Old Buildings Beverley Mugs

Old Buildings Beverley, East Riding Of Yorkshire

A new work by Andrew Reid Wildman

An old game and poultry shop in Beverley. I was born in this small market town in the flat plains of East Yorkshire. It was the centre of my universe, no other world, except Hull and occasionally York, existed beyond. And I remember small shops, a shop for every reason, friendly and real and family-owned. This one fascinated me, filled with the still, lifeless bodies of game, with the promise of delicious roast lunches. Women chatted, dressed in raincoats and headscarf, strong Yorkshire accents floating above my infant head, occasionally cooing over me, I paint to feel I am there once more, amongst its cobbled streets, hearing the bells of the Minster. The work is rich in colour, bright and hopeful and nostalgic, an ideal gift and a perf...

As an infant I was taken hand in hand down this street, wrapped up and scared of the Victorian infant school that was my destination. I could hear the bells of the Minster peel over the rooftops, soon to become my lost universe. I wanted to stay at home, or at least limit my outing to the delights of the ice cream shop in the North Bar, or the tudor tearooms where I would get cakes. I wanted to peel away to run around the supermarket that sold toffees and to Woolies for cheap toys. In later years I returned to this magical place, to paint, to explore. And I dream it might once more become my refound universe. The work focuses on the corner of Lady Gate, the name itself dripping with fascination.

The sound of the Minster bells is loud, throbbing almost, as though the air were alive and the ground vibrating, echoing and awakening childhood memories of half a century earlier. I love it here, my birth town, the place where my life began, the crucible of my earliest consciousness. I went to school here, had my first birthday cakes and Christmases here. It was my small world, safe and English and nice. The work is rich in light and colour, yet simple too. A wonderful souvenir of Yorkshire.