This unframed oil on canvas, about 2″ square, is relatively old, dating from the late 40’s, early 50’s.

Tropical Fish

This is a painting which has never been seen in public before.  It’s a watercolour, just under 6″ square and is still part of a sketch book.  It seems to be finished – and remember Terry, particularly when younger, painted for the sheer joy of his art – but could be a sketch for a later (presently unknown) oil painting.  There are a number of oil paintings that sort of size of fish, although they tend to be abstracts rather than this lifelike drawing.

The watercolour is unsigned and dates to the late 40’s or early 50’s.

Still life flower

I’m not aware that this small oil has ever had a name.  It depicts a pink flower – although I’m not certain quite what type.  The oil is painted on hardboard (the old brown stuff made of compressed wood chip) and at 9.5″ by 6″ is unusually small for one of Terry’s oils.  It is also varnished in a very shiny varnish - hence the poor quality of the image as it reflects light strongly.  It has been reframed (by the artist – or at least the frame (1990s) is newer than the picture as it is possible it had not been framed previously.

It is signed in the lower right corner but the date is also unclear.  I don’t recall it being painted and it is on hardboard so that puts and absolute upper date on it of about 1970.  My guess is 1950s rather than 19060s, but that attribution is uncertain.

The Rocks at the Crook o'Lune

This is a relatively late (c. 2000) full size watercolour of the rocks at the apex of the bend of the Lune at the Crook o’Lune near Caton, viewed lookng upstream.   Although quite late, Terry had long wanted to do a watercolour of this scene (I believe there was an earlier oil painting – but I may be wrong), but struggled to find a water level that was exactly what he wanted. I’ve been unable to inspect the back of the picture for a name but in discussions my father always referred to it as “The Rocks”.

Like in so many of his watercolours, the trees are wearing their autumn colours.

This watercolour was painted specially as a gift for Terry’s daughter-in-law on her 18th birthday and depicts Artlebeck Bridge on the boundary between Caton and Brookhouse in Lancashire.  It was never exhibited, nor hung in Terry’s studio so it has never been seen in public before.

I’ll grab some measurements and straighten the image when I can.

Little Langdale

The vast majority of Terry’s work was intended for sale – an artist has to eat and he took great pleasure in having his work appreciated by others.  Occasionally he would conspire to hang on to a picture – without of course admitting that was what he was doing.  This oil is one of those and a paiting I therefore grew up with.  It is a very rare example of an oil of the Lake District.  Most of his paintings of the Lakes are watercolours and some pastels.

PS Apologies for the delay in adding more pictures.  As some of you know I was touring Laos.  I’m now back online.  I don’t have photo editing software at present so I’ll go back over the next batch of photos again sometime soon!  I’ll also try to retake the photo which doesn’t have light bloom.

Mum

This picture is a small sketch of Terry’s mother: it’s labelled simply, “Mum” in his portfolio, but is not signed.  Never exhibited, or even mounted, this is a private watercolour by the artist which he saved in a bound portfolio.  It’s relatively small no more than about 6″ across.  It probably dates from about 1953.  All the indications are that it was painted casually at home and was not a posed portrait.

This photo shows a watercolour of Lawson Wood Corner, looking down towards Pipetrack.  The fishing hut which is the subject of Lawson Wood Hut (or rather it’s predecessor which was destroyed by spate) is shown under the tree on the left.  The sky is a classic Terry sky of sun streaming through dark clouds.  Combined with the water, this is a particularly fine example of Terry’s work.  At about 20″ x 14″ it’s a typical watercolour size about.

The photo has been kindly supplied by the painting’s current owner whose uncle Eddie Houghton bought it from my father.  I actually remember Eddie as a fine old gentleman and a great fisherman.  Eddie and my father often used to fish together.  It is suspected that the painting dates from the late 60s, or possibly early 70s.

I’ve gone back and edited the article for Horse and Rider to add a clip from the Radio Times which may have been one of the inspirations for the painting.  As well as publishing an archive of Terry’s work, the aim of this site is to offer some of the background to paintings where I can.

This watercolour of Lawson Wood is still in its original mount and frame but the image has been cropped to allow the painting itself to take all the available space. The visible area inside the mount is about 19″ by just under 15″. 

The artist’s orginal label is on the backing board: there should also be a label on the picture itself but this hasn’t been checked.  Whenever Terry talked about it, he referred to it as “Lason Wood Hut” but it’s formal name on the back label is “FISHING HUT, CATON”. It is dated 1998 on the back label and signed on the front – look for the signature in the image in the grass at the bottom right.

The scene is one the artist had painted before. He was often asked to paint it again but refused to do so, only returning late in his career when he felt he had a new perspective to offer. The scene had also changed somwhat as the original hut had been badly damaged in a flood and replaced by the one shown in this picture. Eventually, I’ll add a page on fishing the Lune for those interested. I don’t believe the fisherman shown are specific individuals but are an impression of fishermen moving about the hut and river.  The bridge in the background is the Pipetrack Bridge which carries the Manhester Thirlmere aqueduct over the Lune.

The scene has changed over the years and, as this older photo shows, there used to be two trees rather than one.