Designer Desire: William Turner

William Turner (1920-2013), or William Ralph Turner to differentiate him from his more eminent namesake, is considered the last of the great Northern Industrial artists.

Famously, Turner was the only person to have painted L S Lowry’s portrait from life.

We have had a fair few of Will Turner’s paintings pass through our hands; all of them are pictured above. We bought them from Dave Gunning, the art dealer with a gallery in Todmorden who is credited with ‘rediscovering’ Will.

In 2005, there was a long overdue retrospective of his work that took place at Gallery Oldham for which an accompanying book was published – William Turner, An English Expressionist. Another monograph by Stuart Archer & Bill Clark was published in 2010.

Here’s a rare interview with the artist done by Granada’s North West Tonight news programme.

Designer Desire: Kyffin Williams

We’re just back from a few days away in sunny Wales, so it’s timely that we’re featuring a famous Welsh artist in this week’s Designer Desire series, Sir Kyffin Williams.

Williams (1918 – 2006) was a landscape and portrait painter who lived in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (otherwise famously known as Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch) on the Welsh island of Anglesey. He failed an army medical on the grounds of epilepsy and was advised by a doctor, “As you are, in fact, abnormal, I think it would be a good idea if you took up art”.

He attended Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1941. His subject matter often consisted of Welsh mountains and cottages with farmers, shepherds and sheepdogs taking centre stage.

I don’t think we’ll be able to afford one a Kyffin Williams original oil painting in this lifetime or the next; however, limited-edition prints and multiples can be had at auction and online.

Here’s a 6-minute film which shares photographs of the man and further examples of his work.

Additional image credits:

Art Wales

Designer Desire: Bernard Buffet

We’ve highlighted Bernard Buffet before on our blog. We have a few of his lovely prints dotted around our house.

Buffet (1928-1999) was hugely successful and extremely prolific – producing over 8,000 paintings in his lifetime. He was described by one biographer as “The modern Mega-Artist”. As part of his exclusive contract with Galerie Drouant-David, the artist staged a major solo exhibition every year. Suffice to say, there are an awful lot of prints and lithographs on the market; check out eBay and Etsy in the first instance. If you have a spare few tens of thousands of pounds, there are also originals to be had on auction sites such as Christies.

Buffet developed Parkinson’s disease in later years which prevented him from working. The disease was cited as the reason he committed suicide at his home in Tourtour, Provence.

If you’d like further insight into the artist, there’s an extensive essay online about him by The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) who have 3 of his works in their collection. There are numerous books and exhibition catalogues available as well.

_credit

Additional image credits:

Ken Law Oldham Landscape original

We’ve mentioned a few times previously that we love the work of artist Ken Law – and have a small collection of his 1960s prints – Hampstead High Street, Tower Bridge and New York Bridges, to date. Well, I was browsing a well-known online auction website a couple of weeks ago – and did a quick search for Ken Law to see if any of his vintage prints were currently for sale. My jaw dropped when this original oil painting appeared before my eyes – only just listed. Straight away I thought, “Oooooh, early 50th birthday present?!”.

The painting depicts Oldham – a Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) mill town about 15 miles from here. Perhaps former mill town might be more accurate now; at its peak, it was the largest cotton-spinning town in the world. Justin grew up in the neighbouring town of Rochdale and often went to Oldham on Tommyfield’s flea market day – and for nights out in his youth! So this landscape is very much in his psyche – and mine too, as an honorary Northerner, residing here for nearly 20 years now.

It’s a classic Northern Industrial scene – factories, terraced houses, chimneys – the Pennine moors in the distance. This picture captures it on a winter’s day, sun low in the sky, snow covering the rooftops and vehicles slipping & sliding down the hill!

Ken used oil on gesso – the surface being painted, scratched and gouged. It’s full of character and texture. We’re still researching, but we think that this painting was exhibited at The Royal Academy in the late 1960s.

By this point, you’ll realise that we can describe it quite accurately and have taken lots of photos – yes, it did become my 5oth birthday present – it arrived today!

I just couldn’t let the opportunity for a genuine Ken Law depicting favourite subject matter slip through my fingers. There are certainly no regrets now it’s arrived – it makes me happy just looking back at the photos in this post.

Much loved already – I’ll always remember when it came to live with us. A real birthday treat!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: oil painting

Designer Desire: William Turner

Designer Desire: Kyffin Williams

Designer Desire: Bernard Buffet

Ken Law Oldham Landscape original