Also at that time I started to paint the River Thames in watercolours. Since most of the male members of my family worked on the river and living just 2 streets away from the busy Bermondsey Wharves, this was a natural progression. My new city life both fascinated and repelled me but art school supplied the outlet I needed to express these feelings.
'Night Watchman' 1948. 24 x 20". Oil on panel.
Unloading Casks, Rotherhithe. 14x12" Indian Ink and Watercolour 1947. Private Collection.
The wharves near Cherry Garden Pier stored a great variety of cereals, nuts and Sugar Barley. As a child I would wait for the dockers to go for lunch and receive for my patience a handful of Barley. The shoreline here was my playground, but so many children were drowned the London County Council distributed a poster; 'Keep Death off the River'. The work is my earliest riverside painting in watercolour and Indian Ink. Now in a private collection.
To be continued....