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I was recently reading an old thread about a lady who sold the Evening Post in the Square, and was also a talented artist. Fynger, in his post No.#31 in the thread said that she used to paint Disney characters. This reminded me that dad used to like doing the same. When our daughter was very little he drew and painted two Disney characters - Minnie and Mickey Mouse - for her bedroom wall. They are reproduced below.

 

I have made this a separate thread in hope that other members like art, or artistic endeavour, and might like to contribute. 

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I am almost welling up after reading the appreciative remarks about dad's talent. He came from an era when there were lots of people like him, and who people never really acknowledged. He was just an

I was recently reading an old thread about a lady who sold the Evening Post in the Square, and was also a talented artist. Fynger, in his post No.#31 in the thread said that she used to paint Disney c

In Canada in 1937, the Dionne quintuplets were born. A big sensation at the time. Dad did sepia tone sketches of all five of them, of which the one below show two of the babies.   He was a signwrite

Chulla,

You're Dad was very talented, they are exceptional. My wife and I are keen amateur artists, she specialises in landscapes in watercolour but my main interest is drawing caricatures. I just love doing them I think it's an extension of my warped sense of humour.

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I like the pics of Minnie and Mickey,lovely expressions on their faces,

I like anything painted by Salvador Dali, I try to understand his paintings but I don't think I ever will,just love looking at them

Rog

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In Canada in 1937, the Dionne quintuplets were born. A big sensation at the time. Dad did sepia tone sketches of all five of them, of which the one below show two of the babies.

 

He was a signwriter by trade, as well as a decorator, gilder, glass-writer; in fact anything to do with paint. Sadly, he never made any effort to pursue the artistic side. I have many examples of his signwriting - photos of lorries and vans. If he was alive today he would probably be out of work. Signwriting is almost a forgotten trade now, with computer graphics and printing being widely used. You cannot stop progress. I have all his sable-haired writing brushes. 

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My son is a 3d computer atrist,and very talented.If your father was alive today he would be younger and probably would have computer skills and would have more opportuniy to develop and hone those obviously very talented skills,and chose which avenue to take,they are

seriously good chulla,thank you for letting us view them.

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Thank you all for your nice comments about my dad, Ronald Birch (and katyjay's dad). His normal workaday was signwriting.

He studied this for eight years at the Nottingham Art School. He won a number of competitions, the most prestigious being First Prize for the Intermediate Signwriting class in the National Competition for the years 1932 and 1933.The two photos below show him writing the main stand at Lincoln City's football ground in 1966. Note the size of the ladder! Working at these heights up a ladder was made illegal later on. The other picture shows one of Shipston's drays that he wrote. For years he did all the vehicle signwriting for NCV (Nottingham Commercial Vehicles), and Reg Watson, late of Bradford Street, Bulwell and later on Park Lane, Basford.39f85836-b15a-4e08-8899-91bc756e03b3_zps
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I am almost welling up after reading the appreciative remarks about dad's talent. He came from an era when there were lots of people like him, and who people never really acknowledged. He was just an ordinary man who never flaunted his talent, never earned a lot of money, whether working for a firm or for himself. Before the war he worked for a decorating company, and apart from domestic work there were decorative work in churches, and such places. His greatest work that I can remember were the tailboards of Redfern's mineral water lorries. He designed them and painted the bottles of pop with half oranges and lemons.

He did a lot of work (small jobs) at home. Things like lorry headboards and doors. Some of these would have gold leaf applied. To do this the letters had to be signwritten in a whitish thin paint. It took hours for it to dry to the correct tackiness for the gold leaf to be applied. Sometimes this meant getting up in the middle of the night to find the conditions just right.

For all jobs he would space out the letters along the length of the written line, just dabbing the letter width with a bit of chalk. Then totally free-hand he would write the lettering in whatever style was required.

During the war he was in India with the Royal Armoured Corps on tanks. He signwrote the names on the tanks and lorries. As all men were ex-Notts and Derby Regiment, the tanks had names of Robin Hood characters, with a little picture of each. Lorries were named after Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire villages, for example those in B Company were named Broxtowe, Bulwell, Bilborough, etc.

I am pleased to have been able to tell you a little about his talent.

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You must be very proud of him Chulla, he was very talented. It is a pleasure to read about his accomplishments. We look forward to seeing more of his Artwork if you have any more Chulla.

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Dad's talent did not rub off on me, much to my disgust, I can't even draw a straight line! I would have loved to be artistic and I'm jealous of those that are. I took my dad's artwork for granted really, it was always there.

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It must have been interesting to see how he painted the football stand. Those large letters would have to have been drawn complete first. He probably used a large compass with a piece of chalk on one end so that he could draw radii - I have such an implement of his. It must have been quite a bind having to climb up and down all the time to move the ladder along AND up and down. Actual painting was probably with a five- or six-inch brush.

Dad never expressed any interest in art; certainly not post-war, apart from such odd things like the Disney characters. I did see two watercolours that he painted before the war showing a Victorian lady in a large white dress in a garden of flowers. Sadly they have not survived. He never mentioned that he liked a particular artist or a particular painting, and he never visited art galleries.

I will put a few more examples of his sign-writing on the thread.

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I remember the very long ladders the painters used when painting the tall three storey public houses, I think pullies attached to the ladders and ropes were used to hoist up each section and the deflection on the ladder was frightening. No safety harnesses used in those days.

Once again some beautiful art work, as I worked at Shippos I was particular impressed with the dray cart.

Look forward to seeing more of your Dad's work.

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Dad served as a Chindit in Wingate's second expedition in 1944, walking for four months through the jungle with his platoon to find Japs. He produced a couple of commemorative boards about those times whilst a member of the Burma Star Association. This one shows the list of the Naga villages that they passed through.

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I like the pics of Minnie and Mickey,lovely expressions on their faces,

I like anything painted by Salvador Dali, I try to understand his paintings but I don't think I ever will,just love looking at them

Rog

IF a painting catches your eye thats enough Rog,.these Art critics that read so much into individual styles and their meanings leave me cold,over the years certain Paintings ive bought because they said something to me.at the moment there are a couple of Paintings i'd love in the Art place down 'Flying horse parade' no chance i'll have em though at £995 each. :angry2:

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