MY LOVE OF LOWRY

With the film Mrs Lowry and Son released on 30th August, my Instagram & Facebook post’s for this month will revolve around a Lowry painting a day. (davidhenty_art)

The film is a portrait of the artist and focuses on the tug-of-war relationship he had with his bed-ridden and bitter mother who actively dissuades Lowry from pursuing his artistic ambitions.

Many years ago, whilst in London for the day, I passed by an art gallery. In the window there was a painting by L. S. Lowry, a beautiful painting of a typical Lowry family group. The painting drew me to it like a magnet. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. On my return home that evening I had such an urge to paint the picture I had seen and by midnight had a replica on my easel.

Lowry captured the working-class industrial heritage of the North-West of England. His style is so inspiring, the characters, streets, and industrial scenes he observed are painted in such a way that even the bleakness, and the stark, sad and very real figures are beautiful to look at. As Lowry himself said “I saw the industrial scene and I was affected by it.” Who isn’t affected by Lowry’s works!

Once in a ‘Lowry’ frame of mind, I can’t help but see people in the street in ‘Lowry’ vision. Lowry’s artistry changes your perceptions until you see the world differently. I immerse myself wholly in Lowry’s ‘dreamscapes’.

Lowry’s limited palette and heavily laden brush strokes on the canvas give such texture to his paintings, deconstructing the painting and recreating a ‘Lowryesque’ painting, for me, is nothing less than mesmerising. Lowry had great perspective. His buildings are architectural in design and his characters unique in every sense.