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| Have you got an early Beryl Bainbridge on your walls? | Have you got an early Beryl Bainbridge on your walls? |
| (4 months later) | |
| Beryl Bainbridge became known, after her great success as a writer, as the custodian of a strange and fascinating house in London's Camden Town, filled with unusual objects including a stuffed buffalo with a mournful gaze. | Beryl Bainbridge became known, after her great success as a writer, as the custodian of a strange and fascinating house in London's Camden Town, filled with unusual objects including a stuffed buffalo with a mournful gaze. |
| But her mind was roaming northwards much of the time, especially to Liverpool where she was born and later worked as a young actress, and often one who had paint on her hands. | But her mind was roaming northwards much of the time, especially to Liverpool where she was born and later worked as a young actress, and often one who had paint on her hands. |
| To supplement her wages at the Playhouse (and for a bit part in Coronation Street where she helped Ken Barlow make a Ban the Bomb placard), she sold large and vivid canvasses. Self-taught, she worked on them at her flat in Huskisson Street, at first alone and then in the company of her husband Austin Davies who was employed at the theatre painting scenery. She was very good and impressively productive; up to 30 oil paintings were completed every year. | To supplement her wages at the Playhouse (and for a bit part in Coronation Street where she helped Ken Barlow make a Ban the Bomb placard), she sold large and vivid canvasses. Self-taught, she worked on them at her flat in Huskisson Street, at first alone and then in the company of her husband Austin Davies who was employed at the theatre painting scenery. She was very good and impressively productive; up to 30 oil paintings were completed every year. |
| Where are they? A celebration of her art in a new book by her best friend Psiche Hughes and an exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool which opens next month prompt the question. Hughes has assembled a glowing range of Bainbridges – Dame Beryl was marvellously attracted to bright colours – and the museum is showing 15 of them. | Where are they? A celebration of her art in a new book by her best friend Psiche Hughes and an exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool which opens next month prompt the question. Hughes has assembled a glowing range of Bainbridges – Dame Beryl was marvellously attracted to bright colours – and the museum is showing 15 of them. |
| Some are pictured here, courtesy of her estate and Thames & Hudson, and there are more in this excellent picture gallery done by our pals at the Observer in London. | Some are pictured here, courtesy of her estate and Thames & Hudson, and there are more in this excellent picture gallery done by our pals at the Observer in London. |
| But there are others; or there were, particularly early work sold when she and Davies, who later became a lecturer at Liverpool Art School, needed extra income to make ends meet. Do the ones below strike any chords of recognition? Have you, or someone you know, got a bright, inventive canvas on a wall, unrecognised; or stashed away? | But there are others; or there were, particularly early work sold when she and Davies, who later became a lecturer at Liverpool Art School, needed extra income to make ends meet. Do the ones below strike any chords of recognition? Have you, or someone you know, got a bright, inventive canvas on a wall, unrecognised; or stashed away? |
| Bainbridge was playful both in her books, for all their darker side, and her art, and the pictures combine historical settings with references to her many friends. Napoleon, for example, appears regularly with the features of her youthful boyfriend Don McKinlay from Bootle. Psiche Hughes and her family are shown in front of a vivid red backdrop. Other pals meet Dr Johnson or passengers on the Titanic. | Bainbridge was playful both in her books, for all their darker side, and her art, and the pictures combine historical settings with references to her many friends. Napoleon, for example, appears regularly with the features of her youthful boyfriend Don McKinlay from Bootle. Psiche Hughes and her family are shown in front of a vivid red backdrop. Other pals meet Dr Johnson or passengers on the Titanic. |
| Some paintings have a look of early 20th century German art, the work of Beckmann or Grosz, and Bainbridge's many interests included Germany. She had a youthful romance with a German prisoner-of-war and famously combined Liverpool and Hitler as subjects of her novel Young Adolf. | Some paintings have a look of early 20th century German art, the work of Beckmann or Grosz, and Bainbridge's many interests included Germany. She had a youthful romance with a German prisoner-of-war and famously combined Liverpool and Hitler as subjects of her novel Young Adolf. |
| Hughes tells the Liverpool Echo, which shows the lovely red backdrop painting, of how she and Bainbridge met in 1963, after the writer moved to a flat in London with her children: | Hughes tells the Liverpool Echo, which shows the lovely red backdrop painting, of how she and Bainbridge met in 1963, after the writer moved to a flat in London with her children: |
| At first I didn't know she was writing but I soon discovered that she was painting because she had paint on her fingers and thumbs, and she told me she painted literally on the kitchen table and sometimes even using her fingers, and painted mainly family scenes – friends and children and so on. | At first I didn't know she was writing but I soon discovered that she was painting because she had paint on her fingers and thumbs, and she told me she painted literally on the kitchen table and sometimes even using her fingers, and painted mainly family scenes – friends and children and so on. |
| My husband, being a painter himself, looked at her work, and they were both very appreciative of each other's work in spite of the fact it was extremely different. | My husband, being a painter himself, looked at her work, and they were both very appreciative of each other's work in spite of the fact it was extremely different. |
| Bainbridge herself summarised her approach to painting with her customary precision: | Bainbridge herself summarised her approach to painting with her customary precision: |
| What one wants from art is a personal statement, a successful arrangement of colour and shape and sense of place. | What one wants from art is a personal statement, a successful arrangement of colour and shape and sense of place. |
| Her friends and family recount how she found painting a relaxation after the lonely challenges of writing fiction. For those of us who believe that shortlists are of pretty equal merit, the Dame won the Booker Prize five times, but she never actually got top spot. It was touching that after her death, a 'Beryl Bainbridge Booker' was organised with readers deciding on the best of her five runners-up. They chose Master Georgie. | Her friends and family recount how she found painting a relaxation after the lonely challenges of writing fiction. For those of us who believe that shortlists are of pretty equal merit, the Dame won the Booker Prize five times, but she never actually got top spot. It was touching that after her death, a 'Beryl Bainbridge Booker' was organised with readers deciding on the best of her five runners-up. They chose Master Georgie. |
| The exhibition was the idea of Hughes and Bainbridge's children Aaron, JoJo and Rudi and the museum is including an assortment of writing drafts, editions of her books and photographs from her friends and family taken throughout her life. Bainbridge's writing started early, with a diary kept from the age of ten, although one significant item - what she called a 'dirty rhyme' found in her gymslip pocket and leading to her expulsion from Merchant Taylor's girls school in Crosby - was written by someone else. | The exhibition was the idea of Hughes and Bainbridge's children Aaron, JoJo and Rudi and the museum is including an assortment of writing drafts, editions of her books and photographs from her friends and family taken throughout her life. Bainbridge's writing started early, with a diary kept from the age of ten, although one significant item - what she called a 'dirty rhyme' found in her gymslip pocket and leading to her expulsion from Merchant Taylor's girls school in Crosby - was written by someone else. |
| The exhibition Beryl Bainbridge, painter opens at the Museum of Liverpool on 7 December and runs until 28 April 2013. Beryl Bainbridge: Artist, Writer, Friend by Psiche Hughes is published by Thames and Hudson price £19.95. | The exhibition Beryl Bainbridge, painter opens at the Museum of Liverpool on 7 December and runs until 28 April 2013. Beryl Bainbridge: Artist, Writer, Friend by Psiche Hughes is published by Thames and Hudson price £19.95. |
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