Jose Burke's painting of front room, Reestones Place
Hello mein goot friends!
Well, I have good news and bad news...
Re:'I dont know if Ive mentioned this before but somewhere on the face of this godforsaken earth there exists a painting of the 8th wonder of the world painted from the bottom of the ramp looking west up toward the Pyry..
The BAD news is that Suzanne thinks her mam threw it out!(sob sob :(
however there is hope as apparently
'It(the painting of the pyry) was highly commended in the competition and a pic was published in the evening chronicle 1971...'...so noble Mensforth(ghost of) will pursue that line of enquiry you can be sure!...Interestingly Suzanne also reveals that
'the painting was done as a protest to the concrete jungle that is
kenton bar!'
Gordon, Peter and Ted Nicklin would turn in their graves!
I beg to differ of course!
Now some more good news...Suzanne has sent us this photo of another painting her mam(Jose )did which is fantastic...it is of the front room of their house on Reestones Place and the houses in the background are the back view of those of Hazeley Grove...Suzanne and Russell are painted seemingly engrossed watching the 'Tyne Tees Television' test card, and to the left on the wall is I think a central heating vent...to the right appears to be maybe an Adam & the Ants LP resting against a footstool?...this dates the painting to maybe early/mid 80's...
Jose seems to have omitted painting the back access lane which ran betwixt the 2 rows of houses nor indeed the gardens, instead painting paving which was not so at the back...the houses of Reestones Place and Hazeley Grove were not so close as portrayed here either... Maybe Jose did this to give an impression of what she perceived to be the oppressive bleakness and concrete claustrophobia of the 'concrete jungle'...I however,see this as a most wonderful work of art, celebrating the architecture of our beloved Kenton Bar Estate! maybe you could ask your mam about that Suzanne!
Thank you so so much for this!!!
:)
That is rather good.
ReplyDeleteI well remember the TTTV station ident (it wasn't the test card, they used F the same as everyone else).
Thanks for publishing the painting it will make my mams day.What wont is the incorrect spelling of her name.It's JOSE...as in, not tonight!! Also she has used artistic license in the painting to express the likening to a concrete jungle.The ommission of any gardens was merely how she saw the estate from our house.Both upstairs bedroom windows looked out onto a concrete wall.The view from the kitchen window was a block of unsightly garages.The view from the bathroom window was through these tiny slats and yes concrete.So mam painted what she saw most.Mind, you would have thought she should be bloody more grateful as we came over from COWGATE!!!(the posh bit.....yes there was).Also the reference to the heating vent...not so, it was the rather gorgeous 3 bar electric fire which was later to be our focal point in the form of a grand fire surround of yes you guessed...pebbles and shells.Our bathroom suffered the same fate with the left over rubble.Jealous are'nt you all.Just to make you more envious my dad built a BAR in the dining area...god we were sooooo posh.Oh the back access through the gardens...what a splendid idea ..great pickings for burglars and for spying in your neighbours garden and through their window.One wanted a nice relax in ones garden and the next thing you hear is a stampede of kids running riot up and down the path.Probably one of your lot!!!!.That's all for now.Suzane.
ReplyDeleteSuzane-have sorted out the spelling of your mams'name as you can see!thanks for clarifying details and the extra info...incidently ruffians , bounders, riff-raff and cads came from down the bottom(Dunnykirk, Eland, Gunnerston etc) the noble master(El Patron) and meinself came from the middle bit like you, whilst the ultra posh types came from the top end...
ReplyDeleteI meinself was a cub scout trainspotter sensible type as you can find out by reading more posts on the blog...I would never have dreampt of causing madness & mayhem galloping down that accesss alley...do you believe me?... ;)
We will be posting the other 2 photos you gave us soon if that is ok with you...
best wishes,
ghost of Mensforth
I think that all the electric fires were like that one throughout the Estate.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the persons in this painting are none other than Fancythat herself and her brother Russell. Why oh why do I also thing about crisp packets whenever I hear the name Russell? Here's why.........
ReplyDeleteQ. What do you call a bloke with a crisp packet on his head?
A. Russell
He had a most unfortunate surname...
ReplyDelete