Review of the first full year of Tubes has proved to be as interesting and as exciting as I personally hoped it would be when the idea for a specialist painting magazine was first conceived in the Summer of 2016. The artists we have featured so far in 2017, have all had great success, with solo gallery exhibitions and group shows.

painters TUBES magazine number six

3T U B E Spainters contents Editors Page - Page 4 Art School Class of 1962 - a visual renunion Pages 5 to 9article - “what about the kids?” Pages - 10 to 11interview “in the studio with Ian Norris.” Pages - 12 to 17interview “in the company of Dave Coulter.” Pages - 18 to 19catalogue introduction.”70 years in the making” Pages - 18 to 21interview- “in the studio with John Smout” Pages - 22 to 25article “Weltgeist of an artist” Pages - 26 to 30 “a morning and afternnon with Steve Capper” Pages - 31 to 34“mission to photograph Dave Gunning”- Gallerist Pages - 34 to 38Article-Sunday telegraph, “story of W.R.Turner.” Pages - 38 to 41interview “talking the real deal with Dean Entwistle” Pages - 42 to 45Gallery Openings 2017 Gateway GGaalllleerryy..............Page - 46 Saul Hay Cheshire Art Gallery....... Contemporary Six Gallery.......Page - 47 Colony Art Gallery....... other artists who featured in Tubes 2017 Chris Cyprus, Diane Terry, Page - 48Hugh Winterbottom and SimonParkin Abstract Summer Special article Landscape - Special article including a summary of the including a summary of the 22 artists work that featured in the12 artists work that featured in the issue...Pages 49 to 52 issue... Pages 53 to 61painters Tubes magazinedesigned & produced by Studio 5 Publishers Sweden.registered office: Ekerodsvagen 253, 266 95 Munka Ljungby. +46431441050email:[email protected] - www.painterstubes.com ptmag- #6- 2017-12-25

4 Editors page Before I say a few a words about last year, photograph: Denis Taylor ©Marntay 2016 I would like bring to your attention to an exhibition in 2018- “The Ten of Us” - It’s a sort of visual reunion of artists who attended the Manchester High School of Art and werein the same form. The MSoA was a specialist art school was where I also enrolled just as these ‘Ten’ were leaving, therefore the show holds a special interest for me personally. The exhibition will be mounted at the refurbished Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery and the opening preview day is the 20 th January 2018.The first full year of Tubes has proved to be as interesting and as exciting as I personally hoped it would be when the idea for a specialist painting magazine was first conceived in the Summer of 2016. The artists we have featured so far in 2017, have all had great success,with solo gallery exhibitions abound. Some artists of course, were quite well known in their own right, butTubes is proud to have given artists, being highly gifted and dedicated lesser known artists, a platform to show their work to a wider audience. And it very satisfying to us all at the magazine that we have helped to correct that lack of recognition. As the Editor I am looking forward to 2018 with an even greater expanded audience where Tubes will be offered to read free ‘for registered readers’ or otherwise bought, both on line and in print for the general art loving public.I would like to thank the many artists and art galleries for engaging with painters Tubes magazine in 2017 in particular Colin Taylor, Diane Terry and Laurence Causse Parsley, for their article contributions.I am also grateful for the warm reception I personally received from the very onset of Tubes in November 2016 from Artists and Galleries alike. And of course, You – the Tubes Readers – without whom themagazine would not have reached the level of influence and respect among artists and galleries, one that we hold dear and enjoy today. This last issue for 2017 features a number of the interviewed artists full articles Tubes have published, but not all. I do wish I was able to include all of you. None the less, I have placed participating artists names along with their studio photographs, where we can, if we have the references, on the later feature pages, towards the end of the magazine. I should also like to give a huge ‘thank-you’ to the companies that have supported Tubes magazine by taking advertising space or inviting us to provide catalogue introductions for exhibitions etc, including, Schminke Paints Gbh, Tea House Transport, London, Wright and Marshall Auctioneers, Knutsford, Gateway Gallery, Hale, Contemporary Six Gallery, Manchester, Cheshire Art Gallery Bramhall, Cheshire and a new Gallery to arrive late this year, Colony Art Gallery, Rochdale. To our editorial, administration and distribution back room, without whom Tubes would have remainedjust a good idea - a massive thank you to: Marianne, Barry, Lynda, Paul, our special friends, Lee Harrison Photographer and graphic-designer consultant in London, Steve. I do hope you all have had a happy Christmas and may I wish a wonderful New Year to Everyone.Denis Taylor- Artist and Editor of Tubes magazine. December 25, 2017.

5 The Manchester High School of Art Badge and motto When I interviewed Steve Capper (see article in this issue) in his studio we talked about art and education. I was already aware that Steve had attended the same art school as myself (Manchester High School of Art). During the conversation he mentioned that a number of his former class mates were discussing mounting an exhibition which was restricted to their own form. Steve, like his class mates, had their last year in 1962, which was the year I was enrolled, so it was a little disappointing for me to hear of the limited number of ex-art school students that would be included in the exhibition. Quite a number of years previously I had the idea of a broader exhibition, which would have been called ‘Visual Reunion’ - The idea was to bring all the students back together (from 1948 to 1974) to exhibit their art (those that maintained Art creation as part of their lives). Sadly the idea never got off the ground due to a lack of interest from any sponsors, or indeed many of the ex-students themselves. It was perhaps too ambitious a project at that time (circa.2002 and again in 2012). However, this new concept for a MSoA exhibition was of obvious interest to me and it was with great expectations that I contacted the ‘main-man’ (Philip Hughes) and arranged to meet the whole group in Manchester in the latter part of summer 2017.above painting by Phil Hughes. Self Portrait. The story they told me went something like this: on the following pages are examples of It was on a fiftieth birthday celebration of one of the school chums that many of them met up again after many years. paintings of a few of ‘theTen’ They enjoyed the unofficial class reunion so much that theyFollowed by an article from Tubes issue all decided on a regular gathering. This was arranged around visiting an Art Exhibition, usually at the Manchester Art Gallery, #1 which is relevant to this exhibition. and also involved lunch and afforded time that they could spend “what about the kids” together talking Art and memories of the Art School. From these (re:Art & Education) informal meetings came the idea for an exhibition. Philip Hughes volunteered as the ‘organiser’ and various roles were assigned to various individuals. Eventually they gained agreement with the Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery to use the newly updated space as the venue for their exhibition. This may have been partly due to the fact that one or more of ‘the Ten’ participating have been long standing members of the Saddleworth Group of Artists which was founded in 1950 and had held their annual shows at the Art Gallery in Saddleworth for quite a number of years. As the venue was confirmed “The Ten of Us” exhibition became a reality. Fortunately members of the group had the experience, the ability and the skills needed to provide all that an exhibition of art requires including, design,graphics and written materials. I do wish them great success and look forward to opening the show for them on the 20 January 2018.

6 ©Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery.The venue for the exhibition the ‘Ten of Us’ ( Saddleworth Museum and Art Gallery) is situated in the 19th centuryVictoria Mill, in a beautiful and historic location beside the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in Uppermill. It opened in 1962and is situated in one of the out buildings of the 19th century mill. The “Into the Future” project which was approvedby the Heritage Lottery Fund Organisation comprised of a two storey front extension to increase the exhibition spaceas well as creating a strong presence in the town. The extension on the front has taken the building back to its originalposition on the edge of High Street. The Museum and Art Gallery has now been fully refurbishedOn the following pages are some some examples of the Art created by a few of the Artists exhibiting at ‘the Ten ofUs’ - They have provided a summary of what the MSoA meant to them. I beieve they all acknowledge that theleading light of the School was the headmaster. Below is a brief tribute to him by one of the ‘Ten of Us’ The Head master. E. A. Goodman MBE Central to the Art school’s success in developing and implementing the arts-led approach to education was its charismatic headmaster, Ernest Goodman. Affectionately known as ‘Benny’ - after the American jazz musician - Mr. Goodman was the Manchester High School of Art. He and his inspirational teaching staff inspired generations of students who passed through the school and to this day speak with great affection for a headmaster whose visionary approach provided pupils with a very unique form of secondary education, the like of which we are unlikely to see again. In 1969, Mr. Goodman was awarded the MBE for services to secondary education. For ten-years he was chairman of the arts committee of the Schools Council, and wrote and lectured extensively on art education. A friend to artists L.S. Lowry and Harold Riley, he also founded Salford Art Club. Following a distinguished career and lengthy retirement, Mr. Goodman passed away in September 2007 aged 89 years.

7 Harry Robertson (one of the Ten) “I learnt more about Art and Design at the MSoA simply because the teaching staff collectively held the belief that the languages of Art could be taught: the vocabulary, the skills, the methods, the design process, and so on. This grounding was extremely beneficial when we went on to tertiary fine art education, where, all too often, the philosophy held by the staff was, ‘Artists are born, therefore it cannot be taught’.Philip. A Hughes(one of the Ten)“In common with the other nine of us,I attended the MSoA from 1955 - 1962.The school was all about artisticexcellence, which is why I made it my firstchoice after passing the 11+ examination,despite being offered the other GrammarSchools in Manchester.Imagine my disappointment therefore,when I was steered through the “G” oracademic streams having only one hourof art lessons per week when those in the“A” streams were having a much enhancedexposure to the subject. However, I madeup for this when I was able to opt for what Istudied for “O” level, “A” level and “S” levelexams.The instruction I received was excellentand resulted in the development ofthe basic skills required to draw andpaint fluently and confidently. From theManchester High School of Art, I travelledto London to study at St. Martin’s Schoolof Art along with Harry Robertson, JohnMcCombs and  Dave Ralston, where againI received a very formal method of teachingfrom some excellent and notable artists -Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach to namejust a couple. The training I received wasboth a strength and a weakness because itlacked a creative element or rather shouldI say, I lacked a strong creative ability,but it was a first class training for what Ieventually became - an art teacher wherethe “how to do” was as important as the“what to do”.

8 David Ralston - (one of the Ten) “I went to the High School of Art for my final 2 years to study ‘A’ levels, after my previous Headmistress had spotted some artistic ability.  This was a slightly different route to most people but it proved a life changer for me and opened my eyes mixing with other artistically motivated people. I benefited from a more specialised teaching which improved my confidence. Later I was fortunate to be accepted at St. Martin’s School of Art, London which would not have been possible without first attending the High School of Art. While not pursuing a career in the Arts I have always been a keen painter,exhibiting with groups and individually.  Perhaps more poignantly, I’m still in touch both socially and actively through artistic interest with the people I first met at the High School of Art.”John McCombs (one of the Ten) “I started at Manchester Art School at the age of thirteen, and remember that Mr. Goodman warned me of the perils of trying to make a living by painting alone. However I went on to St Martin’s School of Art in London, where I was awarded the David Murray Scholarship by the Royal Academy. In 1970 I invited Mr Goodman to my first one man show at Salford Art Gallery. He expressed a pride in me becoming a professional artist, and his parting words to me were ‘’Keep painting!’’ I was later elected to membership of the Royal Society of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of British Artists, and served for six years as President of Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. I’m happy to say I am still following ‘Benny’s’ advice! “

9Steve Capper(one of the Ten)“I went to the ManchesterHigh School of Art at the ageof eleven in 1955.Gradually I became aware ofthe art work that surroundedall of us seemed a naturalthing to do. I took ‘A’ level artand went on to art college.We had a few problemsat art college as we hadalready taken on board theart lessons from the MSoAthat they were teaching at theadvanced level at Art college.Eventually I became an artteacher, and subsequentlyhead of the Art faculty.It was only then that I realisedthe amazing education I hadreceived at MSoA.I think this exhibition istestimony to Mr. Goodmanand his staff.” Ron McSweeny (one of the Ten)“I entered the High School of Art at 13, in 1957. This was at the instigation of my art teacher at secondaryschool, who I remember said, “You should be in an art school”. I am certain that she, together with theMSoA, put me on a career path that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. After leaving in the Art School in1962, I studied graphics at the College of Art and Design, Manchester, specialising in packaging design.After graduation I moved to London, working for several design groups, producing work for The John LewisPartnership; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Mary Quant amongst others. I returned to Manchesterin 1974 where I continued my career in design studios, printers and advertising agencies. I became selfemployed in 1992 and remained so until I retired in 1964. And where I married my girlfirend who also went tothe Manchester High School of Art.I prefer to paint with watercolour rather than any other medium as I find the medium challenging to achievewhat I’m looking for. Where possible, I try to create a story or an atmosphere, so my subjects often containareas of strong shadow or an object that contrasts with the main point of interest.” next - “what about the Kids?” - Essay fromTubes issue #1

