Canal Scene. 1971.

Having just turned fourteen and just started back at Hoole Secondary Modern School, in September 1971, the class was given an art exam by the art teacher Mr Underwood. I think that there were a number of questions to choose from so I chose ‘Canal Scene’. I found a square piece of wood, primed it white and then straight from my imagination I drew out the canal scene. This scene was based upon my imagination of what part of Birmingham looked like as my Granddad, Dad’s Dad, was a dentist in Bromsgrove and regularly visited Birmingham. I based part of the picture on what I had seen many times before, the canal warehouses by Tower Wharf, Cow Lane Bridge and Seller Street in Chester, and also the railway bridge crossing the canal at Chester’s Northgate Locks. I had some books about railways which were illustrated with black and white photographs and so I chose to paint my picture with black, white and just a few shades of grey, using water based poster colour. When I was seventeen I tidied up the picture and added the guy fishing. The picture was then framed and sold to my Headmaster’s wife for £10 in 1974. About fifteen years later when they were downsizing to move away from Chester, they very kindly gave the picture back to me.