A paint brush …. and 365 ways of saying well done Mr. Lowry

Today is the anniversary of the death of L S Lowry, that rent collector better remembered as the painter who painted Salford.

His works capture that tired over used observation that “its grim up north” which might have had some truth, but even when Lowry was painting the painting it could have been mirrored by heaps of places from south Wales and the Midlands to those bits of London by the River, where gasometers, docks and small sweatshops mingled to make a place which was occupied only by those who had no choice.

Added to which he painted lots more than grimy northern scenes or odd looking people as I discovered when Peter Topping gave me a guided tour of his work held at the Lowry in Salford.

The trip challenged my preconceptions of what a Lowry looked like.

So here among the matchstick figures and factory chimneys belching out spirals of yellow and grey smoke are fine seascapes, still life compositions and portraits.

And it was that range of work that led Peter to create a Virtual Exhibition with 365 works of Art inspired by L S Lowry.*

As Peter says “people make their way to Southern Cemetery where Lowry is buried  and leave paint brushes of all shapes and sizes to honour the man.  And so I thought as an homage to the great man I would create 365 of my works of artwork that were inspired by his work, and display these in a virtual gallery where anyone from around the world could go and see the paintings with a click of the mouse.

The idea for a virtual art exhibition had begun when we were planning the Chorlton Arts Festival just as Covid was making it impossible for people to gather together.

That led me to think that maybe I could create an electronic gallery with a painting for each day of the year.  It’s an approach I am sure given Lowry’s own unconventional way of depicting the world he would have embraced”.

And it fitted well with Peter’s earlier projects of creating scenes in Chorlton which Lowry might have painted if he visited us.

All of which leaves me to reflect if I had a choice on a wet Thursday of paying tribute to Mr. Lowry I think I would go for the electronic platform and walk through the virtual gallery rather than stand beside some paint brushes in Southern Cemetery.

Or I could do both ..... we shall see.

Location Chorlton and the world

Paintings; If Mr Lowry came to Chorlton, © 2017 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

*The Virtual Exhibition, Inspired by L S Lowry,  can be viewed in its entirety at https://www.artsteps.com/view/639c9a1ec0a4cb48a002edbe