Malcolm Teasdale. Lamplight

An established favourite amongst our clients, Malcolm Teasdale is a painter of great warmth and humour whose youthful memories of his native Tyne Valley are captured evocatively through this delightful collection of new works.

The ‘Northern school’ as it now seems to have established itself, rooted firmly in the disparate post war successes of L S Lowry and Alan Lowndes, is making waves in the London market comparable to the Scottish school in the 1980s and 90s. There are very few painters working today with Malcolm’s authenticity, charm and sheer talent, his paintings are the genuine article in a market often over populated with pastiche.

‘Malcolm is delighted to present Lamplight the sequel to his first solo exhibition in London two years ago. The title emphasizes the artificial light illuminating scenes where dark ‘industrial’ colours would otherwise predominate. In some works, snow has been similarly used to counterbalance the sombre palette. Theere is little sign today of the heavy industry (the engineering, coal mining and shipbuilding) that was once the essence of the north east of England. However, these live on in Malcolm’s paintings with memories of the 1940s and 50s.

Malcolm is a true Geordie, born in the heart of Newcastle, a stone’s throw from the River Tyne. His ancestors lead mined and coal mined from the Pennines to the upper Tyne Valley and finally arrived to work the pits of west Newcastle. As a little boy, he knew the terrace rows, the ‘netties’ (the outside toilets), coal houses, and back lanes, and witnessed the end of a community which died as the pits died. His uncles were some of the last men who toiled the mines. Those childhood times lingered and Malcolm was inspired to find an outlet for them through his painting.

There was a growing public appreciation of his atmospheric depiction of his subjects. Through them older people remembered and younger people could glimpse how things were.

His work today also includes other industrial landscapes: canals, railways, docks, cotton and woollen mills, potteries, and glassworks. He remains true to his roots–passionate about the north east, its people and the way of life into which he was born. As testament to this, he felt it a great compliment to be billed by a Newcastle gallery, in its opening exhibition, as ‘Local Hero’.’

Ros Teasdale