10 Year in Review. Please Note: Articles and interviews have been redesigned and visually condensed for this review and are not how they appeared in the original issues. “what about the Kids?”There is a belief that “you cannot teach anyone to become an artist.” And there is a great deal ofsubstance to that view, that is if you believe Artists are born and not made.This debate has gone on for many decades if not centuries, but perhaps none more so thanfrom the middle of the 20th century to present day. In many ways there is a valid point thatevery single human on the planet is an Artist. It’s an argument that many Artists make often,and it is one that the Editor of this magazine has firmly believed in before today.Obviously the criteria of a natural or a made artist have opposite opinions, which is an ‘oldbone’ we all chew over now then, as is “What is Art.” - Intellectual theories and academicdefinitions don’t really clarify the debate on those particular pieces of a well chewed bone, andit probably never will. Today, it seems that the only real option left open to us is to simply to say“everything is Art” or “as long as the object is shown in an Art Gallery, then it must be Art,” by thevery fact that it is in a Gallery”. This neo-liberal viewpoint has perhaps led to an Art that is moreopen, free and diverse, some people have said, although many will totally disagree.We live in a world that is constantly updating itself on social media, especially on their,‘likes’ but rarely on their ‘dislikes,’ as far as Art is concerned. Some see this as a wayto encourage, rather than discourage any person who throws their lot into creating Art.Personally, as a painter, I do agree with that position, but I can also add that pointedcriticism can be delivered in a positive way and not necessarily with polemic negativecriticism, as some people elect to do, one presumes based on ¨their subjective and personal judgement.What’s all that to do with Education of Art?Well probably everything. It’s clear that academic dogmaof what Art is and what Art is not, has pervaded in the UK’sUniversities and Art colleges, if not now, then certainly over the last 30 yearsor so. For example, ‘painting’ has not only been taken off most of the Universitycurriculum’s, but they have actively discouraged students to submit paintings in theirportfolios for consideration for a degree. Indeed, I have been told by at least one parent, thata professor told their ‘child’, categorically, that by including ‘painting’ in their final yearassessment portfolio, would lead to automatic failure. There may well be a change in thatacademic policy soon, for it is clear that ‘commercial interests’ have realised that paintings are farbetter suited, as far as turnover and regular profit is concerned, than much of the other forms of artcan generate. And like all things in this world, money talks the loudest.Before I continue I have to declare a conflict of interest. I went to an Art School from the age of eleven yearsold. And so I may be bias with my opinion in this article. However, I am hoping many other voices will presentthemselves to contribute to either substantiate my thoughts or provide arguments that are diametrical inopposition to it, and thus create a much needed debate in the area of Art and Education.

11case in point: The Manchester High School of ArtManchester, UK.Children who shown a more than the normal ‘interest’ increating art, ones that continued to do so, on a year by yearbasis from their first days at elementary school, was the basisfor the creation of a specialised secondary school.This school (one of the few in the UK) was made into a sort ofexperiment by post world war two Governments.Perhaps it was the need to nurture the natural talent ofchildren that would become a sort of creative backbone forthe needs of a society that was rebuilding after the secondworld war, was the main motivation behind the concept. A society that required designers and innovators in industries such as product manufacturers, textiles, construction and numerous new creative industries like advertising and marketing. The essential concept was to take selected children from various social, ethnic, religious and economic (classes) and provide a curriculum that was slowly graduated from the normal academic teaching (the 3 ‘R’s) to have a bias on creative skills as the child progressed through the School. The idea for the autonomous state funded MSoA sprang thinkers at the time as they saw the School as afrom the Manchester Art College who had, maybe by threat to equalise society, it seemed it was thatforesight, created a junior department around 1947. The first integration of cultural thinking was a threat to thelocation being Byrom Street in the City centre. By 1950 the upper strata of society, more so than a beneficialjunior school was renamed as the Manchester High School contribution to it. A fear that was to be provedof Art with an open (curriculum) mandate issued to it’s first totally unfounded throughout the course of the(and only) headmaster, Mr. E. A. Goodman. 1955 saw the Schools existence. In fact, the reverse happened,introduction of what is now the infamous, ‘eleven plus’ as the pupils became united by the School badgeexamination, which graded children in three main categories - of ‘Exploramus’ and them all being labelled asSecondary, High and Grammar levels. The Secondary school equal fellow artists no matter what part of societylevel could well be seen as a ‘factory-labour’ supply chain, that they originated from.the High School stream, as middle management providersand the Grammar School stream as the management and Mr Goodman and his staff were obviously wayindustry leaders and decision makers. A system that clung advanced of 21st century progressive thinkersonto the Victoria values of ‘class’ and ‘social status’ that of today, who are only now are re-thinking the‘controlled’ how society functioned in the UK from the 1800’s education system, and hopefully seeing whereand had proved itself (to Governments and the ruling class) they went totally and utterly wrong closing down ato be successful, although I for one, would say otherwise as specilaist “Art School for the Kids.”far as the majority of the people was concerned. written by the Editor (Denis Taylor) Painters TubesThe MSoA was graded as a High School, as there wasn’t Magazine December 20th 2016really an actual yard stick to measure how it would perform.The middle grade option, must have seemed a reasonable images: Centre: Young Artist with Painting (8 yrsfair bet at the time. The School was relocated to it’s own old) Left hand page: MSoA School badge andpremises in a former Magistrates administration building motto. Photograph from a School drama.opposite the City’s main prison, Strangeways, in Cheetham The MSoA had specilaists classes that embraced:Hill, Manchester, a stones throw from the city Centre. Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Screen Printing,The centralisation of location was important as the Embroidery, Music, Literature, Drama, Graphicprospective pupils would be gleaned from all the extended Design, Art History, Life Drawing Studies inManchester City council borders that was within reach addition to the normal academic range ofof the public transport system. Pupils were chosen, or education. This page: The School building (therecommended by the teachers from, multi-religious, specific- former offices of the City magestratesreligious and official Church of England state funded or administration. Cheetham Hill, Manchester, UK.private Schools.One pupil (in general) from each school from each district ofManchester was the overall modus operandi that was used.This was a contentious choice for the more right winged

12...in the studiowith Ian Norris Year in Review article #1 -Issue #1 2017The local train from Manchester to Preston arrived on time, it was 10.30am and within a few minutes Ian appearedin front of me. Although we had only spoken via email, Face Book profiles enable easy face recognition with reallife meet ups. Ian had kindly offered to pick me up in what he called his mobile studio (a medium sized van).Before too long we approached his home having first drove past a wonderful old building next to a church, whichIan had pointed to the bay windowed on the top floor as being his ‘next’ studio. “It’s larger than the one I have atpresent, that will enable me to ‘up the size’ of canvas.” He said in response to our tentative driving-chat about ‘size’of work and how a larger canvas enables a greater physical and perhaps deeper psychological involvement whilstpainting. The advantage of being a painter, when interviewing another painter, is that it doesn’t take any time at allto be on the same wavelength, especially when it comes to creating real Art. And so little time waswasted on the ‘getting to know each other’ normal polite discourse, we could get right down to the important stuff,which we did, even as the kettle was boiling for a welcomed cup of tea. I’d noticed that Ian has a number of otherartists work that he admires dotted about on the walls of his home...“...I tend not to put my own work up on the walls at home, just in case I’m temptedto take them down again and change them.”A mind state most Artists would recognise. “You can destroy the original vitality of a work by post-mortem changes,and maybe the record of how you were as an artist, when you created it.” I said to him to justify his reasoning.He suggested we walk down the garden path to his studio and I took my cup of tea with me. The studio is aconverted out house, from a size point of view, it was reasonable. The light was good and he had organised thespace efficiently into areas of working, viewing his own work and being able to read and seek answers from hislarge collection of Art books. These covered the era of Art and Artists, that he much admires.I commented on the ‘tidiness’ of the space to which he smiled and told me he had ‘a tidy up’ before I arrived, atwhich point we both gave a knowing laugh.These first paragraphs sets the tone for the three hour interesting discussion that covered the last few years ofIan’s work which began with a brave decision to give up his ‘day job’ and paint on a full time basis. A decision thathis partner wasn’t totally convinced was such a good idea. “It takes courage to be an Artist”. Knowledge of thatfamous artist statement must have forefront in mind as Ian courageously gave up a lucrative guaranteed incomeand pitched his lot into his Art. Thus began his own personal journey into what may be called the“agony of creative enjoyment.” It’s perverse how creating something wonderful can be, at times be agonising, likegiving birth to a child I imagine.

13Ian is almost a classicist in the way he prepares hissubject matter. Study, then even more study withexacting sketches, made (usually) in charcoal onpaper. Perhaps this is his ‘getting to know the subject’period in intimate detail, which to me is obviously theobjective. A practice that, theoretically at least, allowsthe painter the freedom to make something that goesbeyond reality and enters the realm of new visions,which by transcribing the subject inwardly and usingpigments on a flat surface Ian creates works of Art,rather than simple representations of an existingenvironment. Why do that when we have superb digitalcameras to do that job quite adequately?Ian paints in oil, a choice that I personally prefer andI feel is the medium that fully satisfies the ‘inner-needof the Artist’, more so than does say acrylic or polymerpaints. Perhaps it’s a fluidity or rather flexibility ofthe colour that many painters prefer oil over othermediums, it is certainly takes far more time to fullymaster (and dry) than acrylics or polymers. A masteryof oil paint that Ian’s work shows he has in abundance.Ian has worked diligently to become a painter of noteand that combined with his natural talent has gainedrecognition from organisations such as the ManchesterArt Academy. He also re-educated himself in formal artand gained an art degree from University. Even so, heis grounded enough to understand that institutionalisedrecognition and Art Degree’s do not make one a greatpainter or indeed are even are necessary to becomeone. It’s the work that counts and the painters ownpersonal measurement of a paintings visual successthat matters most. Like many of the excellent artists,ones that I know or have met in the past, Ian is his ownmost vocal, visceral and art intellectual critic, whichis why I think his work is so interesting and authentic.It’s a critical state of mind that becomes clearer tounderstand in one of a particular series of work that wetalked about in some detail. Not only in the work itselfbut what lay behind it.Initially, the prologue to these particular paintingswere other banks of work that was exhibited at theCastlegate House Gallery in Cumbria, “Tracing theDerwent,” was one series. This was his second soloshow, at that gallery that sold out. The subject matterwas landscape. And, even after many hundreds ofyears, landscapes are still the most bought paintingsby the art loving public. So it’s not a complete surprisewhy Ian’s wonderfully rendered authentic canvas’sof landscapes were so quickly snapped up by theGalleries client list of art collectors. The Gallery dida great job of both the catalogue and the marketingof those particular exhibitions, probably knowing thatthe ‘nature’ series of work was rather collectable andtherefore very sellable.

