About the painting

The gable end of the school is typical of municipal buildings throughout the UK. The red brick arch windows speak of lofty ideas beneficence and learning. Whether the pupils are the same I can’t say. Knowing children, I suspect most dislike the place although many would have had doors opened to them. For those who know the place, there are memories. For those who went to school elsewhere, only speculation.
Raw and burnt sienna are the overriding colours. Even the sky has picked up large splatters of raw sienna. The details are clear and strong on the left hand side, becoming more sketchy and impressionistic to the right. Patches of orange, yellow ochre and red earth hint at brickwork. Elsewhere, the ridge of the roof is decorated with looped coping stones. The right hand edge marked with smooth, straight lines, defined by dark purple ink, diffusing into long spidery tentacles reaching for the sky.

I always think of these tendrils as representing energy flowing from life lived within the buildings. Schools have a particular energy. So much young potential is let loose within these walls. Some set a course to fly and open new horizons. Some destined to fail.

I firmly believe that all children have the potential to fly, if we give them the education they need.