Hi Folks, here is the official blurb for the upcoming 60s exhibition we will be taking part in. The basic working plan is for two WoL poets to be present each Saturday afternoon from 4-5 PM, reading poems inspired by the paintings on display. On course, that hour could be used for other poetic activities (workshops, 'happenings' and so on.):

 

“IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY”

 

6 Stockport Artists come together to celebrate 50 years since they attended the Stockport College of Art in 1966

 

The heart of 1960’s Stockport College of Art lives on in a free exhibition at Stockport Art Gallery and War Memorial.  The collaboration will include painting, live music, singing, book and poetry reading, along with art demonstrations all delivered by this multi talented group of friends.

 

IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY will feature work from Chris/Joe Beard, Bryan Barlow, Doug Broadhurst, Annette Hetherington, Karen Heywood, John Renshaw.

 

Wednesday 2nd March through to April 9th 2016 there will be a fusion of talent on display throughout the 6 weeks.  Come along and meet these local artists, ponder their work and discover what has inspired them to continue painting for 50 years.

 

You are warmly invited to a special preview event, which will be held on the evening of Tuesday 1st March with live music from original band members of The Purple Gang, including special guests “Granny Washboard”, and folk singing by Karen Heywood.  The Mayor and Mayoress of Stockport will also be attending this by invitation only event.

 

Week by week  information can be found for this free exhibition on Stockport Art Gallery website www.stockport.gov.uk/artgallery.  All works can be purchased, and opening times for the gallery are:-

Tuesday – Friday 1pm – 5pm

Saturday 10am – 5pm

Sunday and Bank Holidays 11am – 5pm

          IT WAS 50 YEARS AGO TODAY

 

The Stockport Art College Bio’s

 

The 6 artist’s individual techniques, inspirations and aspirations were all born in that incredible unique hedonistic era of the 60’s within the walls of a Victorian school of art.  They have trodden different career pathways, but the common thread that has remained between them over the 50 years is, undoubtedly, ART. 

 

Joe Beard discovered there was a world of modern art in the Victorian Stockport Art College building and that it was okay to dress as you felt in beatnik attire.  It was a watershed era from post war austerity, so he felt like a child in a sweet shop.

 

Joe drew much inspiration from the time, and a vivid recollection is of a tutor bringing in a stinking dead crow he had shoveled up from the road that morning for the students to paint.  Art and music were at the heart of Joe’s successful career and he had many commissions, including a large oil painting of the Beatles, which still hangs in the Cavern Club.  He founded the Young Contemporaries Jug Band, which became the renowned Purple Gang of the 60’s.  Joe tutored art at Stockport Adult Education Service and private classes in Bramhall, Cheshire.  Joe says that he feels honored to be part of the exhibition and is looking forward to the people he could meet up with.

 

Bryan Barlow wanted to embrace the Art College experience by dressing in the typical Bohemian style of the time, so he wore a duffel coat and jeans both outside and inside the college.  On one particularly hot day he fainted as the roof was glass and his duffle was still buttoned up to the top!  (The only time in his life he fainted by the way)!

 

Bryan is a talented artist who excelled in drawing caricatures of famous and infamous people of the day.  No one escaped his pencil, so tutors and students were portrayed in many an amusing way.  Bryan owned a bookshop in Chorlton for 20 years and continued to sell and exhibit his paintings there and in various galleries including Troubador in Chorlton.

 

Annette Hetherington said “to be at the Art College in the 60’s was where it was at! Boys outnumbered girls by 4 – 1 and the jokes were constant.  The world was opening up to welcome us right there and then.”  The college was a paint box of opportunities.  After fitting in a variety of jobs to bring up her family, Annette now has time to take her art wherever she fancies, and feels the fabulous experiences at the college have given her that.

 

L. S. Lowry was a frequent visitor to Turners Art Supplies, Stockport during this time and would get into conversations with the students, swapping his art with Trevor Grimshaw, who is a very well known northern artist whom L. S. admired.  Trevor has since died but was a fellow student of this group of 6.  Some years later Annette and her family were invited to Lowry’s house for tea and he drew a picture of a black dog for her children and gave it to them.

 

Annette founded and tutors the Hadfield Art Group which is now in its 7th successful year.  She was thrilled to be asked to take part in this colourful cause for celebration and is most looking forward to the spur to her own creativity.

 

Karen Heywood was proud going through the doors of that old Art College building and being known as one of those “arty” types.  Trips to Lyme Park were taken to draw deer for a poster competition, and she remembers that people remarked on how scruffy they looked.  (We are not sure whether that was a reference to them or the deer)!

 

Time at college was to become the foundation for Karen’s continued career in design and she went on to win commissions to illustrate over 50 children’s books, working as an animator on Rainbow, Danger Mouse, Duckula and BFG.  She has a studio in Stockport and her main interest is in figurative and atmospheric landscape painting.  Karen hopes the exhibition will help demonstrate the importance of education in the Arts and what can be achieved through dedication and hard work.

 

Doug Broadhurst only ever wanted to go to art college, and his days there were to set the course for the rest of his life.  He loved to go out around Stockport sketching decaying architecture and industrial scenes.  Doug’s professional career was in design and he owned a design and exhibition company for 25 years.  His painting reflects these influences.  He has continued to paint, exhibit and sell his mainly abstract pieces through Wendy Levy Gallery, Didsbury, and Gallery 22 in Hale.  Doug is most looking forward to meeting up with other ex college students and producing and exhibiting this collective work.

 

John Renshaw who is an Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at the University of Chester recalls that the Foundation course at Stockport College did much to initiate his subsequent career ambitions.  He was highly motivated, inspired and encouraged by the tutors.  They were all practitioners who shared their experiences with students through their teaching.

 

Ten years later John spent six years as a full time tutor on the Foundation course at the college, working alongside those who had played a key role in fuelling passion for creating painting and also his decision to teach.

 

John has exhibited around the world including Italy, Canada, Hong Kong and the USA, and continues to do so.  He feels privileged to have been invited to participate in the exhibition and is very much looking forward to seeing all the exhibits.