visit to Lowry Gallery Thursady 26 July 2012
Lowry Summer
The visit to the exhibition was lead by our old friend Brian Dunk who with his delightfully melodious voice took us around the paintings that he and Henshaws had selected for our viewing. Brian usually enhances his talks with some appropriate background music but on Thursday the gallery technology failed him. The paintings represented Lowry's depiction of industrial life in and around Salford and Manchester as well as a most interesting one of Piccadilly circus which showed hourdings of old well known products such as Bovril and Schweppes and several others. My driver and guide Ray who is a draughtsman, pointed out to me that the Stockport viaduct arches when looked at closely showed that they were far from uniform in size and shape, something I had never noticed before. Dotted around the many paintings were comments made by Lowry at various times. When asked why he didn't paint smiling faces, he said that he painted them as he saw them in his minds eye and there were few smiles to be seen.
Most of the paintings contained his usual stick leg dogs and a amn or woman pushing a pram. The figures generally appeared to be rushing about in opposite directions and leaning forward slightly as if against a wind. The painting which brought him to prominence was one of a footbal match and the main match supposedly played by professionals was squeezed in on the left hand side of the picture but the majority of the space was taken up by groups of young boys playing their own matches with their coats placed on the ground as goal posts.
At the end of the conducted tour with Brian, Ray and I watched a 20 minute video in which we shared a conversation with Lowry whilst he continued to paint. By the mearest stroke of his brush, he created the illusion of his stick leg dog and this is how he tended to create his figures by the minimalistic stroke of his brush giving the illusion he wished to show. During his conversation, he had just completed a large painting when the gas man called to empty his gas meter and he said to the gas man, 'the paining is more or less complete but I feel that there is something missing'. The gas man replied 'that is very similar to the area where I live but where you showed the row of terraced houses there would be lines of washing hanging out in the back yards'. Lowry then added washing which can be seen in that particular painting. He was also asked why he didn't paint shadows and he said 'I have tried but they never look right so I don't attempt to do them at all'. Apart from the industrial landscapes and towns Lowrys exhibition included many many other aspects to his work. There are many portraits in the exhibition as well as nude models, still life and pencil sketches which were the basis of many of the work to follow. We could have spent many more hours looking at the exhibits but unfortunately ran out of time. We were fortified by pur usual delightful hot drink and delightful selection of biscuits and would like to thank Ann Hornsby for her very vivid descriptions of all that we looked at, Mary's band of willing voluntees once again looked after us and brought us safely home again and out thanks to everybody involved in organising this truly delightful visit
Posted by Elaine
The visit to the exhibition was lead by our old friend Brian Dunk who with his delightfully melodious voice took us around the paintings that he and Henshaws had selected for our viewing. Brian usually enhances his talks with some appropriate background music but on Thursday the gallery technology failed him. The paintings represented Lowry's depiction of industrial life in and around Salford and Manchester as well as a most interesting one of Piccadilly circus which showed hourdings of old well known products such as Bovril and Schweppes and several others. My driver and guide Ray who is a draughtsman, pointed out to me that the Stockport viaduct arches when looked at closely showed that they were far from uniform in size and shape, something I had never noticed before. Dotted around the many paintings were comments made by Lowry at various times. When asked why he didn't paint smiling faces, he said that he painted them as he saw them in his minds eye and there were few smiles to be seen.
Most of the paintings contained his usual stick leg dogs and a amn or woman pushing a pram. The figures generally appeared to be rushing about in opposite directions and leaning forward slightly as if against a wind. The painting which brought him to prominence was one of a footbal match and the main match supposedly played by professionals was squeezed in on the left hand side of the picture but the majority of the space was taken up by groups of young boys playing their own matches with their coats placed on the ground as goal posts.
At the end of the conducted tour with Brian, Ray and I watched a 20 minute video in which we shared a conversation with Lowry whilst he continued to paint. By the mearest stroke of his brush, he created the illusion of his stick leg dog and this is how he tended to create his figures by the minimalistic stroke of his brush giving the illusion he wished to show. During his conversation, he had just completed a large painting when the gas man called to empty his gas meter and he said to the gas man, 'the paining is more or less complete but I feel that there is something missing'. The gas man replied 'that is very similar to the area where I live but where you showed the row of terraced houses there would be lines of washing hanging out in the back yards'. Lowry then added washing which can be seen in that particular painting. He was also asked why he didn't paint shadows and he said 'I have tried but they never look right so I don't attempt to do them at all'. Apart from the industrial landscapes and towns Lowrys exhibition included many many other aspects to his work. There are many portraits in the exhibition as well as nude models, still life and pencil sketches which were the basis of many of the work to follow. We could have spent many more hours looking at the exhibits but unfortunately ran out of time. We were fortified by pur usual delightful hot drink and delightful selection of biscuits and would like to thank Ann Hornsby for her very vivid descriptions of all that we looked at, Mary's band of willing voluntees once again looked after us and brought us safely home again and out thanks to everybody involved in organising this truly delightful visit
Posted by Elaine
posted by elaine at 1:27 PM
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