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The Role of Architecture in My Recent Paintings
The Role of Architecture in My Recent Paintings
'Going to Sunday school Grimsby circa 1947' (2014) oil on linen, 30.5 x
107 cm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This painting depicts mostly children walking towards the Central
Methodist Hall, a grand imposing building with a copper dome in
Duncombe St, Grimsby to attend a Sunday morning school. The Hall
dominated the working class houses nearby. It was designed by the
architect Arthur Brocklehurst of Manchester and was built during
1934-36. It remained a religious building until the 1980s. It is now a
concert venue and community centre run by a charitable trust.
(Currently threatened with closure.) Beyond the Hall is a tall red brick
building that was a cinema called The Regal (1937-2004). Its frontage
was located on Freeman St. We often queued in the street outside
waiting to gain entrance because the cinema was very crowded during
the 1940s and 1950s. It is now closed. Opposite the cinema was a
public house called The Freeman Arms that was popular with
fishermen and notorious for fighting and prositution. The pub still
exists. My paternal grandmother Lily Walker, a widower, lived at 79
Duncombe St on the right of the painting. In this row of houses can be
seen the entrance to a passageway that gave access to a shabby
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(such as Vertigo). Before she became a movie star, Novak was an art
student and model in Chicago.
Midwife heading towards the West Marsh circa 1920 (2014) oil on
linen, 71 x 107cm
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This historical painting depicts a midwife riding a bicycle set against an
industrial townscape of the 1920s. Like delivery boys, midwives have
recently become icons of popular culture in Britain. The composition
was based on an old documentary, black and white photograph. The
midwife has just crossed the old Corporation swing bridge that
spanned the Haven Dock in Grimsby. The dock dated from 1800 but
became part of the Alexandra Dock in 1879. It created a barrier
between the East and West Marsh districts of the town, hence the
need for the bridge (1872-1925) available to pedestrians and cyclists
only. The tug boat seen on the left was used to open and close the
bridge. In the background are buildings that have since vanished. On
the extreme left is a brick structure that was part of Marshalls flour
mill complex (1889 and 1906, demolished in the 1950s). Next to it is
the blank rear wall of the Palace Theatre (1904-79) a music hall and
later cinema. Adjoining the Theatre is the Palace Theatre Buffet which
is the only building still standing at the time of writing. Across the
bridge in the centre can be seen the Central Market square built in the
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1850s with a clock tower dating from 1870 (all demolished in the 1950s
and 1960s). On the right is an engineering works that no longer exists.
Modern Grimsby was a consequence of 19th and 20th centuries'
industrialisation but has since been subject to the opposite process of
de-industrialisation.
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Romantic tryst at Seaton Delaval Hall circa 1959, (2013) oil on linen,
30 x 40 inches
-----------------------------------------------------------------------In the late 1950s I acquired a cheap old car and used it take trips into
the Northumberland countryside from Newcastle. One day I invited a
female art student (Pauline Armstrong) to a day out at Seaton Delaval
Hall, Seaton Sluice, in the hope of furthering a romantic relationship.
The stately home - 1718-29 - was designed in an English Baroque style
by Sir John Vanbrugh and housed portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Godfrey Kneller and Benjamin West. However, the architecture and
setting proved gloomy and oppressive; the building was partly ruined
by fire in 1822 and the history of its aristocratic owners was an
unsavoury one. The place was not conducive to seduction.
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'In Esher they encountered the ghost of Queen Victoria', (2013) oil on
linen, 71 x 107 cm
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In recent years I have lived in the Surrey town of Esher. One of its
noted historic buildings is St George's church, a stone and brick
structure set in a graveyard. It dates back to the 16th century and for
300 years it was the town's Anglican parish church. The young Queen
Victoria often visited relatives at Claremont House near Esher and at
the church of she had her own box overlooking the nave. The white
door behind her ghost was a private entrance to the box. St Georges is
now used as an arts centre. I do not believe in ghosts but when visiting
the church and its graveyard I was often conscious of its Victorian
connection; hence, I devised a narrative to enliven an otherwise
traditional landscape scene.
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