Activities of ARTHUR COLE

Common to most urban landscape paintings of L. S. Lowry is a curious pale yellow hue, reminiscent of the snow scenes by Dutch masters but peopled by the peasantry of Salford. The background was borne of a practical technique, layering white paint on the bare canvas or wood and then scraped smooth. This provided a clear base for the composites of industrial buildings and strange isolated folk who so fascinated Lowry. Growing up in Old Trafford in the 50's I remember that yellowed light, later banished by 'smokeless zones' and the 'Clean Air Act'. Lowry evokes that light for me: dank November nights carrying 'Pink' paraffin home, the can cutting into cold hands, the menacing smog filling me with dark imaginings of bogey men and murders. I remember, too, when I first started work in Trafford Park, once the largest industrial estate in Europe. The AEI Metrovic factory I travelled to features in a number of Lowry's paintings. The early morning bus filled up with workmen coughing up phlegm. The gloom seemed to be outside and inside and within, like a thorough shroud for body and soul.

Dog end breaths, drawn deep,
spew sticky woodbine phlegm,
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You answered the call, inspiring a nation,
touching the hearts of future generations.
A bulldog breed with a will of steel,
discipline, courage, bravely revealed.
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To preach was his calling, his needs they were few,
a life oh so simple, , monastic settlements pursued.
Ascetisism he practiced, guidance from above,
'Do ye little things in life' a symbolic white dove.
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