Visit to Jack Chesterman's exhibition called Boat Stories at Oldham Gallery on Thursday, 27 February 2014

We had a very lively visit on Thursday to Gallery Oldham and the exhibitor Jack Chesterman is a printmaker, painter and sculptor. There were a number of very large canvases all quite dark but one of the gallery staff had taken photocopies of these and my driver Bernie was able to describe the detail to me. The sculptor had also made models of the various boats under discussion; some were copies of war boats and others were copies of transportation and trawler boats. My driver Bernie is a very skilled carpenter, he even makes his own ukuleles, and he understood the construction of the boats and told me about the way the planks were laid and the screw and the propeller. There was a story about each of the boats we viewed; many of them harrowing war stories and the number of lives lost in hand-to-hand combat was very very upsetting. Anne Hornsby's inspired descriptions of the very dark canvases was able to hold everybody's interest as she did in her descriptions of the sculptor's boats. After a lively conversation about all of the exhibits we retired to the education Suite for a hot drink and biscuits, Dinah had arranged for some new pots recently purchased by the gallery for us to look at but unfortunately because we were running late we were unable to have the benefit of a description of them and their source. Jack Chesterman is based in Leeds and also has studios in Halifax but as Dinah explained to us at the beginning of our tour he has a very deep interest in everything to do with boats.
Thank you as always to Mary and the drivers for helping make this visit happen.