More rummaging through the archives.... my first job on leaving National Service in 1954 was as a figure artist at Pulfords Publicity in Fleet Street. Pulfords produced film posters and eventually became Britain's premier film advertising agency.
Here are some early figure studies, can you recognise them?
Message from the Blackheath Art Society;
"We are delighted to announce our upcoming members' exhibition at Blackheath Halls. Running from 17th November - 22 December, this is our first face-to-face exhibition since 2018.
We are thrilled to be back at the freshly refurbished Blackheath Halls and thank them for their generous welcome to our members and the public."
Since my early tuition in architecture with Gordon Scott I have always loved painting buildings either as the primary subject or in the background. Looking through my archives I came across this painting...
More rummaging through my archives I came across this photo of an early painting... I was amazed to see that the Dockers Shelter at Redriff Road in Bermondsey still exists today. In the 1950s and 60's when I worked in Surrey Docks crowds of dockers filled the road waiting for the timber ships to come in and at lunchtime a van with a hatch served tea. I must have painted this early morning as it's very quiet! The painting has a slight feel of doom about it, the dockers awaiting their fate, a whole world about to change drastically and irrevocably.
The Blackheath Art Society will be back at the newly restored Blackheath Halls for it's winter exhibition. The team at BAS work exceptionally hard to make this a success. For a casual browse of top quality work, for a unique Christmas present, for a lockdown gift to yourself (because you are worth it!) please do put the dates in your diary Wednesday 17th November until Monday 3rd January 2022. More info to follow...
Please see my new section here...
Back in the 1940's Peter Collis was a friend and fellow student in the Juniors Department Camberwell School of Arts. I greatly admired his work and thought he was really talented. Recently I came across a folder with some of his sketches mixed in. I tried to find out what happened to him but search results reveal a more well known Peter Collis, but not this Peter Collis who went on to the Slade from Camberwell. Last time I saw him he had the opportunity to visit Africa with a friend from the Slade.
Here's a little nod to Peter....we often used our fellow students as subject matter...
"Visions of Greenwich Reach" by Terry Scales
A revealing insight into twenty of the artist's major river paintings, with extracts from his Thames Diaries.
42 pages, 30x21cm
£10.95 + P&P (UK postage and packing is £3.50)
Please contact the artist if you would like to buy a copy of this book, or if you would like more information about it.
The following paintings are available as giclée prints in a range of sizes:
| Size | Price |
|---|---|
| Postcard size (15x10cm) | £2.50 |
| A5 | £5.00 |
| A4 | £10.00 |
| A3 | £20.00 |
Our first online exhibition is an ideal opportunity to view and buy work from Blackheath Art Society members. One of the reasons our exhibitions are so anticipated is the consistently high level of talent and exciting variety of style and subject. We greatly miss being able to show works in a physical gallery but this exhibition has the advantage that you can relax at home, enjoy a cool glass of wine or a cosy cuppa and browse through our easy to scroll gallery of work. A work of art is something that can be a gift to others or a gift to yourself. While we spend more time at home it is something lasting and unique that you can cherish and enjoy every day.
Blackheath Art Society 2021 Online Art Exhibition
Before there are none of us 'old Camberwellians' left I wanted to write something about one of my favourite Camberwell teachers. I was 16 years old in 1949 when the German expressionist painter, Martin Bloch arrived to teach at Camberwell School of Art having fled Nazi Germany. His warm European, ebullient manner was instantly popular among students who were missing recently departed inspirational tutors; John Minton (for the Royal College) and William Coldstream (for the Slade). Martin was unlike other teachers in that he didn't hold with the traditional barriers between student and teacher and where other teachers could be rather stiff and formal with students Martin encouraged debate, he told us things about his life, having rubbed shoulders with Edvard Munch as a student in Berlin and we felt we could argue with him freely without repercussion. One example was over the Hollywood film 'Julius Caesar'. We students applauded Marlon Brando's performance whereas Martin argued for a more classical actor. Martin had a great sense of humour and made us laugh when he made fun of other teachers who could be very strict, though it probably didn't help with other staff who could be rather hostile. Martin had a huge impact on me with his painting style, he greatly encouraged imaginative ideas and colour (rich but subdued shades) liberated from tonal contrasts. A painting made in the 1960s directly influenced by him that has remained a favourite is Shad Thames.
Sadly by the time I came out of RAF service Martin had died.
To find out more about Martin Bloch's life and see some of his beautiful work visit The Martin Bloch Trust. Here you can see work from the different periods of his life from the ominous 1930's paintings from Germany and Italy (where in 1933 he was declared a degenerate artist), the poignant painting from being interned as an enemy alien at the start of the war, through to being commissioned by the Ministry of Information to document London's war damage and later his stunning works from his travels through America and England and Wales. Martin's work is held in a number of public collections including; The Tate Gallery, Government Art Collection, Leicester Arts and Museums Service, Leeds Museums and Galleries, the Ben Uri Gallery amongst many others.
I was excited to recently rediscover this painting squirreled away behind many others. Carol Thunstrom was an artist who lodged with my family in Greenwich in the late 1960's or early 1970s. This painting is of my son David, looking very regal and important in his chair!
I spent some time this afternoon looking through old notebooks with my daughter. We came across some photos of my favourite Camberwell Art School model. I met Mr Seargent in the early 1960's, he was walking down Peckham High Street with 2 heavy bags of shopping. I asked him if he would like any help carrying them and he said he wouldn't as he didn't have far to go. We fell into conversation as we were walking along and found that we got on well together. I asked him if he would consider being a model for art students and, surprisingly, he agreed. This is one of the first modelling sessions we had...
