Drawing on history
Last updated at 16:29, Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Architect Michael Bottomley has spent decades capturing Kendal's distinctive buildings and places in drawings and paintings. Michaela Robinson-Tate hears how the results have been brought together ina beautiful book
It was 1947 and student Michael Bottomley was on a university work placement with Donald Haigh, an architect who had set up a practice in Finkle Street in Kendal. During his lunch hours Michael would buy himself a pork pie and go out into the town, making sketches and painting some of the views that he found.
One of the watercolours that he completed during these lunchtime expeditions is of Farrer’s Tea Mart and Coffee Warehouse on Stricklandgate. The detailed picture, which shows a building that’s little altered today, is the oldest work to appear in Michael’s first publication, called A Kendal Sketchbook. The collection of quick sketches, studies and carefully composed watercolours stops at 1999, so it forms a unique record of the Auld Grey Town to the end of the 20th century.
Michael, who became a partner in Haigh Architects and is now semi-retired, has always been interested in buildings. That fascination has found an outlet both in his professional work and in his artistic endeavours. These two aspects of his life also link together.
He says: “One of the things that an architect needs to be able to do is to visualise things in three dimensions.
“Perspective used to be a thing which was very much part of the curriculum – I don’t think it is so much nowadays because of computers and all the marvellous things you can do with them.”
The idea of publishing a book of his work was first suggested about five years ago after he’d given a slide show of his paintings at an arts society event. A member of the audience said that he ought to consider a book.
The thought began to take root and about a year ago Michael started to rummage through his collection of drawings and paintings.
Having found that he had far more material than he thought, the anticipated 60-page book developed into a 96-page work designed and printed by Titus Wilson and Son of Kendal. Some of Michael’s paintings which are now in private collections have also been included.
Although Michael has lived in Windermere for most of his life, he’s captured Kendal time and time again because he’s explored it over the years and knows it well.
He also says Kendal has been “lucky” to have avoided major development earlier on. He says: “As
a result of it being developed in that way now, rather than say 40 years ago, people and local authorities are much more aware of the qualities of the townscape that they already have.
“So you find places like Booths a way back from the main street instead of occupying a place right on the main street.
“The same thing applies to the Westmorland Shopping Centre – there’s not a great deal of new intrusive building on the main streets that it occupies.”
Despite this fortunate late development, some scenes preserved in Michael’s book have since disappeared, such as Dick Ashburn’s Smithy, which he drew in 1951. The site has in fact been re-developed twice – most recently as the Elephant Yard Shopping Centre.
However, other views, such as Farrer’s on Stricklandgate, which is still a tea and coffee shop today, have altered very little.
His working method varies and he brings back some sketches to be developed later while other pictures are completed on location. He likes to do most of his work on the spot if he can.
The sketchbook shows this creative process. A 1958 pencil sketch of Kendal Market and a pastel of the same scene, which he re-drew later, are both included and the reader can compare the two.
A view of The New Shambles, completed in watercolour and gouache, has a charming memory attached to it.
“I was crossing the Market Place one day and the sun was just right coming through the Shambles,” he recalls. “I’ve got a little sketch I did on brown paper because it was the only thing I had with me.
“It must have been from something I had been buying because it’s a bit of brown wrapping paper.”
Michael has always been attracted by unusual views. For example, he prefers to draw a bridge by looking along the structure rather than at it. He’s approached a watercolour of Miller Bridge in this way and the viewer is led into the picture.
Another unusual approach is taken in a 1957 pen, ink and watercolour of some washing on a line. In the book, Michael describes it as an intriguing view through a doorway near the top of Collin Croft, showing steps that lead to the back doors of houses on Beast Banks. “You get the textures of the washing and the lighting gives the atmosphere to the whole thing,” he says.
Michael has been a member of the Lake Artists Society for many years, having had his first picture exhibited in the late 1940s. He also belongs to Kendal Art Society and was a very long-serving secretary.
“I think it’s always good to see what other artists are doing and perhaps be encouraged by what they’re doing, or shall we say sometimes it’s a sort of stimulus to do better yourself. It’s very helpful to be working with others with the same sort of interest.”
Michael was also a founder member of Kendal Civic Society, which gives him an opportunity to have input into the development of the town.
The sketchbook is not only a record of Kendal but is also testament to Michael’s extensive knowledge of the nooks and crannies, yards and winding streets that are found around the town.
One example of this eye for detail is a watercolour and gouache picture of The Angel Inn, which he made more than 20 years ago and which features an elder tree in the foreground: “The thing that pleases me is this elderberry tree is still there,” he says.
Information
A Kendal Sketchbook, priced £18, can be ordered from EM Bottomley, 29 Lowther Street, Kendal, LA9 4DH, tel: 01539 720560. It’s also available at selected outlets in Kendal, including the Brewery Arts Centre, the library, the tourist information centre, Kirkland Books and Youdells Art Shop.
First published at 12:09, Monday, 26 January 2009
Published by http://www.cumbrialife.co.uk
