Matchstick Men....

Ever since out recent trip to Berwick upon Tweed my wife has been fascinated with the work of LS Lowry. So yesterday we went up to Salford to visit the Lowry and experience the man and his work at first hand.

What to say about Lowry that has already been said? This is very difficult. Perhaps the first thing to say was that it was a dull and damp day in Greater Manchester. I think to experiance Lowry you can only do this in such conditions. His work is so much about the place, its light and its people that to view the work, say in a Miami gallery, would not really enhance them You need to feel the damp grey light seeping through you to truly understand what Lowry was painting.

The next thing to say is that I don't really like his paintings. This does not mean I don't like Lowry its just that I find this painted work to be fare less memorable than his pencil and chalk work. This thought came into my head when I was viewing 'The Lodging House' (See opposite). This is a chalk sketch made by Lowry in late 1920 and possible was used for a painting later on. I found the subtle details he was able to capture with the chalk far more interesting than the more two dimensional nature of his painting.

I was able to examine this as the sketch was along side one of his many paintings. When viewed in such a juxta position the famous ' matchstick men', Lowry's people in paintings, come alive. They are no longer 'matchstick men' but people. I found this was also the case with Lowry's pencil drawings as well. I am not sure if this is a revalation but I don't feel that Lowry was able to control the paint as well as chalk or pencil. Even when he was trying to, as in the portrait of Frank Joseph Fletcher I found the painting lacked detail of this work in other mediums.

So what does this mean? Well for a start it doesn't mean anything. Lowry is undoubtedly a very talented painter. His eye for detail is superb and he really does evoke the time and place in his painting. It just means that I find his technique leaves me wondering what might have been had he approached his work with the finer touches of sketches.

So back to the weather. I was having lunch in the restaurant at the Lowry and looking out on the people walking across the main bridge. It was raining and so they were huddling behind an umbrella but suddenly I saw the Lowry matchstick men. Gone were the dark clothing replaced by more modern colours but none the less the mixture of the elements and distance from the people gave me a sense of what Lowry may have seen all those years ago. The soot and smoke stack chimneys may be gone but the grey skies of Salford are stikll there to help you understand, in some small way, how Lowry viewed the world.