14painting from the Missomer series of work ©Ian Norris

15“Ian decided to make a series of paintings that would, in some way, bring him back from the brink”It was after the ‘sold-out-shows’ that Ian experienced Most likely the artists intimate reasoning at thea personal shock related to his health. The shock time for doing these works were not fully sharedtook the form of a diagnosis of an illness that came nor understood. Having created works on similarfrom nowhere. very personal lines, I can sympathise with Ian andIt involved a procedure or a program of treatment perhaps suggest to him that ‘painters important’that leaves a person in state of unbalance, works like these, are not always met with anboth psychologically and physically. And it was immediate positive public outcome.a treatment that would take time to become More often than not, mediative art takes time tosuccessful. As is so often in circumstances like ferment and grow in the eyes and the hearts of thethis, Artists tends to retreat into themselves and try viewer of it. It’s a steady pace which our high speeddesperately to alleviate their mental stress through consumerist world invariably, has little time to allowtheir Art. It’s a sort of self-help treatment, one which for that invisible artistic quality of work, of this nature,only recently is being recognised [actively] by to gain a foothold. Initially the result is a preferencemedical experts as a sure fire way to help people to view only the surface of the ‘image’ without thedeal with dramatic health problems. And having gone truer and deeper meaningful value of the art work,through a similar life changing circumstance myself, that resides within it, to be accepted by the viewer.I fully understood Ian’s position, his reaction to it andthe triumph of overcoming it. For me the whole bank of work certainly isn’t a failure in any dimension. They are real, authentic,Ian decided to make a series of paintings that would, original and hold something far more than decorationin some way, bring him back from the brink of some on a wall. Don’t get me wrong, decorative Art is allsort of self-reproachment, even though he knew well and good, but great Art has sustainability farhe was blameless. And so he relied on one of the beyond that of a painting that may be a pleasinggiants of literature - ‘Shakespeare’ - to give him image. More than say one painted in a specificsolace. He took the story of ‘a Midsummer’s Night contemporary style, or perhaps even more commonDream’ which had stayed in his mind since watching these days, one painted in a way which is stylisticallya performance of the stage drama of many years recognisable, or even purposefully over stylised.ago. He chose certain parts of the play to set down Some of the midsummer’s night dream paintingsin oil on canvas, with his own vision, of what the have now been acquired by astute buyers andwords represented. It could be that particular drama I suspect for the very reasons I have stated; that ithighlights for us ordinary mortals that, “real life really is their originality, authenticity and emotional contentis but a dream.” that is appreciated, but only after a slow burn. And it is only then that the paintings connect, perhapsPerhaps Ian saw in the play the escape from reality faster for those who know the hidden story behindor at the least a deflection, that he sorely needed them, as I do, that the work comes into it own.at that time? Whatever the reasoning, the paintingswere important to him and probably more important The latest studio work is a series, which forthan any he had ever created previously. convenience sake, you could call urban. It was one of these series that I was first attracted by and gaveThese works encompassed his whole being at a me the impetus to want to visit Ian in his studio.time when he must have felt that fate had dealt him Not so much for the subject itself, but the waya cruel and fatal blow. It was after the series was in which it was painted. The preparation andcompleted that his personal disappointment to their methodology of how these paintings have beenpublic showing followed. Ian felt the exhibition was created is much the same as the previous series, butshort [on reaction] of what he had expected. here we see him testing himself to almost carve out the very essence of an urban existence and pushingIt could be that the simple answer is that the himself beyond the visual effects of multi-layeredGalleries clientele did not appreciate Shakespeare, coats of impasto. They are more aggressive, just likecertainly not as much as obviously the Artist did. Cities are, compared with the imagined paradise ofEven though it was the 400th year anniversary of the an untainted nature and a rural existence.bard during the exhibition, Ian still felt the show fellflat despite the efforts of himself and the Gallery, Ian told me a story of how, during his preparatoryhad put into it. sketch work, he would position himself on the roof top of a multiple storey car park and begin to capture the overall shapes and feel of the City. One particular day he was ‘scolded vehemently’ by a car park attendant who suggested... “You shouldn’t be up here’”

16paintings above and top right from the Midsummer Series.Paintings below from the City Scapes series.All images ©Ian Norris.

17”no one artist has successful integrated reality and abstract into one painting.”I thumbed through his sketchbooks of this ‘urban’ In 1990 I saw this statement as challenge andseries which were recognisable as Manchester I feel that same artistic challenge is central to Ian’sCity centre and was interesting to view some of the work. Perhaps Ian’s ‘absorption of reality’ does result‘beginnings,’ as Ian refers to them. He had lined in abstraction and reality being integrated onto onethem next to each other on a support bar fixed to plane? At the very least it seems his work is on thethe studio wall which made it interesting to see the way to meeting Lynton’s challenge, albeit perhaps anprogression of each one in turn. One bigger canvas unintentional one.was positioned on the easel and was perhaps thefirst of what you could say was the painting that We discussed Lynton’s book (and others) and Ianstemmed from the former smaller experiments. readily agrees that ‘reading’ unbiased analysis of past Art is a definite contributor to the creation of futureThe heavy texture was evident as he had laid on artworks of a dynamic new substantial painting.layer upon layer of paint. In some parts the oil had So far Ian has explored nature, he has delved intobeen scraped off and in other parts dribbles or runs combining emotional and literary subject matter andof oil cascaded down the canvas. Under all that moved on into the urban City subject, a subject thatoil paint the image still remained, not hidden but seems, at present, to dominate the walls of the highabsorbed by the process of the continual layers and streets commercial galleries and the websites ofscape-off’s. I realised that I was viewing a painting independent artists and on-line art galleries alike.that would probably change considerably as Ian They all come under what many refer to as ‘Northernwould relentlessly pursue obtaining a vision that fitted Art’ or ‘Northern School’, a title that is both contagioushis sensibilities. Yet, for me I found this work perfectly to an art loving public and, to many of todaysfinished as it was. It’s a position I have faced many practising artists, contentious if not vacuous.times, when someone views, what I would considerunfinished, others do believe is totally complete. As far as I am concerned in the 21st century all ArtOne of the privileges of being a creator of Art, is that should be regarded as non-regional, non-national andis the artist and not others to decide when a work is above all should not be given any form of label as iffinished or not. it was a can of tomato soup in 57 different flavours, (Warhol already did that, he wrote the book & madeMany see his work as Abstract Expressionism. the videos and everyone’s has read or seen them andIt’s an art movement now many decades old, consigned them to history).is still practised by many painters today, as is But hey, that’s a whole different artists debate,impressionism, an art style older than abstract one that I am sure my fellow artists will present inexpressionism. Some painters today find those convincing and separate logical arguments, both fortwo styles still suit them well, but does holding on and against the whole idea of labelling paintings andto a style one finds comfortable progress them as artists as a member of a school or as being:painters? From a personal view, I think not. Howcould they when the possibilities (and limitations) of “this, or that or the other type of painter.”both those art styles must have been fully exploredby now. It remains to be seen what direction Ian will take in the future. A dramatic change may well occur asThe work of Ian Norris should not be misinterpreted he moves into his new space in that bay windowedas a form of abstract expressionism even though building, the one that he pointed out to me. And asmany, non artists, use that word because they lack he said to me in his ‘mobile’ studio [the van], he canthe intimate knowledge of them that do paint. It’s an ‘increase the size of the canvas,’ because he has theannoying tendency of the self elected art expects to space that will handle them comfortably.pervert words from Art History books to label artistsfor their own convenience. It is perhaps natural that subject, method of working and style or application of paint will change naturally.The Story of Modern Art the title a book written by the Perhaps, not at first, but slowly and surely and in Ian’sart historian Norbert Lynton (first published 1989) is case, it will be the result of much thinking, readingone of those books that artists tend to read over and and having inward frank discussions with himself, ofover and discover, between the lines, something new that I am sure. It will be interesting to witness as 2017each time. In this specific book, Lynton, suggests, in rolls by as to exactly what those possible changesa one liner, that - ”no one artist has successful will visualise themselves like. Perhaps it’s would beintegrated reality and abstract into one painting.” a good idea for me to go back to his home town of Preston, in a year or so, and partake in another cup of tea? I do hope to have the opportunity to do so.Denis Taylor interview with Ian Norris -© 2016- 2017 for issue #1 painters Tubes

18 Year Review. Interview issue #2 ...in the company of Dave Coulter photograph: ©Lee HarrisonDave Coulter is a genuine ‘old school’ Northerner with a deep love for his City, one that is clearly reflected in hiswork. I’d seen some of David’s work on the web over a period of six months or so. His name was always poppingup in conversation with other Artists and Galleries, ones that I had been interviewing in the UK for this magazineover the last two years. On this, my fifth trip to Manchester, I had finally managed to arrange a meeting with himin Salford Museum and Art Gallery. My schedule was unfortunately tight as I had crammed several Artists and Artgalleries visits for material for the March April issue. Dave was first on the list, and so it was necessary to traveldirectly from my arrival from Sweden to Manchester Airport and then on to Salford in order to maintain my arrangedappointment times with the others artists I’d selected to visit. I am telling readers these details as it is relevant to asurprising end of my time spent with Dave.He was patiently waiting for me in the café of the Art gallery. I had been delayed by an hour, which was caused bymy own mistake of getting off at the wrong railway station.I had walked at a brisk pace the extra few miles or so to Salford Art Gallery and was in need of refreshment.Dave and I instantly recognised each other. He shook my hand with the words “do you want a cuppa tea lad.”My need was obviously written all over my face with the traces of perspiration. We settled down over a pot of tea totalk about his paintings and how he had suddenly become known in the North West by the art loving public and theGalleries, at the age of 64 years old. David, now at 68, has been engrossed with Art and painting from childhood,but it was his first major exhibition at the Zion Arts Centre in Manchester that revealed his depth of talent to theinhabitants of the City of Manchester and Salford.He has been painting street scenes for almost half a century and it was his habit of setting up his ‘spots’ in variousparts of the busy City, having first gained a ‘nod and wink’ from the police that it was OK for him to leave his van inthe street (without fear of getting booked), that led to his first exhibition. A local Police officer, whilst on duty, (PCDave Vose) on seeing David’s paintings, contacted Saskia Metcalf of the Lion centre and suggested she put on ashow for him. It was a sell out and a second exhibition followed quickly at an established high street gallery.He told me how his father was the source of his love of art and how a child he was taken to art galleries withexhibitions and was encouraged to draw and paint. “my dad made sure I had the basic’s right and used to make me draw things over and over again, if he thought I had got the drawings wrong.”

19Dave was born and raised on the same street as Arthur Delaney (Clifford Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock), anotherrenown Manchester artist who was always ‘popping in’ to the Coulters’ home. “He was rum one, and the storiestold about him are all true.” David said with a broad smile on his face. Dave paints in a very fast impressionisticmanner, yet for me his work avoids to much similarity with impressionism, as his colour palette reflects a morelate modernist approach. He loves all forms of Art - abstraction, surrealism, expressionism and even some moreexploratory forms of painting. He recalled how he was bowled over by Rauschenberg’s work in the late 1960’s,which sort of opened a door to his understanding that in Art - “anything and everything is possible.” David alsoloves to give younger artists advise, should they ask for it. He has often spends a great deal of time with youngstersshowing them how to ground the canvas to obtain greater depth and form. Some of his early paintings e.g. ‘WakesFair’ and ‘Jubilee Party’ show a definite nod in the direction of L. S. Lowry, whilst say, ‘Factory Chimneys’ leanstowards Theodore Major, an artist whom Dave visited and chatted with about Art more than once. “He didn’t like the men in suits, didn’t Major. When they come up from London to try and get some of his work, he wouldn’t sell them anything and tell them to bugger off, in no uncertain terms.”We chatted for quite some time and he introduced to the Exhibition Manager of the Gallery. After a brief tour of theviewing the space where Dave’s new work would be hung for the Tony Warren exhibition he asked her.“How many painting would you like, I can do as many as want, I work quick you know?”After a while I had to interject and explain that I really had to leave to get to my next appointment and asked to beexcused from the tour. As I said my good-bye’s and thanked the Manager for her time, Dave offered me a lift toManchester. He drove me to the main railway station in Manchester, as it was not only beginning to rain, but I wasalso late. We talked more in the car, by now the conversation had strayed away from art per sé to our personalmemories of Manchester, as we were both children from the same era.I felt a warm glow from Dave and as he said himself, it was though we had know each other for years and not justmet that day. And maybe that statement was indeed a truism. After I left Dave I rushed to my next meeting andbelieved I had more than enough material to write about this deeply devout painter who’s religion was Art.I was wrong.The day after meeting Dave I needed to travel to Wales to interview another artist. It was going to be a long journeyand a long day. By the time I had returned to Manchester (by train) it was approaching early evening and I’d beenon the go since very early that morning. I received a text from Dave, asking me if I could go back to Salford andmeet up in his Studio, as he something to show me. To be honest, it was the last thing I needed.But, nevertheless I fought my way through the rush hour crowds and hopped onto another train to Salford whereDave picked me up. We arrived at his flat at the top part of a high rise. As we walked in Dave instinctively put thekettle on for a cup of tea, He asked me to sit down. “I’ve done this while you were in Wales” He said. On his easelhe had painted a portrait of me in the Cafe at Salford Art Museum. “Hope you like it” He said, after highlightinga few points on the painting he then presented it to me as a gift.I sat with him for another few hours. We talked about life and how his had changed dramatically after he hadsuffered a heart attack. Thankfully he has learned how to handle the changes to his life, changes that survivingheart attacks and the consequential surgery insists upon. It was an emotional farewell and yet I felt honoured tohave been the subject of a Dave Coulter original work of art. I know that Dave and I shall remain good friends andI for one will be the first in the queue when his paintings are on show at the exhibition of the life and work of TonyWarren and the life and times of the not-so-ordinary people in Salford in the 1950’s at the Salford Museum and ArtGallery later this year. Denis Taylor was in the company of Dave Coulter. 8th February 2017. Next pages - introductionwritten by Denis Taylor for catalogue to the solo exhibition at Cheshire Art Gallery, Bramhall, Cheshire).

