, even as far as Filey and Bridlington.

Mr Oldroyd added: “I’ve always been into art, I went to a junior art school in Wakefield and then I eventually picked it up later in life.

"I took early redundancy from BT in 1992 and I started teaching classes in 1994. I’ve been teaching classes for as long as I worked at BT.

"Art is a release, it is a way of taking your mind off things. When you are painting, you can’t think about other things, really. It is still hard work doing the painting, but it gives you time to relax.

"I also like getting out and about sketching, when the weather is nice. It is a big part of my life and has been for quite some time.”

Mr Oldroyd works primarily in watercolour and acrylics, but also dabbles in oil painting.

Every autumn, he holds an exhibition featuring some of the excellent work produced by himself and his students at his classes throughout the year, with the money left over after the artist’s cut being donated to charity.

Over the years, Mr Oldroyd and his students have raised more than £6,000 which has been donated to Macmillan Cancer Support, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, and the RNLI Filey Lifeboat Station.