Artist At Work - The British Artist Lowry And His Paintings

L.S. Lowry found no difference between a painting and a drawing. To him both were equally hard to do. He was known to produce quick sketches with maximum details on any paper that was found handy. But he was also known to work hours together, rubbing the pencil, smudging, drawing patterns on the paper to produce the atmosphere he wanted to build his drawing. He was known to compose his single drawing for hours sitting in his room and taking care of every single detail and every single figure placement. He will be isolated while doing his work and won't see days light for hours together.

Dreamscapes:

Until Lowry had some idea of what he would create, he would often sit in fronbt of his canvas until the inspiration arrived. He will have a dreamy aura around him and doesn't now about his next work until he starts working. He fondly calls these paintings as dreamscapes as these are born out his dreams.

Industrial Landscape:

The major input of his industrial landscapes came from Bernard Taylor. It was suggested by Mr Taylor that Lowry experimented by painting some of the landscapes on a plain white background. Lowry then experimented with several permutations and combinations of white paint on his boards. Lowry used this technique frequently, by painting various coats of white paint, and using this as a background to finish the painting. This gave Lowry the desired effect of the industrial sky and the stark placement of his figures; a feature he wanted to achieve.

Color and Brush Strokes:

Lowry is known to use a basic range of colors on a pure white background. His range of colors never exceeds other than black, flake white, ivory, vermilion (red), yellow ochre, Prussian blue, and a linseed medium. there has always been a preference for working with oil paint rather than watercolours. If one pays close attention to his paintings, one can find an ingenious variety of brush strokes including both the ends of the brush, his fingers, sticks and nails.

Lowry was also known to reuse and recycle his older images. In a distinct case, the painting of Head of a Man (1938) showed a female portrait and a self portrait beneath it, when X-rayed.

Landscapes and Portraits:

Most of the paintings of Lowry depict the urban and industrial landscape of the city he lives in at that time. Though Landscapes and seascapes are some of his powerful pictures, he found particular pleasure in his portraits of solitary figures. He found painting sad people to be his biggest challenge and a difficult one. He had a huge insight of human nature and was known to maintain an unattached relationship with it.

The great breakthrough for his paintings came a little to late for Mr Lowry. A large exhibition was held at therR.A. in London and attracted many thousands of visitors. Since 1936, the Salford Museum & Art Gallery has been collecting his artwork and houses a huge collection of his award winning works and other paintings.

About The Author David Tatham has been involved in the art world for over twenty five years and his website contains a wealth of information, also signed, limited edition prints and original paintings by world famous artists, http://www.davidshepherd.com