EVERY week day, Martin Hearne sees the same people at the same time on the same streets.
Now the Bradford artist has captured these people and urban landscapes in a series of colourful paintings exploring his experiences of living in the city.
The paintings - which can be seen this month in a striking exhibition called A Bigger Bradford - depict places in and around the city centre, including Great Horton and Manningham. Martin captures shops on Oak Lane, streets in the shadow of city mill buildings, the bustle of the Oastler Centre and the architecture of Roberts Park.
But in his paintings they are imaginary spaces, inspired by lighting effects on the side of buildings and the striking colours of modern shop fronts.
“The paintings are based on a variety of source material, collected by travelling along the same streets every day, regularly seeing the same characters going to work at the same time, parents taking their kids to school each week day, and the same buildings in changing light and weather,” says Martin.
“In these recent paintings of Bradford I have made an attempt to reflect my every day experience of the city and to make a record of a familiar place. They are an attempt to paint the city in a way that recreates some new aspect of that familiar experience.”
Many of the paintings are, says Martin, created from memory, direct observations, photographs and drawings.
He describes them as “collages, often a combination of different locations with superimposed figures that are made to conform to a convincing and conventional depiction of pictorial space, but are in fact imaginary spaces.”
He draws inspiration from the “aesthetic delight” of lighting on the side of buildings: “The striking colour effects of modern shop fronts and the chance juxtaposition of urban colours.
“I have painted Bradford in a variety of different times of day and am interested in reflecting the atmosphere and light of the city at particular moments. People are portrayed against the backdrop of an urban, industrial landscape, where the old Victorian city merges with the new world of multi-cultural Bradford.”
Martin describes his painting process as “a performance of sorts where the chance and randomness of the fluid paint is channelled into a mark resembling or making a connection with the visual experience.”
He adds: “These paintings explore the relationship between the figure and the landscape, or the figure in the landscape. Figures viewed with a certain distance kept at arm’s length - as seen through the window of a car or the lens of a camera.
“The markings on the streets, the changing patterns and colours, the spray paint markings of the road menders, are reflected in the changes and erasures of the painted surface; the mix of oil and pigment on my canvas.”
A painting called Saturday Shoppers shows a mother and child on a street lit up by the image of a woman in colourful dress.
“The original shop front used here was on Darley Street,” says Martin. “This is really a composite picture made up of a number of different images from different sources, so it really becomes an invented space, with invented relations between the subjects who in real life wouldn’t know anything about each other. They are like actors moved around a theatrical stage.
“The original inspiration for this work was a painting of figures in a courtyard by the Dutch artist Pieter de Hooch. The alternating pattern of light and dark define the figures.”
Another painting, called Bradford Chic, depicts a couple wearing tracksuits, with a dog on a lead. “Life on the streets in Bradford is never dull, with lots of odd juxtapositions of people, animals and shops,” says Martin. “Sometimes these can create a sense of unease, but then this is part of contemporary Britain and central Bradford is no different from many inner cities.
“All the elements in this canvas came together from a number of locations and are set against a cafe on Great Horton Road. The people and dog were quite separate from each other and are from Keighley, Bradford and Shipley.”
A painting based on a view from Smith Street, running up to Carlton Street where Martin worked at the Bradford School of Art, depicts dramatic light and shade through a white hoarding on a late afternoon in summer.
“The grouping of buildings above the hoarding is an imaginary one, but roughly based on the mills and offices on City Road that can be seen from Smith Street,” says Martin, who taught Ceramics at Bradford Art College for over 20 years.
“My original training was in painting in St Martin’s Art School in London. I’ve returned to painting full time since giving up teaching in 2015.”
His starting point is often something he glimpses while out and about - as was the case with his painting Hot Town: “I saw this scene on John Street one summer’s day a couple of years ago. The basic composition of some young people taking photographs highlighted in the strong sunlight was appealing, as the image is condensed into the tiny digital picture on their phone,” he says.
“My painting is more or less faithful to the original scene but I’ve changed the background from the Oastler Market and used the front of the old Co-op building (Sunwin House) on Sunbridge Road, with its lovely glass canopy, now unfortunately butchered to make way for a hotel and offices.
“In the distance is the Oakwood Dye Works which is really on Thornton Road. I put the dye works in to acknowledge and celebrate the Victorian nature of much of Bradford’s architecture.”
A Bigger Bradford is at the Trapezium Gallery on Kirkgate in the city centre.
Ken Woods of Trapezium says, “The aim of our gallery is not only to showcase talented local artists, but also to celebrate the city of Bradford. Martin’s paintings do both.
“They don’t hide the gritty aspects of certain areas of the city, but they do add the warmth of familiarity and highlight rare gems of beauty or character, such as textile shop windows or architectural style.”
* Martin Hearne’s A Bigger Bradford is at Trapezium Gallery, Kirkgate, Bradford, until July 23. Opening times are: Tuesday, Friday, Saturday from 11am -3pm.
Visit trapeziumarts.com
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