20 “70 Years in the making.”all above images ©David Coulter Solo exhibition at Cheshire Art Gallery, Bramhall Cheshire of Dave Coulter paintings. It’s an appropriate title for this solo exhibition of Dave Coulter’s work because it reflects the simple truth of what lies behind Dave’s paintings. Art always was and will always be his reason for existence. Dave creates Art with a sincerity and authenticity that is quite unique in todays art world. He was born into Art, his father was an art lover and an artist himself, therefore art was genetically embedded into his DNA, even before he had opened his eyes to look about the place where he was born. It was his birthplace that he developed a deep love and respect for. It may well be that this ‘love of place’ was not so much because the bricks and mortar of the buildings that built the City of his birth, but the warmth, depth of kindness and sincerity of all the people that inhabited it and that were around Dave. Those people that he loved as a child, a youth and now a mature artist. I believe that the City buildings of Manchester and Salford are but a catalyst that enables Dave to visualise those human feelings in his own unique way. Growing up in Manchester or Salford in the years following World War ll, was both difficult and ironically, something of a blessing. The trauma’s of World War two had intensified and strengthened the society of Britain. The people held shared values, they gave of everything they had gladly, should it be needed by a friend, a neighbour or even a stranger. Be that food, shelter, clothing or fuel. It was a society that looked after itself and each other in good or bad times. Most evident when a loved one had died and when the shoulder of your neighbour was the first to present itself, not only with sympathy, but with real and heart felt empathy. How do I know this is true? Well, I was born around the same era and in a very similar circumstance as Dave. It was this commonality of personal history that added to our immediate ‘liking’ of each of other, which was only a year or so ago, when first met each other. As an artist myself my interest was and still is, in his paintings. It was when I viewed them remotely (on the www), that I knew immediately his work had something ‘special’ about them. I had no real knowledge of him or his background, before I met him in the Salford Museum and Art Gallery cafe with the intention of interviewing him for the Art magazine I am the Editor for. In life sometimes you meet someone, and for reasons beyond our knowledge, there are those people, albeit very few, which you feel you have known all your life. That’s how Dave and I both felt about each other on that day in Salford as we talked about life and art whilst sharing a pot of tea. It was the first of a few meeting and the beginning of a friendship that will endure. Perhaps it was because of that immediacy of ‘artistic fellowship’ that I was also able to fully appreciate and completely understand his art, by way of a not so common artistic morality. And it is why I am able to write this introduction about his work and to be able to convey to you, the visitor of this exhibition, what it is that is ‘special’ about the ‘Art of Dave Coulter.’

21There are artists who create a painting with aesthetic values only and there are those that have the additional ability of being able to translate authentic emotional content onto a flat surface (i.e. a canvas). Some acquire that specialability over time and with dedication to their art, others are born with that gift. Dave Coulter is the latter of that kind ofartist.“7O years in the making,” is quite literally what his work represents. For example one of his early works, ‘Street Kids,’has the same positive emotional content that his new work is imbued with. His usual subject matter are City scape’s,a popular subject with many painters these days. With Dave’s work they are more than illustrations of the bricks andthe mortar of yesterday, or indeed the steel and glass constructions of today. They are feelings, real sensations of hislife and his relationship to the City where he was born. And how it has developed and how he has developed alongwith it. His painting style is not static, it is dynamic and has changed, just as much as the people and the twin Cities ofManchester and Salford have changed and continue to do so.The original compositions he creates are first manifested in the eye, from pure observation, these images travel fromhis mind’s eye, down through his heart, into his arm and hand and on to the brush, which loaded with colour, then goesdirectly onto the canvas. Each phase of the ‘travelling-process’ translates and enhances each and every individualbrush stroke. These brushstrokes could number hundreds or even thousands, one that eventually becomes one workof art. Dave works quick and instinctively, he is assisted by decades of experience of using colour and tonal values toachieve the final painting. He is an adept technician, as far as the nuts and bolts of Art are concerned. He is well readand has considered and utilised the very best of the tried and tested technical formula for the preparation of his canvasfrom the masters of art of previous centuries. This ensures his work maintains a consistent quality of finish and longevity.He has also has a deep-well of knowledge of the modern artists (painters) of the recent past, those who opened hiseyes, when he was still quite young, as to what could be achieved or what was attainable with authentic and original Artcreation. When the Salford Museum and Art Gallery made the decision to mount an ‘installation’ of the life and times ofTony Warren, the originator and writer of the world famous ‘Coronation Street’ TV soap drama, Dave Coulter was thefirst artist that they asked to provide paintings to create the ‘atmosphere’ for it. They couldn’t have asked a better ormore qualified artist to do exactly that, other than Dave Coulter. Typically, Dave responded to them with a question, “how many do you want? - I work fast, you know!” What he omitted to tell them was that all the paintings that he now creates has actually taken 70 years to perfect and now exist as the wonderful and unique works of art they really are, some of which you can see for yourself today. ©DaveCoulter Dave Coulter, “70 years in the making” exhibition foreword for the catalogue written by Denis Taylor. for Cheshire Art Gallery, Bramhall, Cheshire, UK.

22...in the studio with John SmoutI arrived at the small Welsh village railway station after hours of a two part rail journey from Manchester.As I alighted the train only one person was at the end of the platform.I walked towards the figure with my hand extended as a greeting. We shook hands and within minutes I walkedthrough the door to his home and studio. His wife (Pauline) had already prepared refreshments of tea and cake.The feeling from both of them, was warm and calm and we chatted about how they found themselves living on theborderlands between Wales and England.Pauline was a deputy head-teacher in Borneo, the largest island in Asia, together with John. He was offereda teaching job in Denbighshire and they moved to Wales many years ago. It was a move that proved to havepersonal historical connections, even though Pauline only discovered her Welsh family connections after she hadmoved to Wales. John also had many a long lost family connection in Wales. I told them of my own Welsh familybackground, one which was not so distant as their own. My grandmother and grandfather (on my mothers side)were born and raised in Wales, before they moved to Manchester and my Uncle still lives on the North West Welshcoast. The first impression of John Smout is one of a cultured and serious Artist. His background supports thisas he was educated at Stourbridge and Liverpool colleges of Art and holds a BA (Hons). He is a Royal CambrianAcademician and taught and lectured on art and the history of art in various art establishments for many years.All that detailed information was new to me. My only reason for wanting to see his paintings in the ‘flesh’ wasdriven by the examples of paintings I discovered whilst searching the world wide web for paintings that showedboth originality, talent, authenticity and quality.Our ‘chats’ over tea and cake didn’t last very long before John invited me to see his work.He has a number of rooms dedicated for creating art. Upstairs was his main studio, which Pauline had whisperedto me that he had spent a lot of time ‘tidying-up’ before I’d arrived - On the racks there was work that either Johnconsidered he hadn’t finished with or they hadn’t shown themselves to be finished. Several were placed aroundthe room which were positioned to show how he developed his work organically. He told me how other peopleasked him: “why he kept changing his style? “ - a question that always irritated him.We talked about how the development of painters is often mistaken for change of style by non-painters and alsoby some galleries. As perhaps it is more common for Artists today to stick to a style then repeat it. Which is fine,if you need to keep selling your Art ‘to pay the rent’ - John Smout has never had the need nor the desire to liveoff his Art, but rather he lives for it. In fact, he rarely tells people very much about his art all. He also never reallywishes to explain his work, not only because it’s difficult for him to talk about himself, but he firmly believes in thatwell known phrase, “Art should speak for itself.”

23That is difficult, especially for a fellow artist, to argueagainst. However, I also agree with Mark Rothko, whenhe said that after a work is finished it should be sent ‘outin the world’ to fend for itself. And John’s work has notreally seen the outside of Wales in the last few decadesor so. He did have some of his work exhibited in theManchester Royal Exchange, but that was way back in1986 - And whereas John has always produced qualityand interestingly modern abstract/figurative work, his‘developed paintings of later life surely stand head andshoulders above the paintings he exhibited back in theday. He has also diligently kept date marked ‘books’which have small copies of his work from 1969.Flipping through them was a fascinating insight intothe artists history and his consistent and steady‘development of his art’ that he stands behind. Time wasclocking-on fast, as he shown me a life’s worth of sketchbooks, and it was he that kept a close eye on the timeas he already been informed that I could only spend fiveor so hours with him before I had to catch my train backto Manchester. Before we left the room he pulled outa full size copy of an ink drawing he had made.I really like using pen and ink, it concentrates the mindand one can produce more detailed images” he said andsmiled. “You can have this one if you like.”I accepted the offer with delight.He encouraged me to leave the main studio and followhim downstairs, through the kitchen, where Pauline waspreparing a little lunch for us. We then went out intothe garden, which was quite beautiful with a view overthe hills, and into another room. This is where I found,‘stored’ in perfect order, the most of his completed work.All carefully covered in bubble wrap and placed neatly inracks, floor to ceiling, over two main walls, with the thirdwall as a sort of hanging space and small desk, wherehe, no doubt, painted in the summertime. “I still enjoymaking water-colour paintings.” He said, evident fromthe excellent water-colour samples he had shown me inhis main studio. He began pulling a few larger paintingsout from the racks to show them to me. I asked him howmany he had stored there.“I don’t know for sure, maybe ninety or more.” He said,as I looked at these wonderful creations. He had alreadyexplained how in some of his ‘series’ of work he tooknature as the base, but he wanted to get underneath theearth of the landscape - to expose another dimensionwith a created structure that could only exist in the mindseye of the creator of it.John’s fondness for structure also came through in anarchitectural way. He has painted a number of, what hedescribed as ‘monuments’ - which was a celebration ofthe monumental structures of times gone by.This monumental architectural interest had alsostimulated him to paint ‘old-churches’ in Wales “beforethey are all demolished.” He said forlornly. Not I believefor any religious reasoning, but purely because he lovedhow they had been made of the stone and slate that isindicative of the building materials used throughout thewhole Wales.

24He explained that the copy of the drawing he gave me, was a ‘homage’ to the workers of the ‘slate quarry’ who hadgiven their lives in the course of their employment as quarriers.John’s fascination with history and art was another reason for a number of works that he calls ‘his girls.’ These areportraits of young women (head and shoulders) which have been painted in such a way that one may think thatthey were ‘lifted’ from a wall in Pompeii. I think, they are as amazing as John’s ‘structured or exposed landscapes’as he calls them. His ‘girls’ are beautifully painted, not so such much as original in subject matter, nor specificallycontemporary in style, as his other work, but nonetheless you can feel that they are special to him, and that feelingtransmits through to the viewer of them. “ my work does not stand still, and is always evolving, sometimes responding to current events and moods, but I hope will always remain relevant to the present time”

25all images ©John Smout John has said before he believes that his work “radiates a spirit of optimism.” And he also has said that. “occasionally they are tinged with the darker side of humanity.” I disagree, what he may well see as the ‘darker side,’ is for me at least, better described as ‘empathy’ and like so many painters before him, empathic work can be sometimes taken for a depressed or darker view of life. But John is a human who wants the society to be fair for less fortunate human beings. And it’s a desire that, I believe most of society want and indeed are beginning to demand of our Governments. John’s work has been exhibited, mostly in Wales as I said earlier. He has participated in solo, two man and group shows for some time now. His latest exhibition was with the Oriel Theatr Clywd - an organisation that like so many of its kind, has a very well appointed Gallery, but lacks the financial muscle to market it’s exhibitions to a wider audience. The consequence being that Johns work remains sort of hidden from the rest of the UK. It will be interesting if, like me, the established private Galleries on the high street will agree, that it is high time his work was shown to the larger viewing public in one of the big Cities in England. John took me back to the small village railway station, with three minutes to spare (the train was late) - We shook hands and as he walked away he turned.. “you should come back, one day.” He said and smiled. “Don’t you worry about that John, I shall.” ...was my reply. Denis Taylor (Editor) was in the studio with John Smout. 8th February 2017

26 Voted the best Article wrtten for painters Tubes in 2017 by the Editor and Staff. Spike, our resident critic, talks about the “welgeist” of an artist... ...Weltgeist is a German word that describes a sort of world spirit, perhaps it can be best explained as a sort of awareness of your own consciousness. The weltgeist experience is not uncommon, especially for a painter and many have recorded experiencing it at one time or another during their lifetime, i.e. Van Gogh, Rouault, Gauguin, Malevich, Chagall, Pollock and Rothko, just to mention a few. I guess another way of describing the ‘weltgeist’ of an artist is arriving at a state of mind of a momentary spiritual connection, whilst simultaneously creating art. What that connection point is, or what that spiritual link is for, remains a mystery. But it seems to depend on the personal history or the deeply held beliefs of the Artist themselves. Be that of a religious nature or of a wider secular view of what humans are here on earth for, where we come from and where are we going. Summed up in modern language as, “what’s life all about?” Answers to the basic questions that humanity have been seeking to discover from the very beginning of time. Gauguin was probably the first artist to make visual that question in his famous painting of 1897. A weltgeist or inner awareness, could also be explained as an “Artistic epiphany”.Above: D’où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous- by Paul Gauguin Museum of FineArts Boston, Public Domain, Wikimedia.org

