Dennis Duckworth Room 2

Room 2 - "LAND"

The large body of work on landscapes and scenery reflects Dennis’s love of the countryside and inspiration it gave him. He loved to walk, and would revisit favourite areas to sense the reassurance of familiarity, and the passage of time. The subjects are taken from northern England – Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria – and scenes from holidays around the south coast, West Country, Ireland and France.

His reductive, stylised approach to representing landscapes is typical of the modernist influences in his work, an amalgam of the illustrative use of form and line, and the impressionistic use of tone and colour.

These influences came from contact with the London art scene rather than his formal artist training:

“I left formal secondary education at fifteen and about a year later went to Art School. It was clear to my parents and even to me that I had a 'gift' in that direction. The Art School was on the top floor of the Grammar School - a hidden sanctum that I never knew existed. I was there for three years full time and the purpose of our training was to obtain a Lancashire County scholarship to the Royal College of Art in South Kensington. Looking back to that time - the breathing space between the two great wars - it seems to me that at the Art School I experienced a kind of dichotomy: I was taught very little yet I learned almost everything I needed to know. It was one of the happiest times of my life.”

“What did I learn about art at Art School?

How to sharpen a pencil.

How to hold a pencil when drawing on an upright surface.

How to look at a painting with half-closed eyes.

How to work out the laws of perspective.

How to 'feel' the difference between the recto and the verso of a sheet of paper.

How to 'throw' a pot on the wheel and how to make clay 'slip' to decorate it.

Drawing from the 'antique' and from 'life' (male model only).

The methods and the ends in view of the tuition we were given were very practical and completely in key with the surrounding social and ethical attitudes of the town and district. Not a word about the meaning of art. Not a mention of its historical importance and its influence upon civilization. Not a glimpse of the great masters and their productions. All these considerations were for possible future use and interest - elsewhere.

Yet I was happy and fulfilled and made friends - close friends and talented, both boys and girls. We went hiking at weekends and camping at holiday times. We rented a studio over a shop in the centre of the town. We sketched out of doors in the summer sun. We lazed and idled, and sometimes produced a bit of real genius. I felt that all this was 'me', and that if I should miss any of it I would miss everything. It was a wonderful feeling. I look back at it now and see its imperfections and shallowness and serious limitations. Nothing of it remains - except a glorious memory."

Kemple End	1987	Watercolour	53 x 71	Signed
Chingle Hall, Goosenargh, Lancs.	1990	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	42 x 57	Signed
St. Pancras	1991	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	53 x 64	Signed
The Ravens, Gordale Scar	1991	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	61 x 48	Signed
Total Eclipse	1991	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	48 x 62	Signed
The Fairy Steps, Arnside	1993	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	51 x 65	Signed
Great Langdale, Cumbria	1998	Conte Crayon	38 x 50	Signed
Dunmail Raise, above Grassmere	1998	Conte Crayon	38 x 50	Signed
Trough of Bowland	2001	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	75 x 56	Signed
Plantation Mill	2002	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	48 x 59	Signed
Whalley Nab	1980	Pencil Sketch	40x50	Signed
The Big Tree, Hampstead Heath	1981	Pencil Sketch	51 x 40	Signed
The Vale of Health, Hampstead	1940s	Oil	33 x 41	Signed
Wivenhoe	2001	Conté Crayon / Watercolour	55 x 71	Signed
The Disused Railway Track, Great Harwood	2003	Conté Crayon / Watercolour
Hampstead Pond		Watercolour / Gouache	50 x 70
Loch Chon, Scotland		Watercolour	57 x 70	Signed
Ashness Bridge
Striding Edge
Jard sur Mer
Hawes Water
Codicote	1970s	Oil	45 x 61	Signed on verso

Prints available to order.