Description
Arthur Lockwood: Urban and industrial watercolours of Birmingham and the Black Country
Change in the Midlands was the first collection of my watercolours and is now out of print. This new book is a more comprehensive selection of my urban and industrial watercolours painted in the Midlands over the last twenty-five years. All are published here for the first time in this form.
Section one shows work by my father, Frank T. Lockwood, who also painted watercolours in Birmingham and the Midlands. His subjects were usually the rural scene, the farm, church and village though he would paint the more original and quirky subject.
Section two has my first watercolours and work from when I started going with my father, at the age of nine, to paint ‘on the spot’. I clearly absorbed my affection for watercolour from him. This section also has work that was done at Birmingham College of Art in the 1950s showing the traditional art education of that time with the emphasis on drawing. I left Birmingham for London to study graphic design at the Royal College of Art and I remained in London working freelance as a designer for publishers, including Penguin Books.
Section three has the watercolours I did on my return to the Midlands in 1987 to paint full time and focus on two themes: the urban scene and industry. I paint in Birmingham and the Black Country looking out for interesting changes in the urban landscape and for the traditional manufacturing firms that work with metal.
I exhibit my work in London and Birmingham. Many of the paintings in section three have been shown either at the Bankside Gallery, home of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) who have spring and autumn exhibitions of members’ work, or at the Mall Gallery in the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) annual exhibition. In Birmingham, as a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA), I exhibit at the RBSA Gallery just off St. Paul’s Square.
Section four concludes the book with some watercolours by my son, Paul. His work represents a totally different tradition to that of painting ‘on the spot’. His watercolours are from his imagination and done in the studio.
300mm x 245mm
208 pages, with c. 350 illustrations
colour throughout
softback
