Barry Price’s, 1960’s, three quarter view of the Princess at
the head of the Mid-Day Scot express, travelling northbound on the West Coast
Main Line, shows the power and the grandeur of these Stanier Class 8P
locomotives that were introduced in the 1920s and withdrawn from traffic in the
early 1960s. It is an uncannily accurate representation of a class that I saw a
lot of before their demise.
Barry Price is very well-regarded amongst the leading group
of railway artists who have recorded the post-war British Railways steam scene.
His work is sought after at auction and examples of his paintings regularly
command four figure sums. Barry, born in 1939, is a former draughtsman who
worked for a family retail firm, Beattie’s, which was based in his home town of
Wolverhampton. He eventually took early retirement in order to paint full-time.
When we visited him in 2016, he was spending “mornings only” upstairs at his
suburban house in Tettenhall, mainly on a steady stream of commissions. In the
past, he also established a reputation for himself by painting aeroplanes.
Some of his works, including one of a Lake Garda steamer and
another of a King Class locomotive, as well as some examples of ceramic plates
with railway designs, adorn the lounge at his home. His studio is filled with reference
books, “so I get the right number of rivets and I get them in the right place.”
His easel is mounted at just the right angle on his desk. Past works of art line
the walls, including a very colourful American steam locomotive. There are cardboard
carrying cases containing framed paintings that are available for sale, and
around the room is all the paraphernalia and equipment necessary for a working
artist. The painting in progress when we were shown around was of an A3 at
speed, preliminarily lined out in just the way you would expect from a former
draughtsman. His work always shows a keen eye for perspective.
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