27The American art critic Donald Kuspit mentioned the word whendiscussing his book, “The End of Art” (2004) in an interview thatwas critical of contemporary Art at the time. Much of what heoutlined in the interview reinforced many of my thoughts aboutthe ‘Post Modern Art’ movement of the late 20th and into theearly 21st century. Kuspit’s book insistence that the “End of Art”had arrived was not a new idea. .The (UK) Art Review magazine published an essay written byBrian Ashbee in the January issue of 2000, which hadexactly the same title. Although the front page did show the‘End of Art’ with a question mark. At that time, themagazine was edited by David Lee, the well known creatorof the term ‘Art Bollocks’ In his splendid article,Brian Ashbee questioned the validity of the philosophy ofPost Modernism and its application to the Art World.The Art Review’s front page illustrated the ‘End of Art’ bya rather horrific yet gripping [detail] of a painting by an artist who I came to know quite well over the years. Terrence Ffyffe (Australian, studios now in London)©Ffyffe c.1998Above painting - Warehouse ‘A’ - Oil on canvas 64 inches x 108 inchesBy the painter Terrence Ffyffe - ©TerryFfyffe (circa1998).In the interview with Kuspit, he pointed out that he avoided using ‘spiritualcontent’ as a description for Art said “I hate that word (spiritual] and preferthe German word weltgeist, because it holds a greater width to explain theartistic process.” Although Kandinsky was obviously unconcerned at usingthe term ‘spirituality’ in 1912 when he published his book “Concerning theSpiritual in Art.” Perhaps it did not hold the same narrow understanding that itprobably does today, i.e. spiritual = religious.To describe an artwork as ‘spiritual,’ these days is still a bit of a turn off formany in the contemporary art world. Perhaps that’s a reaction to the overuse of the term that was used by the masters of 20th century Art, of whichKandinsky is a very good example.By the late 20th century terminology for the creative force had becomecerebral, not spiritual. Art is innovative by nature and it has been common forone movement or terminology’s to give way in favour of another.For example, the Dada movement, was a reaction to a perceived stagnantArt that reflected a corrupt culture and society. The Dadaist art ‘innovation’was to present totally banal unscripted artistic absurdity to ridicule theestablishment. Futurism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism and other

28 Above image: Wassily Kandinsky - Composition #6 -©State Hermitage Museum, Public Domain,Photgraph above; Clement Greenberg (B/W) such terms were put forward to categorise the various©wikipedia open commons. ‘weltgeist’ of artists throughout the 20th century. Indeed, manifestos of Art, at one time, seemed to be raining from the skies. Art works were categorised, labelled and bought by museums, which inevitably resulted in their acceptance and absorption into the annuals of Art History. Once accepted as ‘of real Art Historical value’ - these movements lost their street cred and the uptake of the ideas by other artists evaporated as quickly as they had appeared. It’s a process that continues to today. Editors note: Northern Art (UK) is fated to go down that path, after it has exhausted itself. A more dogmatic movement that has had a high uptake with the support from Art institutions is the term ‘Post Modernism.’ Originally a philosophical theory that goes in a large way to describe much of todays Art. It’s an open-ended theory, one which is wide enough to allow anyone to make anything they so desire and call it Art. Be it banal, absurd, sexual, political, beautiful, naive or a totally mundane form. The term Post- Modernism covers all modes of Art with a large non- bigoted cultural umbrella, one that the Art Institutions and the culture media open at regular intervals. For the Art world Post Modernism seemed to be the answer to eliminate, “that old Modern Art”. And the intellectual elite’s, who prophesied to understand it better than anyone else (not unlike today, I guess). Post Modernism was proposed as the freeing and levelling of the Artistic playing field, much further than it had ever been freed or levelled before. Initially ‘shock of the real’ tactics were employed to gain public awareness of this new art doctrine.

“...the 20th 29century will go As post modernism developed pace, plagiarism was held in down high esteem by those in charge of national art institutions in the (especially in the UK), For them plagiarism was not copying, annuals of but re-inventing the Art of the past and presenting this to a new Art History as generation. They argued that all Art throughout history was a the era that derivative or a copy of another. There was also a belief that the ‘Marketing’ Artist could not achieve an authentic original art anymore. Andtriumphed over therefore originality was a pointless target to aspire to, or indeed Art. strive towards. Of course many Artists questioned the Post Modern dogma. They also became aware of the original work that the leading Post Modernists had plagiarised. Which was not that difficult to prove as some of the UK examples were less than a decade or two years old and had been exhibited in NYC by the originators of them. These artists were outraged at the dishonesty of what they viewed as charlatan’s or fraudsters. Those accused of the plagiaristic art work hit back by saying the Art that they made were versions or ‘tributes’. Which was easily justified by quoting one of Pablo Picasso’s much repeated statements: “good artists copy, great artists steal.” One or two of the more established and well known Art magazine writers (in the UK) were thumping their fists on the table in disgust at the overpowering enthusiasm for the much media hyped Post Modern creations, but they were generally ignored or labelled as yesterdays cultural voices. note. David Lee was discharged from the Art Review and replaced by a post modernist sympathiser. Unabated public exposure of the purported ‘sensational’ art increased daily as did the reaction to it. The Art world seemed split into two distinct factions, both camps intransigent to accept the others position. The public stood on the periphery wondering what all the hell all the fuss was about. After all, they said, “it was only Art, and it’s not that important.” After the year 2000 Art had become inexorably intertwined with marketing, the media and money. And marketing, money and media had become Arts keenest followers. It was perhaps the blue sky thinking days of the last throws of an updated Dadaism. Absurdly that early 20th century art movement had finally been transformed from a reviled destroyer of the Art institutions, into being as a sort of duplicitous art export business, run by the well connected art institution supporters. Most of what you could call, ‘working’ artists, kept their critical opinions to select confidants or chatted in guarded whispered sentences about the Post Modern spin culture in trendy new coffee houses in the Capital Cities. No artist wanted to appear to be ‘old-fashioned’ in their opinions of the new Contemporary Art. Although they persisted to present their own Art within under funded or totally unsupported exhibitions, until someone liked what they did enough to buy one of their works. The fact that the ‘customer’ always bought an art which had a more affirmative, original or sustainable nature to it, in direct opposition to the then post-modern art creation, never came as any surprise to anyone. The desire to own Art with longevity of appreciation and enjoyment remains a powerful human desire. Painters, in particular, were fully aware that their work was being ignored by the institutionalised art galleries yet despite that fait accompli, they held on to a belief that one day a reaction to the

30photograph above: Professor Hillary Lawson (extreme left of the picture, in a philosophical discussion where hedeclares himself a ‘Post Post Modern Person” ©iai.tv 2015Post Modernist Art movement would surely happen. Over the last three decades of Post Modern Art dominance, manyArtists caved in and followed the trend, many simply gave up waiting for their moment in the light and retired to work inisolation and “glorious obscurity.” as Rouault once said after he had become a ‘famous-artist’. Some went back to painting‘local’ landscapes and exhibiting them in small local (as Malevitch also did) venues for a small audience which kept theirtoe in the Art world water and help them pay their studio rent. What’s all that got do with an Artists weltgeist moment?It is clear to many artists that the Post Modern decades of dogma has actually created a Visual Art World that is flatrather than round. What can be seen is a kind of cacophony of visual Art. It is hard to disseminate or view it as havingany particular direction or indeed any message, other than identifying the various stylistic origins from the last five orsix decades of Art history. Arguments for a new way of ‘thinking’ have being proposed and rejected more often than onewould imagine. The anti-post modernist philosophers have been bang at it for some time, people like Noam Chomskywho has said: “postmodernism is meaningless because it adds nothing to analytical or empirical knowledge.”Possibly the most convincing argument I have personally listened to, was discussed within a web debate on the Instituteof Art and Ideas forum “Let the Light in” on iai.tv. It was forwarded by Professor Hilary Lawson in 2015. A philosopherwho came to the conclusion that he was a ‘Post-Post-Modernist’ and presented an extremely reasoned argument withpropositions for an alternative thought process. And he hoped that the many would implement PPM to help change thestatus quo. We shall have to wait and see if anything at all does change significantly within the visual art world as a resultof his suggested philosophical game changer.It makes me wonder how long painters will carry on knocking out the same tired, nostalgic images that are created in thesame, or even post modern trendy style, the way that they have been doing, for, in my opinion, far too long.What painting (art) needs now is not more intelligence per sé, it needs Viusal intelligence, more - “Weltgeist” written by ‘Spike’ ©2016 for painters Tubes magazine ©2017

31“...a morning and an afternoon with Steve Capper.”For those of you that are regular galleryexhibition goers, then Steve Capper’s work willbe more than familiar to you. I’d seen Steve’sdistinctive paintings in a few Galleries in andaround Manchester for a number of years,(at least I thought I had). Truth be told, I firstviewed his work by way of a contact I’d madewith him quite a number of years ago. I wastrying to gather artists from the ManchesterHigh School of Art together as a group andcreate an exhibition of ex-pupils, of which Iwas one. Steve was enthusiastic about it, butthat idea never really got off the ground due toa lack of interest and the reluctance for any ofthe other ex-pupils the make an effort to bringthe project into a reality. It’s sad how manya good (art grouping) idea falls by the waysidebecause people simply can’t be bothered toput any effort into a project, if it doesn’t benefitthem directly.Many years later our path, or rather my pathand Steve’s work, was to cross again, thistime it was a result of research for an articleI was writing for the International Art MarketMagazine, one that was tracing the Art of theNorth West of England from 1900 to 2016.During my research, and by coincidence, I sawan example of his work in the ContemporarySix Gallery in central Manchester.His work was easy to spot as Steve’s style isso distinctive that sometimes an experiencedartists eye tends not to look at the work indepth, but just scan the surface to identifythe style, something many full time artists areguilty of. A year or so after that coincidentalpath crossing, I attended the opening of theGateway Gallery exhibition “A Reappraisal ofthe Northern School of Art’ which was held lastNovember (2016).Once again some of Steve’s work was onshow. This time my attention was taken byhim in person, along with Geoff Key, who wasalso an old boy of the MSoA - I’d also broughtalong an old classmate to the show, so youcan imagine the four of us nattering on aboutthe Old School and some of it’s great artist-teachers and again my absolute attention wastaken away from Steve’s work, even though hiswork stood out from the rest of the paintings onshow, from a ‘catching ones eye,’ point of view,and by some considerable margin.

32And so, early last month I decided that it was high timeto make a personal visit to see Steve in his Studio foran hour or two and this time look at the work in a moreconcentrated way. At least that was the plan.Steve lives and works in Delph, a small cute villagenestled at the foot of the Pennines, getting there bypublic transport is a bit of grind, but nonetheless myjourney of nearly two hours from central Manchesterwas, I hoped, going to be worth it. I arrived in Delphon a bright but slightly chilly March morning. I’d textedhim from the bus to tell him I was en-route and madearrangements to be picked up from outside the Villagepub.We shook hands and made the customary small talkgreetings. “I could have picked you up in Oldham, ifyou’d texted me earlier.” He said to me as we enteredhis driveway. “I know”, I said. The first thing was tohave a drink of hot coffee and after saying hello tohis wife Jan, in the kitchen, we both moved into tothe Studio and carried our drinks with us. The ‘Studio’was actually one of those all glass double glazedextensions attached to a modern brick house whichwas positioned as to be almost impossible to beoverlooked.The sunshine flooded the room as the view outsidewas exactly what you would expect of the rollingcontours of the Pennine hills. Immediately, it becameevident that Steve’s work did indeed reflect theatmosphere and scenery that was in front of my eyesand much more besides. Serene, is a much underused and under estimated adjective for that feelingof an untroubled tranquil sensation, the one that Iexperienced whilst sipping my coffee and chatting toSteve about Art. It was like were were sitting in oneof his paintings talking about paintings - a surrealmoment for sure - Jan had brought us both a plate ofhot croissants to complete the sheer enjoyment of themoment and we happily began discussing the broaderart scene in Manchester.It was almost like Steve was interviewing me on whatI thought about this artists work or that artists work andthe general state of contemporary art in the UK.Never one to shy away from an opinion on art, whenI am asked that is, Steve then evaluated my thoughtsand in general, concurred with my analysis of eachartist in turn with a knowing and wry smile.“I couldn’t paint, when I was teaching..”Steve said to me, changing the subject. I knew Stevehad been working as an Art teacher in a state Schoolfor decades. Apparently it was only when he left hisfull time teaching job that he dusted off his easel andbrushes and began painting again.

