Joan still sees the beauty in Bradford

12:13pm Friday 2nd May 2008

From the brow of Ivegate to the tip of the Delius Leaf, artist Joan Pook has captured Bradford's buildings, monuments and street scenes in a collection of striking drawings and paintings currently on display.

Bradford Buildings, Joan's first solo exhibition, is like a series of snapshots' of side streets, doorways and the ornate stonework of the city centre's Victoriana.

Her remarkable ink drawings and watercolours pay tribute to the buildings - including the Wool Exchange, the North Parade shops and Bradford's City Hall - that she fell in love with after moving to Bradford 30 years ago.

But last year - exactly a year ago to the date that her exhibition opened - Joan, 80, was dealt a devastating blow when she suddenly lost the sight in one eye.

"It was instant blindness," she says. "I'd had terrible headaches for a few hours then, within five minutes, I was blind in my left eye."

Joan went to hospital and discovered she had a rare condition called giant cell arteritis. "It's very unusual, I was told there are generally only two cases a year," she says. "I'd had symptoms such as double vision and intense headaches. I went to hospital and they shone a torch in my eye - but I could see two torches. Then, on April 12 last year, I suddenly lost the sight in my left eye. It was a terrible shock, I didn't know what was happening to me. It was a traumatic experience. They whipped me back into hospital and realised what it was."

Joan, of Shipley, is on steroids to help control the condition but fears she may lost the sight in her other eye too.

"It has affected my confidence," says Joan. "I have to be very careful with everything I do because I can't see to the left. I don't feel 80 but when you get older you risk falling, partially losing my sight means I have to be even more careful."

Fortunately, Joan is still able to paint and draw - something she's been doing since early childhood. "I can't see the detail to the same extent but I'm not deterred," she says. "Giant cell arteritis is most uncommon, thank heavens, for most people. I was unlucky but also lucky, so far, in keeping enough sight to get about and still paint. Steroids appear to be the only treatment but I have a marvellous specialist at the BRI Eye Hospital."

Joan was born in Leicester to artistic parents. "I started drawing and painting as soon as I could write," she says. "I studied at Leicester Art College in the 1950s, part-time, and found the old teaching of drawing from the antique' valuable and a strict discipline."

Joan was introduced to Bradford's buildings by the son of a friend, who came to live in the city. "He was interested in City Hall and the Wool Exchange and my friend asked me to copy them so I did drawings of them for him. I don't normally copy photographs but at that time I wasn't living in Bradford. I was interested in the city's buildings from then on."

Joan moved here in 1979 to take charge of the administration office of National Carriers, part of National Freight Corporation, on Canal Road in Bradford.

She met her husband, Leslie Warburton in 1980 when she joined Shipley Art Club. "I was asked to take the chair from the following annual general meeting. At that time, the club was thriving at Shipley College, where it began sessions in the 1950s," says Joan. "Leslie had joined the Bradford Arts Club at the age of 19, being a Bradford lad, and asked me to join that too. We're still active members and I have just retired as chairman. At the AGM they made me an honorary member, which was super. It's a great club with a four-hour Saturday session at St Barnabas Village Hall in Heaton.

After moving to Bradford, Joan fell in love with the city's Victorian heritage. "I thoroughly enjoyed looking at a city in stone, after living in Leicester, a red brick city, all my life until then."

Bradford Buildings captures corners, ends and doorways of buildings, or images of them seen from various street scenes. There's a slice of Kirkgate viewed from Piece Hall Yard, the ornate pharmacy front on Lower Ivegate, the smart shops along North Parade, a section of City Hall glimpsed from Tyrrel Street, and the entrance to the Great Victoria hotel.

There's a striking image of Hustlergate with the Wool Exchange rising up from the busy street scene, the city's domes and towers scattered below Ivegate and intricate detail of stonework leaping from the doorway of the Bradford Club. In a lovely image of Kirkgate, shoppers scurry around a sign reading September in the Rain at The Priestley Centre.' Joan has captured the beauty and character of Bradford's old buildings, as seen from the viewpoint of people making their way around town.

"It was a case of looking for good composition," she says. "I look at angles and shapes, and how they fit into the overall shape I'm working with.

"I've done several pictures of Hustlergate, it was so attractive from everywhere I looked. I make a point of looking up wherever I go; there are some beautiful features high up on buildings in this city but so often people aren't aware of them. People don't tend to look up.

"I love the buildings on North Parade; there's wonderful detail in the stonework."

Joan's artwork gives contemporary Bradford a nostalgic feel. "The older buildings have more character than the new ones emerging," she says. "There's more to go on, for me as an artist."

Some of the places she's painted no longer exist, such as the cluster of buildings on Forster Square and the Java restaurant on Great Horton Road.

Although the focus is on buildings, Joan's exhibition also captures people bustling around the city centre. A picture of a bus shelter at Rawson Square and a woman dangling her feet in the water at The Tyrls reveals the spirit and character of ordinary people. And Joan's watercolours bring a vibrancy to the city centre, particularly the brightly-coloured hanging baskets on Tyrrel Street.

Joan spent hours painting and drawing places in the city centre and caused quite a stir. "A friend came with me - you need some company sitting in a street for several hours," says Joan. "It took me about two hours to do one drawing or painting then we'd have lunch and move on. People came out of shops and offices to see what I was doing. My artwork got a wonderful reaction, particularly from young people."

• Bradford Buildings runs at the Cafe Gallery at the Bradford Industrial Museum until June 1.

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