Memories of Manchester
950 Prints, Size 15" x 19", 1994.
My first large city centre — the one down the road from me — revealed nooks and crannies that I had not previously come across. Particularly interesting was the assumption that I knew the geography of the city, I soon realised that I did not have a clear mental map of the centre. This was all put right starting early one Sunday morning and walking, and walking. . . for six hours. I find that good orientation eases the development of the composition. The colours of the stone and brick in this prosperous Victorian city, the quality of the architecture, and the omnipresence of canal or river, made this an exciting project. An extra tinge of interest came with the Queen's favourable comment on the composition and its hanging in Buckingham Palace. Since my painting, the savage bomb of 1998 blew up a corner of the centre. This has now been extensively rebuilt, and there is more to come. After the explosion the most prominent building in my composition, The Wellington Inn, ended up being moved beam by beam and relocated to a site by the cathedral to enrich the townscape. What I do on paper, happened in reality!