33 “It was was like I was 30 years younger and it filled me with such pleasure that I simply can’t stop working now.”He said in a sort of happy ironic way.It was that same ‘pleasure’ that you feel when you are stood in front of one of his paintings. It’s a symptom ofcontemporary art that the ‘pleasure’ aspect of art creation is surprisingly overlooked and much art [paintings] isnegated because ‘pleasurable art’ has been derided as ‘not-serious’ by them that pull the strings of the contemporaryart scene. This reminded me of the work of Bonnard and how his paintings have been sidelined because they areobviously a pleasure to look at. Again, as with Steve, the surface of the work is met with a hurried opinion, without theabsolute depth and originality of the work having been considered.Like Bonnard, Steve’s work is colourful and employs easily recognisable themes, landscape and still life’s in themain. They are not representational in the academic sense of the word, neither could they be termed strictly abstractas such. Yet they are filled with all the joy and pleasure that art promises us, some may even say the work ischarming. Abject critics would say most of the work (of Bonnard and Steve) is decorative, and I can understand thatpoint of view to an extent, that is until you read into the work further.It is perhaps that today, most people have little time to really look at original art and that the fact that the public hasbeen optically bludgeoned into a sort of art-blindness by the cacophony of images on the www and the mass media,that they (and sometimes even me) have simply forgot how to look at good Art when its right in front of us.Again, like Bonnard, Steve does not copy what’s in front of him, he uses visual memory integrated with his feelingsabout what he is painting.Which, technically, puts him (and Bonnard) outside of being labelled an impressionist or a surrealist or an abstractpainter. What Steve does is all his own work.

34 The American philosopher and psychologist William James wrote (around 1890) “Remembrance is like direct feeling; its object is suffused with a warmth and intimacy to which no object of mere conception ever attains” This statement could well apply to Steve’s work in general. And that’s the feelings that I [personally] got from his work when I really allowed myself time to look at it. An opinion that many people have (including me, I might add), about Steve’s work is that it is seemingly so ubiquitous? I asked him that question directly to try and pin down the reason. He told me that examples of his work have been promoted by Galleries, especially on line, but the truth is he has only a small number of original works actually in a gallery. Some galleries have bought one or two of his paintings and exhibit them at regular intervals, which may explain that opinion that his work is shown everywhere (and as a consequence dampens down the uniqueness of it). His main Gallery (for most of his work) is Gateway Gallery in Hale, although he has shown, over the years, in a few others in Manchester (Contemporary Six, being one other). For me it seems the absolute reason is that ‘once seen, you easily remember’ Steve’s work and the feel it carries with it, which sort of engraves itself on the very fabric of your memory bank. Perhaps this is because they are so easily received by the eye and the mind. I mean, who doesn’t like a pleasurable image when it is presented to you? - And for those painters who think it is easy to paint an original work with this quality, I can assure it is not, especially landscape painting. Anyone can paint a landscape, impressionistic or post impressionistic or otherwise from a photograph or even from real life, very few can paint a landscape with the authority of an original style as Steve does. Even fewer can paint a still life with that same in-errant quality. As the time approached for me to leave, having had all the positive thoughts that I had during our long conversation, Jan re-entered the studio bearing plates full of sandwiches which I soon succumbed to agreeing to stay for lunch, (as they were English cheese and Piccalilli and cheese and Branson pickle, a treat that I can rarely find in Sweden). After lunch, we talked for another hour or so in which time I discovered that Steve (and his fellow artist friend, Peter Stanaway) were actively engaged in helping an artist exhibit his life long work. This artist had been painting the village of Delph all his life and was now approaching 90 years of age. That artist is Russel Howarth “maybe you should go and speak with him Denis..” Steve said to me and went on to say that., “He really has a unique bank of work, and one that deserves writing about...” After my own realisations about ‘really looking deeper’ at paintings and beyond the surface, as I did with Steve’s work...perhaps I should do exactly that. (editors footnote: I interviewed Russel Howarth in July 2017) Denis Taylor spent a morning and an afternoon with Steve Capper. March 4th 2016.

most read (double) feature of 2017 35our mission...“...to photograph and have a cupof tea and biscuits with a legend.Dave Gunning - photograph: by Denis Taylor on behalf of painters Tubes magazine ©2017

36 Dave Gunning in his Gallery - photograph ©Lee HarrisonIt would be incorrect for me to say that this visit and mission meeting with Dave Gunning at Todmorden Fine ArtGallery was my first trip. It wasn’t, this was my third or more. My second visit was to enable me to accompany MrGunning to view the largest collection of William. Ralph Turner’s paintings in the UK, one housed in a very privateArt collection. Dave had arranged the visit after I had spoken with him after our first meeting previous to a lengthytelephone conversation (from my studios in Sweden).At the time I was writing a series of articles for another publication (the International Art Market Magazine) whichdiscussed the artists and the art of the Industrial Revolution, and how that had affected painters like, W.R.Turner,Theodore Major, Alan Lowndes, Emmanuel Levy and Harry Rutherford, to mention just a few. Dave told me somethingthat seemed such a great story with a set of coincidental circumstance, that I couldn’t resist the chance to spend timewith him on the long car drive to our destination. Besides which, viewing the collection was a privilege, one that notmany other people shall experience. It was during that drive that we chatted about Art, art history, creative writing,his life in general and his introduction to the art world when he first opened the doors of the Todmorden Fine ArtGallery in 1981.Dave turned 79 years old this year, so I thought it was high time his story was told to the many readers of Tubesmagazine, as he has played a pivotal role in the dissemination of the now famous paintings and the artists names thathave become the backbone of the genre of Art that today is known as English Northern Art.A label that many artists (and galleries) attach to themselves, which helps sell their art.In 1981 that commercial label didn’t really exist as such, hence the title of the gallery ‘Todmorden Fine Art’ - a titlechosen by Dave Gunning and his friend and business partner, Brian Middleton. It was Fine Art that was loved, whoeverproduced it, and from wherever it came. “His love of art started when Dave was a child.”Born in London on March 16th,1938, it was when he was only six years old that his ‘art-collecting-tendency’ tookhold. A year or so before the World War ended (1944) Dave’s mother divided 18 old pence (about seven and half newpence) in to equal amounts (6 old pence each) between him, his brother and his sister to buy something from thejumble sale, being held at their local Church Hall. His brother bought a football. His Sister bought a doll. And Davebought a large gilt framed oil painting depicting trees, cows and farm in a typical Victorian stylisation to illustrate thepastoral peace and tranquillity of the English countryside (inspired no doubt by John Constable).

37A few of his friends helped him to carry the mega-sized painting back home. Hismum, on seeing what she viewed probably as a monstrosity, refused to have it inthe house and Dave was made to return it to the jumble sale where he traded itin for some comics. That particular story has been told me a few times by Daveand yet I still read into it different aspects of just how much Fine Art means tohim and by what value he sets on the Art that speaks to him. He continued hisart collecting forays by acquiring (cheap) old water-colours and an extensivecollection of Art Post Cards (which incidentally were first introduced to thegeneral public at the famous 1900 International Exhibition held in Paris). Dave’scards must have included all the great masters from the previous century whichsurely provided him with a deep well of visual information and knowledge whenhe was still in his teens. !©Lee HarrisonHe attended university where he studied French, Latin, English and the Historyof Art. He elected to become a teacher (of French) which must have providedthe financial basis for him to continue with his Art collecting compulsion. He livedand worked in North Wales where he became very keen on the artists of theRoyal Cambrian Academy. He became friendly with members of the Academy,ones that included artists like, Donald McIntyre, George Anthony Butler, MillicentAyrton and several other artists. Yet his deep seated dream of opening his ownArt Gallery remained unfulfilled. It was Brian Middleton, a great friend of Dave’s,who become tired of teaching (mathematics) and informed Dave one day that heintended to resign his position and encouraged Dave to the same and make hisdream become a reality. And he [Brian] would be his business partner. Dave hadbeen hesitant to give up his secure job, but then Brian telephoned Dave to informhim that he had resigned his position as the Head of Maths at Alder Hill School(in Rochdale), the day after Dave gained courage and did likewise.He knew it was a gamble, but with Brian’s previous position he probably madeconnections in Rochdale and so the decision to open a Gallery located in thatarea was obviously the right place to start and try to make a go of being agallerist. Dave used his own collection of around 250 paintings as the openingstock.

38 photograh ©Lee HarrisonThe first few years proved challenging but slowly and surely the word spread that Todmorden Fine Art was theplace to acquire really great art and at a great price. Gradually more artists were brought into the Gallery asDave expanded the base of its stable of artists, these included, (from the Liverpool School), the calibre of artistslike; Donald McKinley, George Jardine, Nicholas Horsfield and George Kennerley.After a while Dave tireless search for the art that he loved took him into other artists studios where he securedmore work for the Gallery.The list includes well known nationaland local artists such as: Geoff Key,Peter Stanaway, Gordon Radford,Mike Knowles, Russel Howarth. SueAtkinson, Reg Gardner, Ian Norris,Olivia Pilling, Mike Weeden, RichardClare, Anthony Marn and AdamRalston, names that many internationalart collectors and those in the North ofEngland will be very familiar with.Standing above those Artists (for me)is the name William Ralph Turner(1920-2013) William Turner enjoyedconsiderable success in the 1980’s,when he sold through the gallery runby Wendy Levy in Cheshire. However,later on he became forgotten, untilhe was re-discovered in the year2000. He is an artist with whom DaveGunning and Todmorden Fine Art havebecome synonymous. That story isbest told by the journalist who relatedthe circumstances surrounding theresurrection of W.R Turner’ art and himas one of the UK’s great painters.The journalist was Paul Barker whowrote articles for the Sunday TelegraphMagazine. I was going to tell the storyof how W.R.Turner was ‘rediscovered’myself for painters Tubes, but I’dalready told it in my own way a fewyears ago in series of articles I’d writtenfor another magazine. When I visitedDave Gunning, last month, along withLee Harrison, who by the way takesmany great photographs for Tubes,Dave handed me an original pristinecopy of the Sunday Times Magazinedated, 24th August 2003.For the first time I could read the articlein it’s original published form.I considered that like many others, I had never read the original article and so I have taken the respectful libertyof reproducing it in this issue of painters Tubes magazine. (see the special pages following).The upshot of this story was that William. R Turner, was given a retrospective exhibition at the Gallery Oldhamin 2005 where, and as you may expect, Dave not only attended but made a video of the whole exhibitionopening day, for posterity. I’m proud to say I helped to edit the original video to enable Dave to watch it again onhis computer and secure it in a digital form, just in case the VCR tape should deteriorate.Dave Gunning is a true character. He has a fantastic dry sense of humour and is a kind and gentle man.Make no mistake from outward appearances, Dave Gunning’s mind holds a veritable treasure of art knowledgeand intimate personal details of artists that should be written down for future generations. Maybe I should dothat? Besides, it would a great excuse to share yet another cup of tea and biscuits with him and listen to a manwho gave the chance to artists he believed in, by showing their work to a wider public, those who today havebecome highly regarded artists and may otherwise have remained totally unknown or ignored at best, or totallyforgotten about, at the worst.

