Artist’s Alley Chas DeLost by Cathy Wood
Chas DeLost was a pre-law major in California when he decided to take an art class that led to a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and filmmaking. He then worked as an artist for four years, showing at local galleries, contributing to the local art scene and teaching art at California State University. He spent the next ten years as a television cameraman with ABC, where he met Canadian Wendy Neseth. They married and part- nered to open On Air Productions, a film and video pro- duction company, with offices in both Sacramento and here in London. Chas earned two awards from the Associated Press along with seven Emmy nominations, winning three (camera, lighting and directing). The couple moved permanently to London in 1991 and have resided at the historic 8 Bainard Street in Lambeth for the last 17 years. (We’ll talk more about the home in a future edition). Together, they also won nine international Telly awards. Several were produced in London, in particular with Tourism London and the Canadian Transplant Association. “I also shot for the National Film Board and in Toronto for the TV series Taste of Life and Spectacular Spas,” says Chas. “We’ve travelled for work extensively. Our most exotic shoot was a 30-day travel documentary in Tahiti. Our most meaningful was working with a Washington lobbyist group, travelling through Russia to shoot TV commercials in support of Ukraine’s succession from the Soviet Union. The same group took us to work on Imelda Marcos’ political campaign in the Philippines – illegally as it turned out! None of us knew at the time but quickly found out when all our security disappeared!” Now 85 years of age, Chas focuses on visual art, painting in mostly the surrealist (Dali, Magritte and Ernst for example) style. “I paint mostly oil on canvas but also experiment with several other media, like my aluminum / barbed wire paint tube sculpture on our front lawn!.” Chas also produces 3D-printed sculptures, which are one- offs. “Everything I produce is a creative process which therefore makes the subject matter not repeatable,” says Chas, who quotes Max Ernst: “An artist is lost once he’s found himself.”
“When Wendy finally convinced me to move from California, we agreed Lambeth was the perfect location. I needed to be near a freeway to make me feel at home. Lambeth is very different than what I was used to. It’s a self-sufficient but very involved and supportive community, within walking distance to anything necessary, only minutes from everything else. The neighbourhood is simply full of good and friendly people – mostly everyone knows everyone. I’m also a classic car owner, like many of those also in the ‘hood’, where we forged some pretty interesting relationships.” Chas’ work has been shown in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Toronto and Houston, but Londoners will soon have an opportunity to see it locally. “Our house is its own gallery, with many paintings and small sculptures,” said Wendy. “We get a lot of interest from curious passersby (the outside art as well as the history of the house) which prompted us to plan an art open house, planned for August 9 and 10.
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Lambeth Villager • July-August 2025 • Page 5
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