Warehouse Destroyed by Fire

'Warehouse Destroyed by Fire' was painted in 1948 and was a scene I saw in a nearby street. It was gutted by incendiary bombs and left for some years after the war ended. My painting was developed from memory and the experience of witnessing similar devastation on returning to London from my evacuation to Devon.

Detail from 'Warehouse Destroyed by Fire' 1948, oil on canvas, size 40" x 50", £950.   

So much rebuilding needed to be done, hopeless sites too difficult to repair were left in abeyance while more important reconstruction took precedence throughout the late 1940's. The above image is a detail from the much larger canvas and shows the dramatic composition of the girders, like charred bones reaching upwards. these contrast further with the diminutive scale of the scurrying figures below - to see these and the painting in full please visit my forthcoming exhibition at West Greenwich Library, details are below;  

Scenes from Post-War London. The Early Paintings of Terry Scales.

9th May - 10th June.

West Greenwich Library, 146 Greenwich High Road, SE10 8NN.

Opening times;
Monday: 2pm to 7pm
Tuesday: 9am to 5.30pm
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: 9am to 7pm
Friday: 2pm to 5.30pm
Saturday: 9am to 5pm
Sunday: Closed

Date of artist talk; 9th June 3 - 4 pm, free.