39 William Ralph Turner by Paul Barker. The story about how one of the North’s old master was resurrected from obscurity having been forgotten about since he was identified as a rising star of art in 1963. Article on William Ralph Turner, original published by The Sunday Telegraph Magazine 24th August 2003 written and researched by Paul Barker ©Telegraph Group Limited 2003 Reproduced here as a compliment to the man behind the story, Dave Gunning of Todmorden Fine Art Gallery. It is like a vision of the end of the world. A yellow and orange flame spurts up into a red and blue sky. Two huddled figures move along below, like lost souls on their way to purgatory. But what looks like Judgement Day is, in fact, an oil plant at Ellesmere Port, near the intersection of the Manchester Ship Canal and the river Mersey. The painting is by William Turner, an 83 year-old artist who is only now gaining the credit he deserves. At Turner’s house, an enlarged cottage in a suburban street in the town of Congleton, Cheshire, I’m greeted by a spry, wiry man, with bright blue eyes that light up behind his rimless glasses. The artists is dressed in a grey shirt, dark trousers and polished brown shoes. On his left shirt pocket, he wears a tiny golden six pointed Star of David, in honour of the Jewish mother he hardly knew. She died when he was five. He paints in his garage, the Saab stays outside. Back in the 1960’s the Manchester Guardian hailed him as ‘rising star. But even the most talented painters can slip through the net. Turner says he hawked pictures around London Galleries - ‘wearing my shoes out’ - but metropolitan dealers, in their ‘antipathy towards northerners,’ rebuffed him. But then, Turner didn’t always want to be artist.When he grew up in inner Manchester he wanted to be a speedway rider - ‘that or boxing were the only ways out’- but he couldn’t afford eighty pounds for a motorbike. So he settled for racing cycles instead. In his hall he hasthree, leaning up against each other: one from the 1950s, one from 1970s, and one he has just bought. It’s brightred and specially built. He still goes for 30-mile rides. He tells me he was passed the other day by a younger riderwho patronisingly asked, ‘Are you all right?’ ‘But I realised I could overtake him. As I went past him, I said, “Are Youalright?” You don’t lose the spirit of competition, even at my age.’Even Lowry, who died in 1976, suffered from anti-northern prejudice, though his pictures of stick -men and bleakmills became more widely known from the 1950s.But rather than help his fellow painters of the industrial north, Lowry’s success overshadowed them.

40 There isn’t a single picture by Turner, born and bred in Manchester, in any of the city’s art galleries. He has never had an exhibition at Salford’s Lowry Centre. And while his paintings often depict Stockport (he lived just outside the town for more than 30 years) and its bizarre landscape of hills, factories and 27-arch Victorian railway high above the streets, Stockport’s art gallery owns only one of his pictures. In southern galleries, there is nothing. Things are, however, looking up. One collector in Wales now has more than a hundred Turners, which he intends to bequeath to a public gallery. And, not long after he turned 80, Turner found an agent for the first time. When Dave Gunning, who jointly runs a small art shop in Todmorden, Lancashire, went to supper with a customer he was stunned to see on the walls three paintings by William Turner, whose work he knew only from a brief passage in a reference book. Where was the artist, he asked. ‘Oh, he’s been dead for years,’ he was told... “...the pictures are like gold dust. You’ll never find any.’” But Gunning did, and he also found the artist alive and well. He already handled the work of Geoffrey Key, a Salford painter, who, it emerged, knew Turner. Gunning went along to Turner’s house in Congleton and ‘it was like I imagine taking heroin must be. The walls were full of paintings, going back to the 1940s.’ Gunning took 20 away with him - all sold within two days. Since then he has sold about 1,000. For the time being you can get them at prices between the low hundreds and the low thousands. But even Lowry’s were once cheap. Turner, in fact, painted Lowry, in 1976, shortly before the artist’s death, and the portrait now hangs in his sitting-room, above a portrait of his late wife, Anne. Turner shares a subject matter with Lowry - a nostalgia for past industry - but his pictures, unlike Lowry’s, swirl with life. He acknowledges the influence of Utrillo, Vlaminck, Soutine, Roualt, Chagall and the expressionist Max Beckmann, who recently had a retrospective at Tate Modern. “I find English painters very stiff.” He says. The Royal Academy is exhibiting another German expressionist. Ernst Kirchner. Perhaps this switch in art’s febrile fashions will also help Turner, who you could cal a Manchester Expressionist Sun and smoke are as important in Turner’s work as in the late masterpieces of J M W Turner: a huge yellow sun peers through fog: a blue sun hangs above Salford Park, like a visiting meteorite. The 19th-century painter is no relation, though Turner’s Aunt Clara, who encouraged his painting when he was young, thought he might be. And so one wall of his cottage is a copy of a small J M W Turner water colour which he executed at the age of 17. Turner’s father was a commercial traveller, his grandfather a restaurant porter. William left school at 14, in 1934, for numerous odd jobs: storekeeper, scales-maker, mail-order packer. But he found he ‘wasn’t much good at anything else but painting’. During the War he worked in the Royal Ordnance Corps, and briefly went to Derby School of Art on an Army grant. Not that it helped: ‘You’ve got to learn yourself, in the end.’ For 11 years he made a living hand-colouring photographs for a studio in Manchester. ‘It’s what they called “picture faking”. Modigliani and Soutine used to do it.’ After that he taught art at a further education college in Manchester and at Hulme Hall independent school, near Stockport. And he kept on painting throughout, in spite of all the rebuffs, north and south but he said he never sold much. “but I never sold much.”

41Turner says. One fan was the Warrington- based newspaper publisher Eddie Shah.Turner has pinned up a yellowing press cutting in which Shah is photographed with apainting on the wall behind his desk; Shah now owns 14.Only in his sixties did Turner become a full time painter. He had accumulated a massof work by then (he had so many canvases stacked under the stairs that they fell onthe gas-man when he crawled in to read the meter). Reds, whites and blacks add tothe paintings’ apocalyptic drama; many of them suggest Milton’s description of Hell as‘darkness visible’. Others are derived from Turner’s past: a policeman flashing his torchat a canoodling couple in a park; a brick-faced newspaper-seller; a landlady grimly slicingbread. He saw hard times, even painting tourists’ portraits at Polperro in Cornwall’ (‘quiteenjoyable.’ he says with a grin). He had a few exhibitions in small Manchester Galleries.But he lived from the sale of one painting to the next, till he met David Gunning.Turner is a romantic. “my paintingcomes out of the 1930s, he says,‘when there was no work but highexpectations.”though a number of his pictures also evokepost-war bomb-sites and even oil refineries.His memory is phenomenal. He says he’llpaint a picture he thinks is imaginary, ‘thensomeone comes along and says, “I hada shop on that street corner.” And he hasvisions. ‘They sit there as clearly as you’resitting on that chair,’ he tells me. Sometimesthey speak, sometimes they don’t.At a mediums house he received a messagefrom a painter who had, apparently, died 200or 300 years ago in Vienna. He said he wasan ancestor on Turner’s mother’s side andclaimed to be the principal influence on hiswork. ‘I don’t know who he was.’ Turner says.‘but I think I know what he painted. I saw it ina vision and sketched it. It was a big hall, withpeople. It sounds just like one of my pictures.’ The article finished with ‘ For more information on William Turner, contact Todmorden Fine Art, Lancashire. (01706 81 4723) www.todmordenfineart.co.uk Dave told me many years after thisarticle first appeared that the next day, the phone never stop ringing from8.am to midnight...” Since this time, Dave Gunning has seen almost allof Turner’s work pass through his hands and into private collectors, andcommercial galleries.Photograph ©Lee Harrison. at Todmorden Fine Art Gallery - 2017This article has been reproduced for education and art historical interest onlyand remains the copyright of the writer of it and the Telegraph Group Ltd

42 ...talking the real deal...with Dean EntwistleSpending time with Dean Entwistle, a painter who has been creating meticulous work for quite someyears, was always going to be anexhaustive exercise. Exhaustive inthe real sense of the word, not thenegative implication of it. What I meanby exhaustive, is the examination andconsideration of all the elements ofart creation. One that needs a full andcomprehensive discussion with discoursethat is far removed from the normal run ofthe mill informal ‘chats’ that one may haveabout Art with people who are not artists.Personally, I found our discussionenjoyable, probably because as a painter.I really do understand the nitty grittyhard graft and thought process’s thatgoes behind the creation of Art per sé.If you don’t know in detail the processof painting and it’s mystical complexity,then it is difficult to understand why manypeople said to me before I met Deanin person, that, ‘you may find him a tadintense.’Our actual discussion(s) span over twomonths. First there was a session in acentral Manchester artists watering hole(Sinclairs Oyster Bar) in February - thatlasted 8 hours. The second discussion,in March, was more focused, as we hadalready come toa mutual respectful understanding, fromthe first session. Therefore we could talkoutside of the box and the usual limitedparameters of the socially aware artcorrectness.As a consequence the second sessionwent on for just under 10 hours and onlyended the next morning, when we jumpedaboard our respective trams heading in opposite directions, afterspending the night at my sisters home in North Manchester.To write in legible sensibility what we discussed over those twosessions, is almost impossible, as we spoke in a sort of artistsshorthand, which when transcribed would make no sense at allto most people, as inevitably, essential volumes of art historyknowledge is required to report the conversation verbatim. - But thatknowledge, that both Dean and I have attained over the years, ashave many painters, are are continually gathering knowledge frompast masters. at least those who create paintings as an ‘Art Form’rather than image creation.

43For Dean, it seems to me, is that Art is a the challenge to achievea universal understanding, the essence of which, is perhaps,coming to grips of what makes a flat image on a flat surfaceresonate the essential power to stand alone and communicatesomething that is beyond the spoken word.Unification and harmony of nature, art and a human being, is theultimate goal. To many past masters the artist himself is the mere‘facilitator’ of bringing the work into existence, with work that hasthis unifying power. With each piece Dean creates, (which takesa great deal of time to finalise) and simultaneously as he paints-He subconsciously and consciously cross examines thework and himself as he tries to unravel what exactly it is he isachieving with each colour layer that he applies. Layers thateventually reach the ‘power’ levels he desires (or perhaps thework demands) to be imbued with. Only then is the painting complete and prepared to make it’s own way into the world to succeed, or fail as the case may be. It’s more of an intellectual approach integrated with a mystical fourth dimensional thinking process, more so than it is a human instinctive mark making method (i.e. expressionism). If you have knowledge of the idea surrounding the physical existence of the fourth dimension (the identification or concept of, has been around a very long time, you can understand how absorbing it can be, And how it opens understanding of yourself and away from the myopia of purely three dimensional thinking. This sort of metaphysical realisation reveals more questions than answers to a creator of art, so the questcontinues (as all art exploration should) to discover more aboutits importance and how it can be utilised.It’s the never ending path of discovery to reach the limits ofthe human intellectual integration with the creative force. Manyartists are still unaware of that force, or more accurately believeit is them that are somehow blessed with a special gift. My ownbelief is that every human being on the planet can paint andcreate images - it is those artists who go beyond image makingthat engage with and are subject to being taken over by whatI have termed as the ‘creative-force. And as a consequence ofthat contact create more than simply interesting images. Someartists, have a belief that the creative act is simply a reflection oftheir own subconscious.Many will tell you that ‘time and space’ becomes condensed (tothe conscious self) where they become ‘part of the painting’ theyare working on. I could take Jackson Pollock as a good example.He is reported to have said that: “when I am ‘in’ the paintingeverything is fine, it’s only when I am not [in the painting] thatit becomes a mess.”

44 The deep connection to what I call the creative force takes time to acquire and it is not easy to understand, or deal with, once you have become used to being connected to it on a daily or a regular basis. This creative force connection also has consequences, some good, some not so good. Dean Entwistle is definitely connected to it, as are many artists of his calibre of the past and of the present, although he may call it by another name. He also told me that he believes he lives in a sort of twilight-zone, (where strange things happen beyond the normal coincidental or the incidental). Although, the twilight-zone may sound to most people like ‘an artists fanciful mind’ playing tricks on itself, or perhaps a sort of induced state of psi - or even ESP (extra sensory perception). Personally I have no reason to disbelieve him. To a great extent I think it is an absolutely true phenomena Dean experiences, having had many similar ‘twilight-zone’ experiences myself (and on a regular basis) over these last 30 years of making Art. It seems to me that as humans developed a large and complex society, we have shod or suppressed a natural, or genetic inherited extra sensitive ability to communicate with each others feelings or emotions over close or even great distances, in favour of language and technology. Which for me is humanities loss. Perhaps creating art can indeed re-energise those mysterious abilities, ones that we probably accepted as normal, once upon a time. If we allow them to come to fore of the frontal cortex of our mind, then I do believe it’s possible for all of us to re-employ these gifts from nature. I can hear many readers now turning the page as they wonder what’s all this talk about the twilight- zone, psi and ESP has to do with Dean’s (or any other artists) actual work. I believe it has a lot more relevance than you may have considered before today. Dean’s preferred medium is tempera (pigment bound by egg). It’s a very ancient medium and many say it dates first from ancient Egypt or middle asia. It was the primary method of painting images used in the West up to about the 1500’s when it became superseded by oil paint. It’s a fast drying medium which allows for a steady build up of glazes (layers). This method enables the artist to work on top of a base line and introduce a resonance which, many feel, has a greater colour nuanced depth than say, oil paint or water colour. It also means to build that depth takes much more time, more so than oil colour or water colour - Although I feel sure Mark Rothko would have argued the opposite (e.g. his paintings were made up from hundreds of layers of extremely thin oil pigments diluted with litre upon litre of balsam turpentine). An enforced and extended time period of creating just one painting is indicative of the psychological framework that I have outlined. e.g: the more the concentrated time spent with the creative force - the more ‘twilight-zone’ one experiences.

