Art from a child

A little over two years ago we moved my, now 93 year old, mother from her house in Manchester to a sheltered flat in Birmingham where there are more close relatives to visit her. On clearing her Manchester home I came across a number of drawings and paintings that I had done many years ago. I found a large collection of life drawings from my undergraduate days at Sheffield Polytechnic along with ten pieces from my early childhood.

A certificate on the back of one painting reveals my age at the time as 6 years. The following   paintings were all produced at Primary School…I can remember “Marshall Dillon” being exhibited on the wall of the school hall. I also remember feeling that “The Boy Fishing” was one of my favourite paintings at the time even though I was not 100% happy with it. I distinctly recall the teacher suggesting that I use a sponge to replicate leaves on the tree. Strangely, I also remember a slight feeling of discomfort in using this method. For some reason I was not altogether happy using the sponge to produce the effect of leaves. I do not recall quite why I was a little uncomfortable, perhaps I thought it was a too easy solution, maybe I was not happy with the experimental approach or maybe I was just a bit unhappy about the result. I think I may well have felt that the application of paint using a sponge contrasted too much with the application of paint by brush. Looking at the painting now, there does seem to be two very different techniques and their juxtaposition appears somewhat contrived. I did not have the vocabulary as a six year old to be able to explain all this to my teacher and to be honest I probably lacked the intellectual capacity to be able to make sense of these things…but a feeling of dissatisfaction certainly lingered….but only for about 57 years!!!!

I also have a feint recollection of feeling slightly sorry for the dead dragon in the painting “George And The Dragon” Isn’t it amazing that I can remember feeling these emotions from 57 years ago!

The following works are from a later period…probably from Junior and Senior school days…but none of these works have provoked any memories.