The Big Picture: Churchill's passion comes alive for a new generation

More than 100 paintings by Sir Winston Churchill will go on show on Monday. The two-week exhibition at Sotheby's in London is intended to introduce a new generation to the wartime leader's work as an artist.

The exhibition celebrates the 50th anniversary of Churchill's election to the Royal Academy as an Honorary Academician Extraordinary. He took up painting in 1915 at the age of 40 after he was forced to resign as First Lord of the Admiralty at the height of the Dardanelles campaign in the First World War.

It became a passion which Churchill pursued until his death in 1965. He once remarked: "If it weren't for the painting I couldn't live. I couldn't bear the strain of things."

His paintings were often influenced by artists Walter Sickert and Sir John Lavery, who were close friends.

In his essay "Painting as a Pastime", from which the exhibition takes its name, the former prime minister wrote: "Painting is a friend who makes no undue demands, excites no exhausting pursuits, keeps faithful pace even with feeble steps, and holds her canvas as a screen between us and the envious eyes of Time or the sultry advances of Decrepitude."

A 1927 landscape by Churchill which he gave to Lloyd George sold for pounds 150,000 recently - nearly three times as much as was expected.

The works in the exhibition have been gathered from private collections around the country and from the National Trust. The exhibition will also feature paintings by Sickert and Lavery as well as a reconstruction of Churchill's studio.