45It can be troubling experiences for many artists, and can lead to personality and/or social negative issues, orexcessive consumption problems i.e. alcoholism, with reference here to Mark Rothko & Jackson Pollock inparticular. Sometimes even psychological breakdowns (Van Gogh perhaps). Yet with balanced acceptance, it mayalso promote a level-headed approach to view life. And a long and very productive creative life, say: Pablo Picasso,Wassily Kandinsky or other artists that we have all come to appreciate, some people albeit with hindsight.Dean told me that he had always wanted to be an artist. His father however believed it to be an ‘unworthy-career’ tofollow and so he struck a deal with his son. Dean agreed to join the RAF after which he could pursue what ever pathhe wished. Dean started his Art-Career, after serving his time in the RAF, as an illustrator and made a great successof it. When he changed path’s and stepped onto the fine art road, at first he began creating ‘abstract’ work. I haven’tseen any of these paintings so it is difficult to ascertain their worth or why he changed from abstract to figurative.Under the usual artistic academic formal way of thinking, an artist would be expected to do the exact opposite andmove away from figuration to abstraction as a matter of a personal aesthetic challenge, having first totally masteredfigurative painting. I found his ‘decision’ interesting, perhaps painting abstracts did not challenge him enough? Ormaybe he felt that all could be achieved with abstract has been achieved by the great 20th century painters? - oreven, maybe it was too difficult to remove himself from the strict visual disciplines of illustration? Be that as it may,Deans current subject matter is fairly conservative and traditional, i.e. Landscapes and cityscapes - nothing differentto what many painters are choosing to concentrate on, subject wise, in the North West of England.What separates Deans painting from the many of the same subject matter or genre, I think, is the ‘sky’s he paints,they are quite beautiful and give off a radiance and the sensation of other worldliness. It’s the creative force infull swing, you could say. For example, a recent work is of a fairly every day city scape, a subject commuters andshoppers inhabit seven days a week. Technically excellent, as his is normal high level of draughtsmanship, thisparticular ‘scape’ is part of the City where the Manchester Central Library and Metro link (trams) intersect with theold Midland Hotel in the background and human figures skilfully arranged in the composition. But it is the sky thatmakes the painting become more than a commuters or shoppers view of the City. It’s as if the sky is looking downon the scene and the invisible power of nature is saying ...”it doesn’t matter what you build or have built or whattechnological designs you employ - I am the creator of a beauty that you will never ever achieve.” It’s a statementI tend to agree with. From my stand point, I should love to see Dean’s future paintings perhaps move away from theempiricist subject and to a more obvious metaphysical viewpoint, employing his unique ability to imbue a paintingwith the power of the ‘real deal’ which is part of the creative force, as in the painting I described above. And perhapsone day he will try that, just to see if he can create another ‘type’ of work where ‘pure painting’ is the subject matter.One that has the ‘real-deal’ engrained within it, as witnessed in his past and current paintings.I guess, we shall all have to wait and see.Denis Taylor - was talking ‘the real deal’ with Dean Entwistle - February to March 2017.

Gallery Openings46 Over the last year Tubes was delighted to attend a number of Gallery Openings and preview evenings. Here a collection of photographs from those evening. Tubes have featured three of these galleries in 2017 and look forward to covering their new exhibitions in 2018. New Gallery openings included Contemporary Six Manchester (new premises) and Cheshire Art Gallery, Bramhall and Saul Hay Gallery Manchester with Gateway Gallery coming under new management in the Autumn of this year. And Colony Art in Rochdale. ©Gateway Gallery©Gateway Gallery ©Gateway Gallery Gateway Gallery, (Hale). The two exhibitions covered. were Northern School Reappraisal and The Steve Capper solo show- above (below and to the left, photographs from the recent exhibition “people watching.” ©Gateway Gallery Below and to the bottom right. The new Saul Hay Gallery. Catherine and Ian Hay, owners and curators. Specialising in New Contemporary Art and holding discussion and debate evenings. (Manchester Central).©Saul Hay Gallery ©Saul Hay Gallery

47 Contemporary Six Gallery (Manchester Central). Left and below - Alex Ruben Owner Gallerist in Manchester for a decade moved to a new expanisve space opposite the Town Hall in Manchester earlier in 2017. He has mounted solo and group exhibition throughout the year. Cur- rently the show running is the Winter Exhibition of an eclectic mix of paintings, origibal screen prints and sculpture. ©Lee Harrison©Lee Harrison©Cheshire Art Gallery ©Cheshire Art Gallery above. centre and left- Cheshire Art Gallery, (Bramhall). Opened at the end of 2016. The Gallery is owned and curated by Matt & Ella Leech. The Resident Artist is Phil Hughes. The Gallery has had a Premiere evening introducing known and unknown artists from around the UK. Solo shows include, Dave Coulter and Hugh Winterbottom. Art Colony Gallery, (Rochdale) Opened late this Year. It is run by Richard Fitton and Anthony Cosgrove.The first exhibition was an eclectic mix of paintings and Ceramics. Their aim is to introduce and give opportunity to artists from around the North West of England and wider afield. Richard Fitton is a painter andAnthony has a long association with Art from The North of England. (images: top and right). ©Colony Art

48 Artists who had full or part features in issue #2 and issue #3 Diane Terry (below) Started out as a ceramic artist, Diane began painting again some time ago. Texture is the main force behind her creative drive. Diane models paintings with heavy texture todeliver a powerful image that transmits her feelings to her local surroundings. Chris Cyprus. (above) A well known artist who has created a huge amount of work, all connected with his local town of Mossley, (a Town in the UK). Chris, has a unique semi-naive style that is unmistakenley his own. Recently he has changed subject matter with the influence of the Edward Hopper style of clean lines and high contrasts after recently spending time in the United States of America. Hugh Winterbottom. (right) Hugh is a young painter who has had much success recently. His approach is based on painting urban popular areas(Manchester). He is seeking a way to paint the whole ‘new’ enviroment with blue as his main colour in his palette. He works from photographs and sketches which he meticulously produces with his own style of imagery. Simon Parkin (left) Simon creates his painting in the ‘country’ side of of Glossop (UK) usually. An area where the West meets the East of the UK, only seperated by the Pennine range of hills. Make no mistake, Simon is not a parochial painter in his outlook. He travels far and wide to absorb different cultures, new ideas and different aproaches to creating art. Essentially, he is a painter who wants to experience the full life, then transmit that life with energy and power.©Adrian Lambert Photography

49This is Part Three of the extensive Abstract feature in Tubes issue #3 By the turn of the century there was a significant uneasy feeling among creatives, it was because the conceptual, come installation art form, had dominated contemporary art for decades [in Europe]. It had reached the point where it had become ‘institutionally-approved art.’ - and therefore only represented the Art Establishments opinion of contemporary art and no-one or little else. The conventional medium [painting] had not only been ignored unfairly, but often ridiculed by many academics as a serious medium to create a new contemporary art form. This was more apparent in Europe than it was in the USA. Which had, in the main, accepted and had retained ‘painting’ on the curriculum of universities and art academies. This wasn’t the case in Europe, especially the UK, where slowly but surely ‘painting’ was removed not only from Universities curriculum’s but also actively eradicated by discouraging students of including painting in their portfolios for year ending assessments (some made a threat of immediate failure if they did so). Talent, skill, colour understanding and artistic authenticity became a thing of the past and all these later day basic elements and knowledge for art creation was declared ‘obsolete’ in favour of a Post Modernistic approach to art where plagiarism was not only allowed but expected of the student. Not every one agreed with the post-modernism dogma, and many Artists, in general, became tired of restricting themselves to the non-physical involvement of art creation, mixed with the re-making of someone’s else’s original idea from the recent past and where the actual process of the creation was secondary, or unimportant. Disillusioned with the philosophy of post modernism and conceptualism, where only the ‘idea’ of a work of Art was the thing that was worthy of consideration, traditional painting became more and more attractive to Artists once again. This was despite the uneven handed approach to painting in the Art Education system. Painting flourished, especially with the underground artists, mostly dogged painters from the 1980’s. With the graffiti artists, with help of small exhibitions by the commercial galleries on some high streets and in provisional towns, painting began to prove that it was very much alive and had not ‘died off’ as it was predicted it would in the later stages of the Twentieth century. The catalyst for paintings resurrection may have come from a movement that became known (in Europe) as the ‘Transavantgarde.’ Achille Bonito Oliva, an Italian critic overseen the new, or more appropriate, renewed art philosophy, one that rejected the left wing [political] thinking in art and its corresponding artistic psychoanalysis. They returned to encouraging the use of traditional materials and the creation of Art imbued with not only talent but the invention of new image communication forms or symbolic signs. They gained an international audience in 1982 with an exhibition that was mounted in Rome. The leading Transavantgarde artists included Chia, Cucchi and Clemente with Baselitz and Keifer in Germany, who are often thrown into the mix of the artists in this re-engagement with painting. What was also significant, was that a few artists in the USA seemed closer to the European Transavantgarde mind set than they did to the ‘pop’ or the ‘hyper-realists’ practitioners (for example, Julian Schnabel among others). This goes to illustrate how the Art in the public view (media coverage), the one sanctioned and approved by art institutions, can be misleading, with the implication that Art is binary or lineal. Most artists know that Art is and always has been, dynamic and multifaceted. We are only in the 17th year of a new century, but these last seventeen years are proving to be milestones in painting development, albeit not to the same extent that Cubism changed how artists think about how they could create a work of art or indeed how the world looks at itself.

50 The neo-expressionism of the Transavantgarde of the 1980’s led to more and more figurative interest in art creation. And in certain ways figurative abstract painting has asserted itself as the popular choice for many artists. Today figurative abstraction appears at the forefront of recent painting. It can take the form of abstracted human forms, landscape, emotional or personal experiences. The resulting artworks all carry something ‘real’ as the key element in the work of the artist. Art for Art ‘s sake, or Art as the object itself is no longer the main concern. What is apparent today is that the visual art playing field has widened and levelled itself to be inclusive rather than exclusive, as it was once was not so long ago. Realism, semi-realism, abstraction in all it’s forms, gestural, expression, geometric formal, and informal and combination abstraction (objectivity mixed with non-objectivity), photographic-painting montages, video, digital art and graffiti, all have an active role to play in the kaleidoscope of the new visual art world. The whole history of art and art ism’s seems to have merged into an array of visually stimulating and exciting art forms, but only new in the sense that they are created in the ‘here and now’ and reflect that ‘here and now’ – it’s perhaps a more short sighted view of culture that is held today than it was in the middle of the twentieth century. For me, as a painter who is long in the tooth, it is still an exciting period for Art - And like many creatives, I feel the freedom and the challenge that the choice of medium, method of painting and varied subject matter represents. The ‘outlets’ (galleries) for this eclectic view of Art is also far more receptive and widespread than one would imagine. Today independent Artists can hire great spaces in purpose made pop-up type art galleries which cater specifically for independent artist shows. Many painters are grouping themselves together as ‘gallery-studios’ or as a gallery artists run co-operatives with varied types of work exhibited, who pool their finances to ensure each individual exhibition gains the right amount of marketing and public exposure needed for reasonable success. Private commercial galleries are starting to work together to share ‘artists’ ideas and organise single theme shows to encourage audiences to travel from one exhibition in one gallery, then onto another with the same theme. The future for commercial galleries, it seems, rests in a multifaceted genre of art rather than the singular specialised favoured choice of art genre of the last century. They are beginning to co-operate with each other, rather than the ‘competitor’ mentality of the past century. It is perhaps the ‘competition’ from the www that has encouraged the high street gallerist and the individual artist along this co-operative path. The www has been a major contributor to the ‘democratising’ of Art, especially in painting with abstract paintings now gathering as much acceptance and popularity as the traditional landscape or nostalgia art has enjoyed in the past. The danger of ‘Art on Web’, if there is one, is there is possibly too much Art to look at. And perhaps too many images that look exactly the same as the last one seen. The positive aspect of the www does mean a high level of ‘audience-competition’ for visual artists, which in turn pushes the creative to constantly go further and beyond his or her own limitations. Perhaps this competition will give birth to a ‘new way of expression’ the goal that Braque and Picasso had set on the road to discover for themselves in 1908. It is a possibility, however unlikely that may seem today. Abstract Art. Written by Denis Taylor. Artist & Editor for painters Tubes