Memories

#salfordgrammarschool #alevelart #historyofart

It was a complete surprise to get a letter from my old, high school art teacher from sixty years ago asking for my address as he had a surprise for me. Did I still owe a homework or had I missed a detention all those years ago?
A few days later a parcel arrived. When I opened it, I found my old homework book  from when I started Grammar School in Salford. Mr Pilkington had  found it when having  a sort out at his home. As he remembered me, he decided to contact me by email and asked for my address. He sent me  a lovely letter, and over the next few days we reminisced over those days long ago.

Looking through the pages, it was interesting to see the work I had done. In the examples above I seem to have been exploring colour mixing using two different themes. These skills and many more that  I learnt would help me in my later work, even though I couldn't remember doing these paintings.

   This is the first image I have found of a landscape done at this time. I seem to be playing with the idea of creating distance by lightening the background. The comment on this was that I should consider the flow of the river. Something I now have taken on board and try to do. It seems, even at this early age I enjoyed painting landscapes.
Hopefully, in these recent paintings below, I manage to bring the water to life.

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It surprised me as well that a homework I did at the time also reflected work I would do in the future. The idea of the intermingling of branches and the light coming through them, is something I strive to achieve now, although looking back, I was probably concentrating on finding patterns in the work. It was also encouraging to get creative and positive feedback from a teacher.

​Looking at these again I can see how these effects still interest me today.

A fascinating reminder of my time at school and the journey I took there. I have mentioned before that I was lucky to have a good grounding of all the basics when studying O level and A level art.
​I was also lucky that during my A level time, Mr Pilkington changed the syllabus from the history of Architecture to the History of Art, giving me an early insight into the work of great artists and a lifelong love of visiting art galleries.

After a time as Head of Art at the Grammar school, Royston Pilkington moved to Dorset where he was Chairman of the Purbeck Group of Artists for a time and continues with his work in the arts. He also worked for a US company named SCW Inc. and was involved in an advertising campaign for Halloween and the celebration campaign for the Bicentennial of  American Independence of ‘ 76

A couple of impressive  paintings by Royston of “Corfe Castle “ and “Old Harry “