And a Peaceful, Healthy 2024
Friday, 15 December 2023
Friday, 17 November 2023
Blackheath Art Society Winter Exhibition 16th November to 18th December 2024.
Come and visit Blackheath Halls to see an amazing array of local talent brighten and dazzle the walls of the halls! Your chance to treat yourself or someone special to a unique gift that will keep on giving.
The wonderful thing about this venue is that you can sit down, relax and have a drink and peruse the paintings at your leisure unobserved and without any pressure! All of the paintings are for sale and would make a truly special gift. Please do come and visit and see if there is something that catches your eye! If you are a local artist and thinking of joining the Blackheath Art Society please get in touch, we are a very welcoming group and always keen to have new members.
My submission for this years show...
Vanbrugh Castle - A Gothic Fantasy, medium; oils, size; 77.5cm x 62.4cm, price £350.
For more information on visiting the Blackheath Halls please visit;
https://www.blackheathhalls.com/whats-on/blackheath-art-society-winter-exhibition-2/
Winter Exhibition Belgrave St Ives Cornwall 25th November to 8th January 2024
Delighted to find a painting of mine featured in this winter exhibition alongside many illustrious names like Graham Sutherland, Paul Cezanne, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Ben Nicholson and Paul Nash. Even better though to appear in an exhibition alongside many of my old colleagues and peers; Victor Pasmore, Anthony Eyton, Francis Hoyland, and John Christopherson.
Please visit the Belgrave St Ives website to see all the works for sale
Monday, 28 August 2023
Serendipity - An exhibition of paintings by Jonathan Cowell and L J McLeod
It is a pleasure to help publicise this exhibition by 2 very talented artists Jonathan Cowell and L J McLeod. Jonathan Cowell is an ex-student of mine from Byam Shaw School of Art, where I taught for many years. This will be a unique and exciting combination of styles and atmospheres and a not to be missed event.
Lightermen at Cherry Garden Pier
I made this painting (now sold) in 1985, a very different landscape not so long ago!
Friday, 21 July 2023
The Guide
During the 80's and 90's we had a local magazine in Greenwich called 'The Guide'. They were community based and very supportive of the local community, featuring many local artists on the covers. I was lucky enough to have a few cover features and this one is of Drings the butchers on Royal Hill.
Drings the Butchers (original painting sold)
Saturday, 10 June 2023
Blackheath Art Society Summer Exhibition 8th June to 25th June.
Come and see our Summer Exhibition at;
The Anna Lovely Gallery
140 Sydenham Road
SE26 5JZ
The exhibition is on for 3 weeks from Thursday 8th June to Sunday 25th June. The gallery is open from Thursdays to Sundays 12 noon to 6pm.
The Gallery is easy to reach, there is plenty of parking in the surrounding roads and a good bus service, with nos. 202, 194 & 450 stopping at Knighton Park Road just next to the gallery.
There is a huge variety of styles and mediums by different artists.
Primulae With Fruit, oil on board, £250. Terry Scales.
Small Craft off Wood Wharf, mixed media, £480. Terry Scales.
Hope you can make it!
Saturday, 4 March 2023
Scotts Sufferance Wharf, Bermondsey
Scotts Wharf - memories of a working
wharf in the 50’s and early 60’s.
Between
Tower Bridge and Cherry Garden Pier on the south bank of the Thames was an
inlet of some 500 yards long. The landward side was close to the busy Dockhead
Road. Wharves on both sides handled barges carrying cereals, tinned fruit and
hessian transported by barges from the larger docks downstream. However the
main activity centred around Scotts Wharf. At high tide there was easy mooring
and lightermen would wait for this to bring their barges in and out. Scotts
Wharf had a small permanent workforce and relied on the Pool to bring in the
labour needed for the day's work.
I worked as
a stevedore for some 5 years frequently at Scotts Wharf. It wasn’t a popular
wharf because the pay wasn’t as good as other wharfs, cargos of hessian bales
paid a lot less per tonnage and the pay was poor in comparison with other
wharves like Chambers Wharf.
A typical
day went like this…
At the
beginning of the day Dockers would assemble under a huge shed on Redriff Road
(the Pool) with an office at one end, waiting their assignation to various
wharves needing cargo unloading. Often a docker would be sent to replace a sick
or injured man. Once you got your assignation you then, depending on where you
were going, took public transport to your wharf.
If there was
no work you would ‘bump on’. It meant you had arrived for work, signed on but
none was available so you still got a minimum pay. You might go to the Lady
Gomm Club which was made available to dockers in the daytime and had coffee. There you might wait for another
chance and try again at the 1.30pm afternoon call.
After the Call 1957
On arrival
at the wharf you would hand in your dockers booklet for the office to register
your time at the wharf and this was later returned when the job was completed.
Work started at 8am but the barges would have to wait for high tide to moor up,
work would then proceed very quickly.
The foreman
would allocate jobs; 2 men in the barge, 4 men dockside, 2 men at the loophole.
Usually it was younger dockers who worked in the barges. It was less strenuous
work at Scotts Wharf and I was sent there as I had injured my leg but still
able to work in the barge. The barges brought in cargoes of hessian in 2
hundred weight bales. We attached a strong rope (a strop) under the bales and
fixed the hook . A high crane performed the necessary unloading. The cargoes
were then transported by hand trucks to the front of the wharf which faced the
main Dockhead Road ready for easy transport by lorry. Sometimes the high crane
loaded straight on to waiting lorries. A full barge would take nearly a day to
unload. If it was after 2pm when the work was completed the dockers were free
to go home. They would then report to the Pool again the following day. If you
were unlucky enough to still be working when the tide went out in a worse case
scenario you may have had to stay the night on the barge.
Sketches from the 1960's
Patsy was
the foreman at Scotts Wharf. He had a strong sense of humour and was always
laughing.
Joe the old
timer had worked most of his life at Scotts Wharf and was still working into
his seventies.
Patsy on the
left and Joe on the right.
Ron Weldon
was the high crane driver. When things were slack he took on other work, he was
also a bouncer at various venues one being Chislehurst Caves. He kept order at
musical events. It was his job to go round when the session ended to root out
the couples that wanted to stay the night in the caves. This sometimes ended in
fights since the couples resented being turned out! He was a good friend to me,
he helped me transport paintings and when I had my first evening class in the
early days it was about to fail due to lack of numbers Ron and Charles (another
docker) presented themselves as students. The visiting Principle on seeing
these two big tough looking men working away on their drawings was suitably
impressed and allowed me to keep the class open even though I was short on
numbers. It was a great kindness of Ron and Charles which I never forgot for
without their help I would have certainly lost the class and the valuable
teaching experience which helped secure later work.
Terry at Scotts Wharf circa 1959.
Some interesting links on the history of the area...
St Saviour's Dock - A London Inheritance
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