This oil painting shows WD 2-8-0 No. 90417 on a typical
freight duty in the north of England during the 1960’s. It has a rugged, mill
town setting and the locomotive is characteristically unkempt and the worse for
wear, as they often were during the last years of steam.
Joe Townend was born in Huddersfield in 1946 and he still
lives in Yorkshire. A former painter of pub signs for 25 years, he is now a
full time railway artist. He has become one of the most prolific producers of
railway paintings and over the last few years he has had far more sales at some
of the main railwayana auctions than any of his contemporaries. He has
regularly sold new paintings, unframed and still in their stretchers, at GWRA,
railwayana.net, Talisman and Solent auctions. He has been an Associate Member
of the Guild of Railway Artists since 2011.
Most of his work is of British Railways steam locomotives at
work in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He concentrates on straightforward,
three-quarter views. He has a good eye for the dimensions of the various
locomotive classes but he appears to give less emphasis to the setting and
background of his paintings - including railway personnel and bystanders - than
some of the other leading railway artists.
No comments:
Post a Comment